He has rooted himself so deeply inside my brain and heart that I doubt I could wrench him out, even if I wanted to.
I’m here, mo run.
His text instantly puts a smile on my face. I love that term of endearment. It makes me feel closer to him.
Standing up, I go to embrace my friend, hugging her longer. “Will you be okay?”
“I’ll catch up on some classwork.” She waves me off, making me feel a little better about leaving.
On the way out, the thought that I can’t leave every weekend consumes me. It would raise suspicion. Worse, I didn’t even ask Dario about another favor. I am afraid he will ask questions. Questions I can’t answer.
At the emergency exit, I glance around for the guards, but I detect no one.
I don’t need a reminder that Tristan and I can never happen, even though someone decided we should meet. Looking up, I catch the clouds darkening, the wind blowing furiously, chilling me. The impending storm announces nothing short of stripping the trees of the last foliage, leaving the landscape bereft. Just like me, left at someone else’s mercy.
I hope it’s worth seeing me go from ecstasy to crashing straight to the bottom of agony, where I’ll splatter in a pool of shattered dreams.
The thought pours a thunderstorm over my head, drenching my brain in gloom, but that is swiftly cast aside when I notice him waiting for me.
The corner of his mouth arches up in a smile that eclipses my thoughts. This man is beyond handsome—he captivates my senses like no one else.
Emerging from the trance, he hurries out of his car and removes the small suitcase from my grasp. His lush brown eyes spark as they focus on my face.
“Missed me?” I ask, the assuredness taking me by surprise. But with him, it’s different. I don’t have to censor myself.
“I did.”
He cups the back of my neck and drags me to his chest, holding me tight. In his orbit, common sense vanishes. Anyone could walk by. I’m losing my mind so proficiently that I forget about the danger.
Breathing me in, he lowers his head and kisses me unhurriedly, passionate enough my toes curl. Starved for more, I lift on my toes and lock my arms around his neck just to feel him closer. Together, my world is all right. No one can break us apart, and I fall deeper into the Tristan dream where everything is possible.
When the kiss ends, I am breathless. Brainless. He has an unwavering ability to fling my thoughts in a hundred directions at once. Chasing them would be futile.
He’s making it impossible for this thing to be casual. I don’t think there’s anything casual about him. One thing I’ve learned this week is that Tristan knows exactly what he wants. And he wants me.
My heart constricts, not knowing how to tell him the truth. I am not just some woman he can build a future with. My future is not mine. Even if I confess the truth, he’d either want nothing to do with me, or he would talk to my family, which would beterrible. In my family, marriages happen behind closed doors. There is no love involved, but securing alliances with other powerful Mafia families.
Even if he’s a successful real estate mogul, the boss of our family is also a part of the Syndicate. The four men have money and power that he can’t match.
I could talk to my sister, but I don’t wish to burden her.
I could run away, but disappointing my family feels wrong.
All I’ve done besides studying and going to classes is search for a solution, but none exists.
“What is it, baby?” he asks once we’re in the car.
Being inside his car, surrounded by his heady scent and close to him, eases my troubled mind. I itch to urge him to keep driving until we reach a place no one could find us, where we could build a life together.
Strange. I never believed in that instant connection with someone. It sounded absurd. How can someone you’ve barely met become a person who’s vital to your existence? I’ve heard of instalove and instalust, but I dismissed them as fantasy. But our encounter clicked something incomplete into place—halves reuniting, forming a perfect union.
“Thinking,” I say, doodling on the window.
“Dangerous.”
I giggle and turn to him.
Content with having my attention, he palms my face and brushes his thumb along my cheek. The dominant yet gentle gesture eases me.
