Alex's POV
He sat behind his desk, staring blankly at the document in front of him.
Karen's scent still lingered in the air, faint but maddening.
He clenched his fist.
"What the hell is wrong with me"?
This wasn't how he operated.
He was control. Precision.
He had learned long ago that attachments made you weak and weakness got you used, betrayed, broken. Just like his father had done to his mother and just like his ex fiancée had done to him.
But Karen?
She didn't even try.
She just showed up with those wide eyes and that voice that made his chest ache. That perfume she probably didn't think twice about wearing had unlocked something inside him, something dangerous.
He should've fired her after the first encounter.
But instead he found himself watching the clock, waiting for her knock, craving the chaos she brought into his painfully ordered life.
He sighed and stood, walking to the window.
The city lights glittered below.
Cold, distant, just the way he liked it.
Or used to.
He shut his eyes.
"I warned you," he muttered to himself.
But it was too late.
He was already unraveling.
--- Luca's POV
From across the room, Luca stirred his coffee, eyes fixed on the hallway outside Alex's office.
He had seen her rush out flustered and flushed. He didn't need to guess what had happened.
He knew Alex.
His best friend, his brother in all but blood was beginning to break his own rules.
Luca had seen the signs before:
The irritation when Karen talked to other men, the lingering stares, the tightly controlled tone that cracked when she walked into the room. It wasn't just attraction.
It was possession.
But that's what worried him.
Alex didn't do well with emotions. He suppressed them until they exploded. And Luca had been there through the worst of those explosions.
The fights, the drinking, the days Alex didn't leave his apartment after his heart was broken years ago.
He couldn't go through that again.
And Karen, Luca wasn't sure she even realized the storm she was walking into.
He downed the last of his coffee and stood.
He'd keep an eye on her for her sake and for Alex's.
Because if his friend was falling for this girl, there needed to be someone sane enough to pick up the pieces when it all came crashing down.
THAT WAS HIM.