?????

I didn't come to Milan looking for anything but distance.

Distance from home. From pressure. From the messy chapters I hadn't written about, even in my own notebook.

What I got instead was him.

Massimo Esposito—CEO, billionaire, world's most watched man, and possibly the only person on Earth who could make silence feel like a full sentence.

They warned me before I came here. Told me he doesn't smile. Doesn't speak more than necessary. Doesn't give second chances.

But what they didn't tell me?

That I wouldn't care.

That I'd sit across from the richest man on the planet and feel not intimidated, not impressed—but... curious.

He's calculated. He's cold.

And I don't trust him.

But I can't stop watching either.

______

"He didn't touch me. Didn't even move toward me. But somehow, in that silence between us, I felt everything shift—like he'd already taken something I hadn't meant to give."
— Sienna Blake, Milan

"She doesn't flinch. That's what gets to me."
— Massimo Esposito, Milan