"I have a date tomorrow night." Gabriel Castellan went perfectly still.

The leather of the passenger seat was warm.

Vera sat rigidly in the front of Gabriel’s SUV, her hands clutched tightly in her lap, watching the windshield wipers sweep back and forth across the rain-streaked glass. Dante was driving, his face impassive as he navigated the dark, slick streets heading north toward the coast.

Beside her, Gabriel sat in total silence.

The atmosphere inside the cabin was suffocatingly thick. He hadn't spoken a word since they left the restaurant. He simply stared out the side window at the blurring city lights, his hand resting on his knee, his knuckles white.

Vera’s mind was spinning. "You followed me."

Gabriel didn't answer right away. He took a slow breath, the sound deep and dangerous in the quiet car.

"I had Dante check him," Gabriel admitted softly.

Vera turned to face him, anger suddenly flaring through her shock. "Why? Why would you do that? I am your maid, Mr. Castellan! I clean your bathrooms! I dust your books! You have no right to interfere in my personal life!"

Gabriel finally turned his head to look at her.

In the dim glow of the passing streetlights, his profile looked like it had been sculpted out of granite by a bitter artist.

"He was an idiot," Gabriel said coldly.

"He was a normal person!" Vera shouted, her voice shaking with four months of built-up frustration. "He was a normal man who took me out to a normal restaurant! Something you know nothing about!"

"He humiliated you!" Gabriel snapped back, his voice rising, a terrifying crack in his usual icy demeanor. "He looked at your dress like you were trash! He talked down to you! A man like that doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as you, let alone sit across a table from you!"

"And what about you?!" Vera challenged, leaning toward him, forgetting her own rule about looking at him for too long. "You treat me like an object in your house! You barely speak to me! You look at me like I'm a nuisance who squeaks her shoes on your floor!"

Gabriel froze.

Dante’s eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror for a fraction of a second, before he deliberately looked back at the road.

Gabriel turned his body fully toward her, closing the distance between them until she could feel the heat radiating off his chest.

"You think I see you as a nuisance?" Gabriel whispered, his dark voice thick with something wild and untamed. "Vera, I haven't slept more than two hours a night since you walked into my house. I sit in my office listening to your footsteps on the floor below me. I drink scotch until my throat burns just to stop myself from coming downstairs and tearing you away from that damn bleach bucket."

Vera’s heart slammed into her ribs. The anger in her chest vanished, replaced by a sudden, dizzying heat that made her lightheaded.

"Gabriel..." she breathed, his name slipping past her lips for the first time.

Gabriel stared at her mouth, his eyes darkening into pure pitch.

"Don't," he growled softly, pulling back just an inch. "Don't say my name like that unless you mean it. Because if you give me a reason to take you, Vera, I will never let you go back to your quiet little life."

The car swung through the stone gates of the estate, coming to a smooth stop in front of the grand entrance.

Dante put the car in park and quietly got out, leaving them alone in the dark cabin.

Vera sat motionless, her breath catching in her throat, looking at the man who held half the city in his fist, but was currently looking at her like she held his entire world in hers.

"Why me?" she asked softly. "I'm nobody."

Gabriel reached out, his long, warm fingers gently brushing a stray lock of hair away from her damp cheek. His touch was shockingly tender, almost reverent.

"You're the only honest thing I've ever seen," he whispered.

Before she could answer, his phone chimed loudly in his jacket.

Gabriel frowned, pulling the phone out. He glanced at the screen, and the softness in his eyes instantly evaporated, replaced by the lethal, cold mask of the syndicate boss.