Luca Conti has been in love with Valentina Valeri for seven years.
As consigliere to her brother's empire, he's the man who pulls out her chair, runs background checks on her dates, and answers her calls at two in the morning. He's reliable. Steady. Safe.
She calls him a lamp.
He has a photograph of her laugh in his jacket pocket.
When Dominic sends them to Milan together — a week-long assignment, one suite, close quarters — Luca knows the rules: protect her, maintain the cover, keep the distance he's spent seven years constructing.
The distance doesn't survive the first night.
Because Val is seeing him for the first time — the jawline, the Chopin, the Italian, the way he says her name like it's the first word he ever learned. And Luca is discovering that seven years of discipline can be undone by a woman in a backless dress, two bottles of Barolo, and four words:
Please Stop Being Careful,
But the Ferretti estate is hiding something in its cellars. The charming heir who wants Val for himself is darker than he appears. And the closer Luca gets to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes to love the one person he can't afford to lose.
Seven years of silence. One week in Milan. Some obsessions don't fade. They detonate.
As consigliere to her brother's empire, he's the man who pulls out her chair, runs background checks on her dates, and answers her calls at two in the morning. He's reliable. Steady. Safe.
She calls him a lamp.
He has a photograph of her laugh in his jacket pocket.
When Dominic sends them to Milan together — a week-long assignment, one suite, close quarters — Luca knows the rules: protect her, maintain the cover, keep the distance he's spent seven years constructing.
The distance doesn't survive the first night.
Because Val is seeing him for the first time — the jawline, the Chopin, the Italian, the way he says her name like it's the first word he ever learned. And Luca is discovering that seven years of discipline can be undone by a woman in a backless dress, two bottles of Barolo, and four words:
Please Stop Being Careful,
But the Ferretti estate is hiding something in its cellars. The charming heir who wants Val for himself is darker than he appears. And the closer Luca gets to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes to love the one person he can't afford to lose.
Seven years of silence. One week in Milan. Some obsessions don't fade. They detonate.
Used availability for Cora J Riley's His Darkest Obsession