Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Drago
Song- Hypnosis, Sleep Token
If I were standing here watching anyone else stare at a laptop screen, I’d be bored out of my skull within minutes.
But Lily? I could stand here for hours and never tire of it.
Everything about her pulls me in. The way she bites down on her bottom lip when she’s concentrating too hard. The unconscious habit of tucking her hair behind her ear, as if grounding herself. The tiny, fleeting glances she steals at me over the edge of her screen, checking if I’m still watching.
I am. Always.
“Drago…” The wariness in her voice snaps every muscle in my body to attention.
“What is it?” I ask, closing the distance between us.
I stride to her desk and plant my palm against the wood, intentionally close.
I know I’m pushing boundaries here. That each day, each interaction, she chips away at my control.
And I’m not stopping it. I’m not pushing back.
I don’t want to. Because I’m inching closer to the place I think I was always destined to be.
Her gaze drops instantly, zeroing in on my tattooed hand.
Fuck, it would look perfect wrapped around her neck. The way she would respond to me.
“I’m going to Monaco on the weekend.”
I don’t falter. “I know. Arrangements have been made.”
Her head jerks up, eyes flashing as she leans back in her chair to look at me properly. Color creeps up her neck, dusting her cheeks.
“What the hell do you mean it’s been arranged? How do you know?”
“I can find out most things, Lily.”
She tuts, shaking her head slowly. “Yeah. And you’ll quickly find out how to piss me off if you keep it up.”
I bite back a smile. That fire in her makes something tight coil low in my gut. “Noted. I’ll refrain from invading your privacy too often.”
That ship has well and truly sailed already. But I don’t tell her that. It’s my secret.
She’s on her feet in a second, chair scraping back hard enough it nearly topples. “No. You’ll refrain from doing it at all.”
She pokes a nail into my chest, frustration sparking through the touch. The second she realizes what she’s done, she tries to pull away, but I’m faster. I catch her wrist. The contact hits me like a fault line splitting open.
“I’ll keep you safe by any means necessary,” I say, my voice rougher than I intend.
“Do you not think this is all a bit extreme?” she asks, searching my face.
“No. Not even a little.” I release her before I do something I can’t undo.
“I have a lot of business contacts in Monaco, for laundering purposes,” I continue, forcing myself back into control. “I’ve done them a lot of favors over the years, and I called them in.”
She watches me carefully now, eyes narrowed, trying to read what I’m not saying.
“We will be flying out on Friday as planned, except on the Quinn’s jet, and staying in the accommodation I have arranged.
Marco has already been reimbursed for his arrangements.
Everything is still on track.” I offer her a small smile, the kind that hides more than it reveals, and wait as she processes it all.
“We?”
I’d expected shouting. Anger. Maybe a threat to throw me out of her office. Instead, there’s disbelief, edged with something softer I refuse to name.
“Yes. We. Us. However you wanna describe it.”
She shakes her head slowly. “You aren’t joking, are you?”
I frown, genuinely puzzled by the question. “I don’t often. Only if you catch me on a good day.”
She’s still standing too close when the silence stretches. Close enough that I can feel the heat coming off her, feel the shift in her breathing even though she’s pretending she’s calm. She isn’t. I know the signs. I’ve catalogued them without meaning to.
And that’s the problem.
Because every second I stand here wanting her like this feels like a betrayal carved straight through my ribs.
Lev trusted me with his life. With his empire. With his daughter. He handed her safety to me without hesitation, without conditions, and here I am standing in her office, imagining what her mouth would feel like against mine.
And what it would feel like having her lips wrapped around my cock. How perfect it would feel spilling down her throat.
Fuck.
“You don’t get to make decisions for me,” she says, but her voice isn’t sharp anymore. It’s lower now.
“I’m not making decisions,” I reply, forcing my tone steady even though my pulse is hammering. “I’m eliminating risks.”
Her laugh is quiet, breathy, and it slides straight under my skin. “You’re standing in my office, five inches from my face, telling me where I’ll be sleeping in another country. That feels like a decision.”
I shift without thinking, angling my body so I’m between her and the door. Not trapping her. Never that. Just instinct. Protection wired too deep to switch off.
Lev’s face flashes in my mind. If he could see me now…
“If you wanted me gone,” I say quietly, “you’d already be telling me to leave.”
Her throat bobs when she swallows. I see it. I see everything.
“That doesn’t mean I want you this close,” she murmurs.
The lie is thin. We both hear it crack.
My hand lifts before my brain can stop it, stopping just short of her waist, hovering in that menacing space where touch would ruin everything I’ve sworn to protect. Her eyes flick down to my fingers, then back up to my face.
“Drago,” she breathes, and hearing my name in her mouth feels wrong and addictive all at once.
I should step back. I know that. I’ve known it since the moment I locked this door.
Instead, I lean in just enough that my voice drops. “If you want me to move, Lily, say it now.”
Her lips part. For one second, I think she might. That she’ll push me away. That she’ll save me from myself.
She doesn’t.
Her hand comes up instead, brushing my wrist, barely there, like she’s testing the heat of a flame without committing to the burn. The contact detonates through me. My jaw tightens as I picture Lev’s hand on my shoulder.
I hate myself for this.
Having feelings for her won’t keep her safe; it could put her in even greater danger.
“I don’t like being watched,” she whispers.
“I don’t watch you,” I say, and it’s the closest I’ve come to lying to her. “I make sure you’re breathing.”
Her eyes soften, something vulnerable flickering there that I have no right to witness. “You make it sound like I’m already broken.”
“No,” I say immediately, guilt clawing through me. “You make me want to forget who I’m supposed to be.”
That does it.
The air shifts. Her breath stutters, and she tilts her head without realizing it, offering me her mouth, her throat, everything she doesn’t know she’s giving away.
I lean in, close enough that my lips hover beside her ear, not touching, even though every instinct in me is screaming to claim her.
“This is where I stop,” I murmur, voice rough with restraint and shame. “Because if I don’t, I’ll be betraying the one man who trusted me with everything.”
Her fingers curl into my sleeve, just for a second, like she’s anchoring herself to me, or asking me not to go.
Then the knock hits the door, and reality is slamming back into place.
“Lily?” Roxy’s voice cuts through the moment. “Sorry, I forgot my charger.”
Lily inhales sharply and steps back like she’s been burned. Her hand drops from my arm. The space between us feels colder now, but no less dangerous.
I straighten, forcing distance, and try to get my body back under control. When she looks at me, her cheeks are flushed, her eyes dark, her pulse visible at her throat.
I open the door before either of us can say something unforgivable.
Roxy’s gaze flicks from me to Lily and back again, her brows lifting just slightly, color blooming across her cheeks.
“Oh,” she says carefully. “Am I interrupting?”
“Yes,” Lily answers too fast.
“No,” I say at the same time.
Roxy grins like she’s clocked everything.
I grab my jacket, my voice returning to neutral professionalism with effort. “I need to make a call.”
Lily doesn’t look at me as I leave, but I feel her watching anyway. I feel it like a weight between my shoulder blades.
And as I walk away, one truth sits heavier than any desire in my chest.
Wanting her is deadly.
But wanting her like this feels like a sin I’ll never be forgiven for.