CASSIA
The room Kairos assigned to me was twice the size of my bedroom back home. I had never cared for large spaces. Juliet and Lenora were the ones who fought over the biggest rooms.
As long as mine was cozy, functional, and livable, I was content. That was why I had remained in the same room since I was ten.
This was different.
Different in a way that unsettled me.
My stomach flustered as I took in the space. Floor to ceiling windows framed a quiet stretch of trees beyond the estate walls. Sheer curtains billowed softly as a breeze drifted in through the open glass door.
At the center stood an oversized ivory bed layered with muted gold and dark linen. A pale wood vanity rested near the windows, its mirror edged with soft backlighting.
Hair products. Body lotions. Perfumes. The exact ones I used.
No. That was not what truly startled me.
My steps slowed as I reached the far wall. Above a sleek console table hung a framed photograph.
"Me," I whispered.
My eyes widened as I stared at it. My red hair was loosely tied back. I wore a white coat with my hospital badge clipped to my chest.
My last day as an intern. Had he been stalking me?
I could not remember anyone taking a photo that day. Yet this felt so…Intimate. As though someone had been there. Watching me all along.
"I heard Leonardo Marcelli died."
I gasped and spun around too quickly. Pain shot through my injured ankle and I bit back a scream as it flared sharply.
I wobbled toward the wall and pressed my back against it to steady myself before lifting my gaze to him.
Kairos leaned against the door, a lit cigar between his lips. Smoke curled upward in slow spirals before dissolving into the air.
"He was a powerful man," he murmured, his voice as cold as his expression. "May he find quiet."
"Would he?" I asked, swallowing hard.
The look on his face told me he did not believe his own words. And he had said my father's name without his title. The Kairos I knew would never have done that.
He had been a sweet boy. He held my father in high regard. He would have killed for him if someone disrespected him.
This man?
This man radiated something darker. Harder. Intimidating in a way that made my skin prickle.
"Don't you think he deserves to?" he asked, raising a brow.
"Did you kill my father just so you could become the Don?" I shot back without hesitation. "Did you kidnap me because you think you can get something from me? His sole heir?"
I did not even know if my father had left anything for me.
Yes, I was his only biological daughter. But all his affection had been reserved for Francesca and her daughters. They were the center of his world.
I had always felt like an afterthought. The daughter from the woman he once claimed to love.
Kairos pushed away from the door and began walking toward me, one hand slipping into his pocket.
My heart started pounding. My eyes darted around the room, searching for an escape.
The door was shut. And he was standing between me and it.
My stomach twisted as fear squeezed tight around my heart. I tried to push away from the wall, only to remember too late that my ankle was broken. Pain shot up my leg at the slightest movement.
I winced, my head knocking lightly against the wall behind me. Of course I could not reach the door. He would intercept me long before I made it halfway.
Kairos stopped a breath away.
His gaze traveled slowly down my body. I was still wearing the torn, thin white dress they had forced me into. I had no idea who had changed me.
And now he was stripping me bare with his eyes.
Oh God.
As humiliating as it was, a traitorous heat stirred inside me. The way he looked at me—dark, heavy, the faintest curve at the corner of his mouth—was the most intense I had ever seen him. He did not look amused. He looked hungry.
I trembled beneath that stare. Heat fluttered low in my belly as my body reacted before my pride could catch up.
"Are you going to answer my question?" I asked, breaking the silence. My voice came out steadier than I felt. "And have you been watching me for years while pretending to be dead?"
I gestured toward the photograph above the console.
His hand lifted without warning. I flinched as his fingers caught a curl near my face. He twisted the tip around his index finger slowly.
"You ask too many questions," he said.
"Too many?" I let out a sharp laugh. "You died five years ago. Then you show up, bid a ridiculous amount of money on me, drag me into your house, and now I find out you are the new Don, or fighting to be one. I don't even care which. You have my picture. You have my things. You have been watching me."
My voice shook with anger. "You're a fucking creep."
I tried to shrug his hand away from my hair, but he caught my chin instead, holding my face in place. He pulled me closer, and my traitorous tongue slipped out to wet my lips.
A faint smile ghosted across his face before it vanished.
"Did you kill my father, Kairos?" I repeated.
"Are you accusing the Don of assassination?" he murmured, his mint laced smoke brushing against my face.
His rough palm slid to the back of my neck. My body leaned into the touch before my mind could stop it.
His lips moved closer. For a split second, I thought he was going to kiss me. My foolish eyes fluttered shut, my lips parting slightly—
Then I remembered.
He had a fiancée.
I shoved at his chest, but he caught both my wrists in one swift motion and pinned them above my head against the wall.
"My three hundred million euros possession," he said, pride threading through his voice, as if I were an acquisition he intended to enjoy.
"I am not a possession, Kairos," I whispered.
He yanked me away from the wall only to spin me and press me back against it. My cheek brushed the cool surface. My breath locking as his body closed in behind me.
Heat flooded my face when I felt the unmistakable press of cock against me. One of his hands slid up the thin fabric of my dress, fingers tracing until they reached the waistband of my panties.
A shaky breath left me.
"What are you doing, Kairos?" My voice came out strained. "You have a fiancée."
"Yes," he rasped, as though it were obvious. "But you, Cassia, cost me three hundred million euros. You understand what that means."