Chapter 35: A Dangerous Pull

The night was thick with tension, the air humid as a storm loomed over the city. Elena stood on the balcony of her room, staring down at the quiet streets below. The mansion was eerily still, but her thoughts were anything but. She could still feel Marco's presence, the weight of his gaze from earlier, the way his hands had lingered just a little too long.

But she wasn't the only one he was tangled up with. Anna.

Elena clenched the railing, frustration bubbling inside her. She had told herself she wouldn't fall for someone like Marco—not when he was already too deep in the world she was trying to escape from. But every time he looked at her, spoke to her, touched her, it became harder to resist the pull.

A knock at her door startled her from her thoughts. Her heart skipped a beat as she turned, expecting one man and dreading the possibility of another.

"Come in," she said cautiously.

The door opened, and to her relief—and frustration—it was Marco. He stepped inside without hesitation, closing the door behind him.

"You shouldn't be here," Elena whispered, even though part of her wanted him to stay.

Marco didn't reply immediately. His eyes swept over her, taking in the thin silk robe she wore, the way it clung to her frame. His jaw tightened as he stepped closer, his presence suffocating in the best and worst ways.

"We need to talk," he said, his voice rough.

Elena folded her arms, trying to keep her composure. "About what? How you're caught between me and Anna? How you think you can have both of us and still stay in control?"

Marco exhaled sharply. "It's not like that."

"Then what is it like, Marco?" She took a step toward him, her frustration boiling over. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks a hell of a lot like you don't know what you want."

Marco stared at her, his expression unreadable. Then, in one swift motion, he closed the distance between them. His hand reached out, fingers grazing her arm, and the touch sent a shiver down her spine.

"I know exactly what I want," he murmured, his voice dangerously low.

Elena's breath hitched. His fingers traced a slow path down her arm, and despite every rational thought screaming at her to push him away, she didn't move. She couldn't.

"You think you can just walk in here and—"

Marco cut her off by tilting her chin up, forcing her to look at him. His gaze burned into hers, intense, unrelenting.

"Tell me you don't feel this," he challenged.

Elena swallowed hard. She could lie, push him away, pretend like she wasn't drowning in the intensity of his presence. But the way his hand cupped her jaw, his thumb grazing her cheek, made it impossible to think straight.

"You make everything so complicated," she whispered.

Marco's lips curved into a smirk, but there was something almost pained in his expression. "And yet, you still let me in."

Elena's resolve shattered. In a split second, she closed the remaining distance between them, her lips crashing against his in a desperate, heated kiss. Marco groaned against her mouth, his hands gripping her waist as he pulled her flush against him.

The kiss was fire and fury, months of tension exploding between them. Marco backed her against the wall, his body pressing against hers as his hands roamed over her waist, her hips, her back. Elena gasped as his lips trailed down her jaw, his breath hot against her skin.

"We shouldn't," she panted, even as her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer.

"But we are," Marco growled, his lips returning to hers with even more intensity.

Elena melted into him, letting the storm inside them consume everything else.

---

Meanwhile...

Across the mansion, Anna sat in her dimly lit room, staring at the glass of wine in her hands. She hated feeling like this—restless, uncertain, as though everything was slipping through her fingers.

And she knew why.

Marco.

She had seen the way he looked at Elena. She wasn't stupid. But what made it worse was that she couldn't even be angry at him—not completely. Because deep down, she knew she was also keeping secrets.

There was another man who had been invading her thoughts. One she had no business thinking about.

Luca.

She had spent so long trying to push away whatever it was between them, telling herself it was nothing more than tension, proximity. But the way he had been looking at her lately, the way he always seemed to find a reason to be near her…

It was dangerous.

A knock at her door made her freeze.

She already knew who it was before she even answered.

Taking a deep breath, she stood up and opened the door.

Luca leaned against the doorway, his expression unreadable, but his eyes… they burned into her like fire.

"Can we talk?" he asked.

Anna hesitated for only a second before stepping aside, letting him in.

She had a feeling that after tonight, nothing between them would ever be the same.