Page 154 of The Art of Ruin

To go home.

To her.

And somewhere beneath that warmth, something colder settles too.

Because while Casey spends the evening laughing beside me, Jasper Cole will spend his trying to figure out why his entire empire is quietly collapsing around him.

Good.

24.Casey

If someone had toldme three months ago that Adriano Mancini would eventually become the kind of man who leaned silently against my bedroom doorway, watching me get ready with an expression that made it impossible to think straight, I would have laughed in their face.

Now?

Now I’m standing in front of the mirror trying to put mascara on while Adriano watches me from the doorway in a dark wool coat, and honestly, concentrating feels impossible with the heat of his gaze on me.

“You watching me will not make this go any faster,” I mutter, catching his reflection in the mirror again.

His mouth shifts slightly at the corner. “You’re taking too long.”

I narrow my eyes. “Some of us weren’t born looking like we walked out of an expensive cologne ad.”

He prowls toward me, his hands landing on my shoulders as he dips his head to my neck and kisses me. “No, you look like all my favorite dirty dreams come to life.”

“I think you’re sex drunk.”

“Hmm.”

The soft amusement in his voice sends warmth blooming low in my stomach anyway.

God.

This man.

The last two weeks have settled into something dangerously easy between us.

Not official, exactly.

No conversations about labels or expectations or where this is heading have taken place.

Just us, being us.

Adriano appearing in the annex almost every night with that look in his eyes that still makes my pulse trip over itself.

Falling asleep tangled together.

Waking up warm and sleepy and kissed half senseless before my eyes have opened fully.

Movie nights where I somehow end up draped across him on the couch while he works one-handed because the other stays absently spread over my thigh beneath the blanket.

“You’re staring again,” I say quietly.

“You’re beautiful. Why would I not stare?”

I glance at him through the mirror.

The honesty in his expression catches me slightly off guard even now. He believes every word he says.