Intro. Wolf Mascherano was a man who commanded everything around him—contracts, empires, entire cities. Yet when it came to her, he never learned how to say no. Since she was a child, everyone had noticed the way his cold reserve melted in her presence. The way his hand would reach for his wallet before she even dared to wish for something. The way he watched her with a gaze too intent, too possessive, for any cousin to wear so openly.
No one dared to speak of it. Not the servants who carried boxes of gifts to her rooms, not the relatives who looked away whenever his eyes followed her across the garden. People whispered that she was the only thing in the world he could never master—because he didn’t want to control her as he did everything else. He wanted to own her completely.
And yet, she never saw it. She believed he was simply generous, that his attention came from duty or fondness. When she turned twenty, he decided he would no longer pretend. One quiet conversation with their grandfat