Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lorenzo
She was trembling against my chest.
I could feel every shudder, every ragged breath, every tear that slipped from her eyes onto my skin.
The city sprawled below us, indifferent to the wreckage I’d made of her.
Then I heard a faint whimper from the hallway.
Fuck.
The dog.
I’d been so caught up on her leaving that I’d forgotten all about the damn dog.
I had my assistant pick him up this morning—an impulsive purchase after she lit up at an animal rescue post as she scrolled on her phone in bed.
She talked about becoming a vet with such hope that I tracked down the dog she’d seen.
And then that disaster at the boat, and her trying to leave.
The dog had been sitting in a crate in the study for hours.
I tensed beneath her. “Fuck.”
“What?” Her voice was hoarse, still thick with passion.
“Hold on.”
I shifted her off me carefully—too carefully, maybe, given that I’d just bent her over a table and taken her ass—but I couldn’t stand the thought of her moving away from me.
I grabbed my discarded pants and pulled them on, not bothering with the button.
“Stay here.”
She sat up, watching me with those big, tear-stained eyes, her naked body on full display.
“Lorenzo, what is going on?”
“I said stay,” I said dryly.
I walked out of the living room, down the hall, and found the crate sitting by the front door. A tiny golden retriever puppy, barely eight weeks old, was pressed against the bars, whining, his big brown eyes blinking up at me.
I’d never felt more ridiculous in my life.
I carried the crate back to the living room, where Zara was still on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, looking confused.
“What is that?” Confusion and excitement spilled out with her words.
The puppy tumbled out, all clumsy paws and soft belly, tail wagging so hard his whole body wobbled.
She stared at him like he was a ghost before she looked up at me, her eyes wide, her lips parted.
“I thought you said you’d never let a dog in here.”
I sat down across from her, knees brushing the floor, watching her watch the puppy. “That was before I saw your face.”
“My face?”
“When you talked about becoming a vet, about loving animals.” I scratched the puppy’s head, inviting belly rubs. “You lit up when you saw his face. You were alive in a way I’ve never seen you.”
Her eyes were glassy again. “Lorenzo…”
“He’s yours. I didn’t know what to name him. I figured you’d want to pick.”
She didn’t move. She just stared at the puppy, and then at me, and then back at the puppy, as if trying to reconcile the man who’d just fucked her senseless against a window with the man who’d bought her a dog.
“I don’t understand you,” she whispered.
The puppy climbed into her lap and started licking her chin.
She let out a broken, overwhelmed sob that cracked something open in my chest.
“You’re going back to school,” I said.
“What?”
“You’re too smart to waste your life at some shitty marketing job. You have too much love to give.” I ran my hand through her hair, tangling my fingers in the dark strands. “You’re going to become a vet. I’m going to pay for everything. And you’re going to let me.”
“I can’t,”
“It’s not negotiable, Tesoro,” I said, voice dark and sure. “I’d build you a clinic, buy every damn animal in the city just to see that look again.”
She was crying now, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.
“You’re insane,” she said.
“For you? Absolutely.”
I pulled her into my lap, dog and all, and held her against my chest.
Zara tilted her head up to look at me. “And what do you get out of all this?”
I lowered my mouth to her forehead first, then her nose, then finally her lips.
“Everything,” I whispered against her mouth.
Her eyes searched mine afterward, vulnerable in a way that made something dangerous shift low in my chest. The puppy had fallen asleep between us, tiny body warm and limp against her stomach, but neither of us moved.
Outside, the city glowed endlessly beneath the windows.
Inside, the silence felt heavier.
I brushed my knuckles softly down her cheek before speaking again.
“I’ve got one more surprise for you.”
Her brows knit together slightly. “Another one?”
A faint smile tugged at my mouth.
“Call it my last attempt to earn your love.” My voice came out rougher than I meant, thinner at the edges.
I know from the look on her face that she sensed the vulnerability in my words. They weren’t calculated or controlled; they were raw in a way that only she could bring out of me.
“Lorenzo…”
“Be ready in the morning,” I said quietly, brushing my mouth against her temple. “We leave at ten.”
Her fingers curled lightly into my chest. “Leave for where?”
I shook my head once. “I’m not telling you.”
“That’s annoying,” Zara huffed a tired little laugh, and I held her tighter against me, unwilling to let even an inch of space exist between us tonight.
Eventually, exhaustion started pulling at her; her body grew heavier in my lap while the puppy snored softly between us.
I carried both of them to bed.
Zara curled instinctively against my side the second I laid her down, the puppy sprawled across her stomach.
Then, just as sleep started dragging her under completely, she shifted closer and murmured softly against my chest—
“You don’t need to earn my love; you already have it.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper now. Sleepy, honest, vulnerable in a way she’d never be awake.
I stared at her for a long moment in the darkness.
At the woman who somehow walked into my life and made me want things I’d spent years convincing myself I didn’t deserve.