Page 118 of Dangerous Contract: Part 1

“Which animal do you want to know about?”

“Hmm... let’s see.”

He allowed her to pull him along from one spot to the next. At each stop, he surprised her by revealing a fact about the sea creature she pointed out. If she couldn’t find the information on the card, she Googled it, then stared at him in shock.

She then pulled him to another animal to ask questions about it. They stopped by a tank filled with seahorses.

“Did you know,” Orazio began. “Seahorses are one of the few species where the males carry and give birth to their young. Thefemale seahorse transfers her eggs to the male’s pouch, where they are fertilized and developed until they are ready to be born. The male then undergoes a series of contractions, similar to labor, to release the fully formed seahorse offspring into the water.”

Monique’s eyes widened in awe as she observed the graceful creatures gliding through the water.

“That’s incredible,” she mused, releasing his hand to move closer to the tank. “Nature truly has its own way of challenging our expectations.”

“So, do you,” Raz whispered, staring down at her.

Her cheeks heated in a blush. “How do you know so much about aquatic life?”

Raz shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the creatures in the tank.

“When I was younger,” he told her, preparing to reveal a secret not even his brothers knew. “I dreamt of becoming a marine biologist.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Ocean life always fascinated me.”

Monique’s eyes sparkled with surprise. “You, a marine biologist? I never would have guessed. But you truly appear to be in your element here. What happened? What stopped you from becoming Orazio Cattaneo, the marine biologist?”

“My dad. He found out what I’d signed up for before school started. He made me change my major to business because no son of his was going to study water bugs.” Raz chuckled as he thought of how furious his father had been.

“Really?” Monique asked.

Raz nodded. “Business is what the men in my family study. It’s all we know. It’s all we do. There’s no time for hobbies. So, I had to wait until I was grown, until I had my own money, and then I had this place built. It doesn’t have the Cattaneoname on it like most of our other businesses. I didn’t want it to be associated with my family. I wanted something that was all mine.”

Like you,Raz thought as he stared down at Monique. His woman stared up at him, tears brimming her eyes.

“So, that’s why you named it Dream World,” she whispered. “Because this was your dream.”

Dream?Men like him weren’t allowed to dream. At least, that was what he thought until the first night he saw her.

Leaning in, Orazio asked, “What about you? What were your dreams?”

A soft sigh escaped Monique’s lips. “Um, at first, I wanted to be a lawyer,” she confessed, voice tinged with a hint of sadness that made him want to fuck someone up. “But my family had other plans for me. They believed I should be a stay-at-home wife, catering to my husband’s needs so that he could achieve his goals without any concerns or worries. So, he became the lawyer, and I was just the wife.”

Fucking Trevor!

“It’s never too late,” Raz told her. “You still have time to chase your dreams. What do you want to do now?”

Monique paused, her gaze locked with Orazio’s. “Honestly... Right now, I just want to be happy. I want to experience life. I want to live. For so long, I just existed. I don’t want to do that anymore. I want to live, love, and be loved.”

Orazio found himself wishing they’d met years ago when they’d both been dreamers. Maybe they could’ve achieved their dreams together. Or at least cheered each other on. He nearly chuckled at such a foreign thought.

What the hell was happening to him? This woman was changing him. Or was she reminding him of the man he was behind the murder and mayhem? The man he’d forgotten about. The man who never got a chance to live, love, and be loved.

“My new dream sounds like wishful thinking, huh?” she asked.

“Not at all. I can help you with that new dream,” he told her. “I can help you live, love, and be loved. I plan to make it my life’s mission to ensure you always feel well-loved and protected, Monique Rose. Your happiness is my new dream.”

“Why are you so serious all of a sudden?” she asked, blinking back tears.

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