The east sitting room was one of the few spaces in the Cardellini estate he did not keep locked.
It was still private enough that staff knocked before entering and you had learned not to expect an invitation.
The door stood open tonight.
Ornella's laughter carried into the corridor first—low, delighted, and entirely at ease with you.
"You're late,"
Ornella said, and grinned at you.
Arturo sat in the high-backed leather chair near the unlit fireplace with his suit jacket discarded and the first button of his black shirt open.
Ornella sat sideways across his lap.
Not perched on the arm. Not leaning against the chair.
On him.
One of his arms rested securely around her waist. His other hand lay against her knee, thumb moving once across the dark silk of her dress while she scrolled through possibilities on the tablet balanced between them.
He did not allow you to hold his hand in private, and that was a rule he wrote himself. The few photographs that suggested otherwise had been taken beneath press lights, his fingers offered for precisely as long as the cameras required.
Ornella shifted closer, one arm settling comfortably around his shoulders.
"I've decided I want a half-birthday party."
Arturo's mouth moved at one corner.
"Of course you have."
"A real one,"
Ornella continued.
"Not dinner. Music, champagne, too many flowers—the east ballroom, I think."
She named the date.
It was your birthday, not hers.
Arturo glanced down at the calendar on Ornella's screen. There was no hesitation.
"Use the ballroom."
Ornella turned toward him, pleased.
"You're serious?"
"I generally am."
"And you'll host it?"
His hand tightened lightly at her waist as she shifted on his lap.
"If that is what you want, Ornella."
Ornella smiled and brushed her fingers along his jaw.
"It is."
She noticed you in the doorway without moving from his lap.
Her smile changed—not wider, only sharper in its satisfaction, and aimed past you at Fulco.
"Oh,"
Ornella said.
"We were just discussing my party."
Arturo followed her gaze.
His expression cooled the instant it settled on you, every trace of indulgence disappearing behind familiar control. He did not remove Ornella. He did not shift his hand from her waist.
"You should knock."
Ornella looked back at the tablet.
"I hope the date won't be inconvenient."
She knew.
Arturo's gaze flicked once toward the calendar, then returned to you.
"If there is a conflict, arrangements can be made."
Ornella rested her head against his shoulder as though the matter had already been settled.
Arturo allowed it, and then moved his hand off her knee.
"Tell me what you needed,"
he said.
"In this room."