The morning after, the city felt different.
Naomi watched Luca sleep—hair tousled, arm flung across her waist, the vulnerable softness in his brow belying the man everyone feared. She wanted to stay in that bubble where desire didn't demand consequences. But her phone lit up on the floor, screen glowing with names that could destroy everything.
Three missed calls from the firm.
One from her father.
Her stomach knotted.
Luca stirred, eyes blinking open slowly. "What time is it?"
"Time to pretend nothing happened," she whispered, slipping from the couch.
He sat up, the sheet falling to his waist. "Naomi…"
She froze at the sound of her name. Too tender. Too knowing.
"This doesn't go back in a box," he said, standing. "You don't go back to pretending I'm just another headline."
She pulled on her blouse, each button a bullet. "My entire career is built on pretending. You're the scandal they'll pin on me if I'm not careful."
"You think I don't know that?" His voice rose—not anger, but fear masked as frustration. "You think I wanted to fall for the woman meant to expose me?"
She stared at him, heart pounding. "So what, Luca? We admit it? Announce that Naomi Bell slept with the man she was hired to investigate?"
"You didn't sleep with me." He stepped closer. "You chose me. There's a difference."
Her hand trembled as she reached for her phone. Her father's name blinked again.
"I have to go," she said.
He didn't stop her.
Not with words.
But when she looked back from the doorway, the devastation on his face nearly undid her.
---
Hours later
The boardroom was ice. Her father sat at the head of the table, his silver tie straight as a blade.
"You've been compromised," he said without preamble. "Do you deny it?"
She looked around at the men who'd mentored her. Trusted her.
Judged her.
"I didn't betray this firm," she said quietly. "But I did fall in love."
That silenced them. For a moment.
"You're done here," her father said coldly. "Resign, or we'll ensure you're disbarred."
Naomi stood, spine straight, heart shattered. "Then I'll resign."
They didn't stop her.
She left her badge on the table and walked away from everything she'd built.
For him.
---
That night
Luca was on the rooftop, cigarette unlit between his fingers, staring at the skyline.
She stepped into the cold air behind him.
"I lost everything today."
He turned. "So did I."
"I thought walking away would protect me," she said. "But all it did was leave me empty."
He tossed the cigarette. "Then don't walk away again."
She reached for his hand, and this time, he didn't let go.