She wandered the sun-drenched halls of the sprawling Italian villa, her bare feet padding softly against the cool marble floors. It had been months since Damien had uprooted her from her quiet life in England, claiming her as payment for her father’s sins. She told herself she hated it here—the gilded cage, the armed guards lurking in the shadows, the way his world bled violence into every corner. But as she absentmindedly trailed her fingers over a vase of fresh roses he’d had delivered that mo