The city at night is a different beast, and I learned that the hard way. I was walking back from the subway when two men decided to follow me. I gripped my pepper spray, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Suddenly, a sleek black town car pulled up to the curb. The back door flew open, and Dante emerged. The streetlights caught the deadly, unhinged fury in his eyes. He didn’t shout. He just looked at the men, and whatever they saw in his cold, empty stare made them scatter like rats.

Now, we are standing outside my apartment door, and the air is thick with adrenaline and unspoken things. "You shouldn't have been walking alone," he growls, crowding me against the heavy wood of my front door.

"I can take care of myself," I fire back, but my voice trembles. "I don't need a mobster playing my bodyguard, Dante! I see the men. I see the women coming to your apartment. I know who you are."

He slams a hand on the door right beside my head. "You don't know anything," he breathes, leaning in so close I can taste his mint and bourbon breath. "Those women are couriers. They move money, not my bedsheets. Because ever since a certain naive law student moved in across the hall, I haven't been able to look at anyone else."

I gasp, my hands coming up to rest flat against his solid, violently beating chest. "Dante..."

"Your innocence is a weapon, Elara," he whispers, burying his face in my neck. "And I'm bleeding out just looking at you."

🖋️ "I'm bleeding out just looking at you..." 🫠 We are officially SWOONING! The tension between these two is off the charts. 📈 What is Dante hiding? Drop your predictions below! 👇 Hit ❤️ if Chapter 3 left you breathless, and send this to your romance group chat! 🚪💦