Ruined by Desire

7. Midnight Swin

Sienna should've gone home after the paparazzi scare. Instead, she was standing barefoot on the deck of Luca Moretti's yacht at nearly midnight holding a glass of champagne she hadn't asked for while Monaco glittered around them like spilled diamonds.

"This is how people get murdered," she informed him.

Luca leaned against the railing beside her, looking unfairly attractive in a black shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms.

"You think I invited you here to murder you?"

"I think billionaires are statistically suspicious."

"That feels offensive."

"It's meant to." His quiet laugh drifted across the water.

After the disaster at lunch, Luca had somehow convinced her to come aboard Euphoria again under the argument that she "owed him one calm evening without paparazzi." Sienna still wasn't entirely sure why she'd agreed. Probably because he looked at her like she fascinated him. Which was becoming a serious problem.

"You're thinking very loudly," Luca said.

"I'm questioning my life choices."

"Ah. So pretty standard Monaco internal monologue."

Sienna rolled her eyes and moved toward the railing, looking down at the dark water below where the marina lights reflected across the surface.

"It's beautiful tonight," she admitted quietly.

Luca watched her instead of the ocean. "Yeah."

She could feel his attention without looking. It felt heavy and focused and dangerous.

"You stare a lot," she muttered.

"You're distracting."

That did something unfortunate to her heartbeat.

Sienna took another sip of champagne to hide it. "You know, I was expecting you to be worse."

Luca looked offended. "Worse?"

"More arrogant. Less human."

"I'm deeply arrogant."

"You also helped me escape photographers through a kitchen without being an i***t over it."

"True."

"And you sent the pastry chef flowers because she looked stressed."

Luca blinked once. "You saw that?"

"I notice things."

His expression softened slightly.

"That's what makes you dangerous, Sienna."

The way he said her name should honestly be illegal. She looked away first, focusing back on the water below.

"Do you ever get tired of it?" she asked quietly. "All of this?"

Luca leaned beside her against the railing.

"The parties?" he asked.

"The performance."

For a moment, silence stretched between them. Then Luca sighed softly.

"Sometimes I think people would be disappointed if I suddenly became normal."

"You don't think you're normal now?"

"I own a yacht larger than most apartment buildings."

"Fair."

Sienna smiled faintly, but when she looked at him again, his expression had gone quieter.

"The truth?" he said. "Most people around me only see the headlines version."

"The billionaire disaster?"

"The charming i***t with commitment issues."

"You forgot fountain criminal."

"That too."

She laughed softly.

But Luca didn't.

"I let people believe it because it's easier," he admitted. "If they underestimate me, I never disappoint them."

The honesty caught her off guard. For once, there was no flirting underneath his words, just exhaustion. Something in her chest tightened unexpectedly.

"That's kind of sad," she said gently.

Luca's mouth curved faintly. "You're the first person who's ever reacted to my reputation with pity instead of excitement."

"It wasn't pity."

His gaze held hers.

"No?"

The tension shifted again to something softer and Sienna suddenly became very aware of how little space existed between them. The ocean breeze lifted strands of hair across her face again. Luca reached out automatically, brushing them gently behind her ear. His fingers lingered for half a second too long causing her pulse to stumble hard enough to annoy her. There was no way he hadn't noticed the flutter in her throat.

"Luca—"

A loud splash interrupted her. Both of them turned sharply toward the lower deck. Matteo surfaced from the water beside the yacht, swearing loudly in Italian.

"You pushed me!" he yelled upward.

Emilia's laughter echoed from somewhere above.

Luca groaned. "Animals. All of them."

Sienna burst into laughter. Real laughter this time, uncontrollable enough that she had to grip the railing.

Matteo pointed dramatically toward them from the water. "You two are disgustingly romantic!"

"We're literally standing here," Luca called back.

"That's exactly my point!"

Sienna laughed harder while Luca shook his head in defeat. Then Matteo grinned wickedly from below.

"Jump in!"

"Absolutely not, this dress cost more than my entire closet combined and I don't know you." Sienna answered immediately.

"You tell him, girl," Emilia called from the upper deck.

Sienna narrowed her eyes upward. "I hate all of you already."

"You love us," Matteo replied.

"Incorrect."

But Luca was smiling a different kind of smile now. It was relaxed and genuine. And it was more dangerous than the flirtation.

"You should do it," he murmured.

Sienna stared at him. "Into freezing black ocean water? Are you insane?"

"It's Monaco. The water's warm."

Luca's grin widened and before she could react, he stepped backward and pulled his shirt over his head. Sienna forgot how to breathe.

"Show-off," she muttered weakly.

"I've been called worse."

He dropped his phone onto a nearby chair before climbing onto the railing with effortless confidence.

"Luca—"

He winked at her then jumped. Water exploded below in a clean dive. Sienna watched as Luca surfaced beside Matteo a second later, shoving wet hair back from his forehead.

"You're both idiots!" she called down.

Luca looked up at her, water glistening against his skin beneath the marina lights.

"Come on, wrong party girl!"

Absolutely not. Definitely not. This was how terrible decisions happened. Sienna stared down at him for a long moment while Matteo chanted dramatically for her to jump.

Then Luca smiled at her. It wasn't his charming smile, or his cocky smile. It was just a happy smile.

And somehow that was the thing that ruined her.

"Oh, screw it." She announced as she kicked her heels off and launched herself into the water, to the whoops and cheers of Luca, Matteo and Emilia.