Page 46 of Silence and Surrender

The Ashworth Estate guest list filled my screen—banking executives, art collectors, London’s elite pretending to understand brushstrokes while making deals in shadowed corners. I’d see her there, moving through the crowd with that quiet grace that had first caught my attention. We’d play our roles, but now...

Now I knew how she tasted. How she felt in my arms. How she could break through years of my strict boundaries with just one kiss.

The memory made my hands clench on my bureau. Five years of choreographed trysts in high-end hotels. Five years of choosing partners who understood the rules—no emotion, no attachment, no complications. Five years of maintaining rigid distance while satisfying physical needs with clinical precision.

Until her.

My phone buzzed again, only now he didn’t bother with texts. Cooper always knew exactly when to interrupt my thoughts. It had to be a twin thing.

“Tell me you’re not still overthinking tonight.”

“I’m reviewing the guest list.”

“Right.” His laugh carried knowing warmth. “That’s why you’ve been staring at your phone for the past hour, hoping to see her name pop up.”

“Don’t you have a vineyard to manage?”

“Multitasking.” Glass clinked in the background. “Besides, someone has to make sure you don’t talk yourself out of whatever’s happening with Isabella.”

“Nothing’s happening,” I said automatically, though we both knew it was a lie.

“Sure. But you’ve already kissed her, right?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How did you—”

“Please. I know you, brother. The way you’ve been since you came to Italy…I haven’t seen you like this since before Catherine. And…I talked to Steele. Did you forget? He was my friend first.”

Catherine’s name still carried weight, even now. “That’s not—”

“It is. And it’s good.” His voice softened. “You’ve been hiding long enough. It’s time to let someone in.”

I thought of Isabella’s eyes in the vault, seeing straight through my carefully constructed cage. “It’s not that simple.”

“It never is. But ask yourself this—when was the last time you actually wanted someone? Not just physically, but all of them? Their mind, their heart, their fire?”

Never. Not even with Catherine. She’d been ambition wrapped in elegant packaging—the right background, the right connections, the right moves in bed. But Isabella...

Isabella challenged everything. Every assumption, every boundary, every wall I’d built. She made me question not just who I was, but who I could be. I remembered how she’d felt pressed against me, all silk and strength and determination. How right it had felt to hold her, to taste her, to let everything else fall away.

“I have to go,” I said before he could read more in my silence.

His laugh followed me as I hung up. “Sure you do. Tell your girlfriend I said hello.”

I rolled my eyes, cursing Cooper under my breath.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing files, answering emails, maintaining the appearance of a normal Saturday. But underneath every action lurked anticipation. Of seeing her tonight. Of moving through the same spaces while pretending we hadn’t changed everything in that vault.

My phone lit up before I left:Good luck tonight. Don’t brood too much. -C

I smiled despite myself, adjusting my bow tie in the mirror. Tonight would change things. Not obviously, not publicly, but in all the ways that mattered. Because now I knew what it felt like to hold her. To taste her. To want something real instead of methodical fulfillment.

My Aston Martin purred to life as London’s endless rain painted patterns on the windshield. Somewhere across the city, Isabella would be preparing for the same event. Choosing a dress, styling her hair, moving through her own evening routine.

I wondered if she was thinking of me too. Of the vault. Of everything that had shifted between us.

Tonight we’d play our roles, the bank’s counsel and its art expert, slowly discovering attraction. But underneath every interaction, every careful distance, would be the memory of her taste on my tongue. Of her body pressed against mine. Of walls finally, wonderfully, beginning to fall.

There would be absolutely no acting required.

---