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PROLOGUE

The Hundredth Sin

By the time they reached ninety-nine, they had stopped pretending it was accidental.

The room was still dark when she opened her eyes.

Monaco’s skyline glittered beyond the glass walls .. yachts resting in the harbor like sleeping predators. The city never truly slept. It simply waited.

Just like them.

Seraphine lay on silk sheets that weren’t hers, staring at the ceiling as if it held answers. The air still smelled like expensive cologne and last night’s champagne.

And him.

She didn’t turn her head.

She could feel him awake beside her.

Lorenzo Vittori never slept deeply. Predators didn’t.

“You’re counting again,” his voice came from the darkness.

Not soft. Not accusing...

Observing.

Her lips curved faintly. “You’re assuming.”

“I don’t assume.” A pause. “You tense your fingers when you calculate.”

She slowly flexed her hand against the sheets.

Damn him.

“Then tell me,” he continued lazily, “what number are we at?”

She finally turned her head.

He was watching her.

Hair slightly disheveled. Jaw shadowed. Eyes sharp despite the hour. Beautiful in a way that almost felt engineered ... too precise to be accidental.

She studied his face like she always did.

A face worth millions in campaigns.

A face that made people trust him.

A face she had built an empire on.

“Ninety-nine,” she said.

His expression didn’t change.

But something flickered.

“Ninety-nine what?”

Her gaze dropped deliberately slow, then returned to his eyes.

“Sins.”

The word lingered between them.

It wasn’t dramatic.

It was factual.

The first sin had been simple: using each other.

The tenth had been lying.

The twentieth had been jealousy disguised as indifference.

By the fiftieth, they were no longer pretending it was only business.

By the seventy-fifth, possession had entered the room.

And ninety-nine?

Ninety-nine had been last night .. when she chose him over a deal that would have tripled her company’s valuation.

He noticed.

Of course he did.

“You sacrificed leverage,” he said quietly.

“I adjusted priorities.”

“For me?”

“For control.”

His gaze darkened slightly.

He leaned closer, just enough for her to feel his warmth without touching her.

“Careful, Sera,” he murmured. “That almost sounded like emotion.”

She didn’t move.

Didn’t flinch...Didn’t blink.

“You think too highly of yourself.”

Silence stretched.

HeHeavy..

He reached out then ..not roughly, not gently..just deliberately. His fingers traced along her jawline, slow, claiming without asking.

“You were supposed to use me,” he said. “That was the deal.”

“I am using you.”

His thumb paused at her throat.

“Then why did you stay?”

She held his gaze.

Because walking away would have been the smart choice.

Because she no longer wanted smart.

Because somewhere between ambition and appetite, she had blurred the lines.

But she would never admit that.

Instead, she whispered—

“Because I haven’t committed the hundredth sin yet.”