**MATEO'S POV**

Isabella.

That girl has no idea what she does to me.

Since that night in the Velvet Room, she’s lived rent-free in my head. Every curve, every gasp, every time she looked up at me like I was the only thing that existed. When I learned she was Nathan’s daughter, it felt like fate handed me the perfect excuse to pull her close. To keep her. To make sure no one else ever touched what was already mine.

I went to her apartment that day telling myself it was just concern—she looked wrecked at work, pale and unsteady. But the second I saw her in that towel, hair...