Valentina’s entire body went cold.

The office door handle turned slowly once.

Twice.

Then stopped.

She stood motionless beside Luca’s desk, pulse pounding hard enough to make her fingertips ache. The hidden compartment behind the bookshelf was closed again, but not perfectly. One of the shelves sat slightly misaligned now.

Too subtle for most people.

Not subtle enough for Luca.

The handle shifted again.

Valentina moved instantly.

She grabbed a random document from the desk and lowered herself into Luca’s chair just as the office door opened.

Adrian stepped inside.

For one brief second, neither of them spoke.

Then Valentina exhaled slowly and leaned back in the chair with practiced annoyance. “You have terrible timing.”

Adrian closed the door behind him carefully, eyes already scanning the room.

Not casually.

Professionally.

His gaze moved across the bookshelf once before settling on her.

“You shouldn’t be in here.”

“That sentence is becoming repetitive.”

“You picked the lock.”

“You noticed.”

“I noticed the damaged mechanism downstairs.”

Of course he did.

Valentina crossed one leg over the other and held up the paper she’d grabbed from Luca’s desk. “Relax. I was looking for a contract file.”

Adrian didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he walked farther into the office with the same quiet control that always made the room feel smaller around him. The low lighting cast sharp shadows across his face as he stopped near the desk.

“You’re lying,” he said calmly.

Valentina tilted her head slightly. “And you’re unusually interested in my honesty lately.”

His expression remained unreadable, but his eyes flicked once toward the bookshelf behind her.

Too observant.

Far too observant.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

The silence between them no longer felt empty anymore. It carried awareness now. Tension. Questions neither of them wanted answered too quickly.

Then Adrian spoke again.

“If Luca finds you inside this office alone, it becomes a problem.”

“He already thinks I’m a problem.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

No, it wasn’t.

Valentina studied him carefully. “Why did you come up here?”

“One of the downstairs guards saw the office security panel deactivate.”

“And naturally you assumed I was committing crimes.”

“I assumed you were doing something dangerous.”

She almost smiled at that. “You’re starting to sound protective again.”

“I’m starting to sound realistic.”

Before she could respond, voices echoed faintly through the penthouse outside.

Luca.

Coming back.

Valentina’s stomach tightened instantly.

Adrian heard it too.

His entire posture sharpened.

“You need to leave,” he said quietly.

“I gathered that.”

The office door opened before either of them could move.

Luca stepped inside still speaking into his phone, irritation already visible across his face. “I don’t care if the shipment is delayed, I want the docks cleared by—”

He stopped abruptly.

His eyes moved from Valentina sitting behind the desk to Adrian standing beside her.

The atmosphere in the room changed immediately.

Dangerous men always sensed tension faster than ordinary people.

Luca slowly lowered the phone from his ear. “Am I interrupting something?”

Valentina stood smoothly from the chair before the silence became suspicious. “I was looking for the Zurich contracts.”

“In my locked office?”

“Yes.”

Luca’s gaze lingered on Adrian now.

Longer this time.

Measuring.

Calculating.

“And he followed you in here because?”

Adrian answered before Valentina could. “I noticed the office security disengage.”

Too fast.

The response came too fast.

Valentina saw Luca notice it immediately.

A tiny shift in his expression.

Suspicion.

Then amusement.

“Interesting,” Luca murmured.

The room suddenly felt suffocatingly warm.

Luca walked farther inside and closed the office door behind him. The soft click of the lock sliding into place echoed far too loudly.

Valentina’s instincts sharpened instantly.

Luca only locked doors when he wanted control over a room.

He loosened his cuffs slowly while watching Adrian. “You know what I find fascinating?” he asked casually. “Most men in my employ are terrified of disappointing me.”

Adrian remained still. “I’m not disappointed in myself yet.”

The answer landed harder than it should have.

Valentina saw it immediately in Luca’s eyes.

Challenge.

Wrong move.

Luca smiled faintly and stepped closer toward her instead. “And yet somehow my wife seems very comfortable around you lately.”

“There’s nothing comfortable about this apartment,” Valentina replied.

Luca ignored her.

His attention remained fixed on Adrian while one hand settled possessively against Valentina’s waist.

Too hard.

Too deliberate.

“Tell me something,” Luca continued softly. “Do you enjoy making men nervous, Valentina?”

“I married you, didn’t I?”

For one dangerous second, silence filled the office.

Then Luca laughed.

Not warmly.

Never warmly.

His grip tightened painfully against her side.

Valentina forced herself not to react.

Fear always fed him.

Luca leaned closer until his mouth nearly brushed her ear. “Careful,” he murmured quietly enough that only she could hear. “You’re becoming reckless.”

The pressure of his hand increased again.

Pain shot sharply through bruises not fully healed yet.

Valentina inhaled once through her nose and tried to step back.

Luca didn’t let her.

Instead, his fingers locked around her wrist and dragged her abruptly against him.

Hard enough to hurt.

Adrian moved instantly.

Not aggressively.

Not obviously.

But fast.

Far too fast.

One second he stood across the office.

The next he was between them.

His hand closed around Luca’s wrist with frightening precision.

The room froze.

Valentina felt it immediately.

The mistake.

Adrian had reacted on instinct instead of strategy.

Luca looked down slowly at the hand gripping his wrist.

Then back up at Adrian.

The silence that followed felt lethal.

“You just touched me,” Luca said quietly.

Adrian’s expression never changed. “You were hurting her.”

Wrong answer again.

Valentina’s pulse spiked hard.

Luca slowly released her wrist first before Adrian let go a second later.

Too late.

The damage was done.

Because now Luca knew.

Not everything.

But enough.

Enough to see the line Adrian had crossed.

Luca rubbed his wrist once, eyes locked on Adrian with unsettling calmness. “That wasn’t very professional.”

Adrian stood perfectly still. “Neither was grabbing her like that.”

The office became deathly silent.

Valentina wanted to scream at both of them.

Luca because he enjoyed cruelty too much.

Adrian because he clearly had no idea how dangerous protectiveness looked inside this world.

But underneath the fear rising in her chest, something else moved too.

Something hotter.

More dangerous.

Because no one had ever stepped between Luca and his violence before.

No one.

Luca studied Adrian for several long seconds.

Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.

That smile frightened Valentina immediately.

“You know,” Luca said softly, “I think I finally understand what bothers me about you.”

Adrian said nothing.

“You don’t look at my wife the way other men do.”

The air in the office tightened painfully.

Luca stepped closer again, voice calm and poisonous at the same time. “Most men stare at her because they want her. You look at her like you’re trying not to.”

Valentina’s heartbeat nearly stopped.

Adrian’s face remained unreadable, but she saw it.

Tiny.

Brief.

A flicker beneath the control.

Luca saw it too.

And suddenly the room became far more dangerous than before.