Page 266 of Vicious Temptation

“That’s not the point.” I hold a black dress with a high slit against me and study my reflection. “I’m nervous as hell, V.”

“Why, baby? It’s just the family. It’ll be fine.”

I toss the dress onto the bed, then reach for my phone. “I know. I just really want them to like him.”

“They will. If everything you’ve told me about Thiago is true, they’ll love him. He’s good to you and cares about you. After everything you told him in Miami, he’s still right there beside you, and that’s huge.”

I fall back onto the mattress, unable to stop smiling. “Yeah. It almost doesn’t feel real.”

“That tattoo on his neck is pretty fucking real.”

I laugh, but my fingers drift absently across my chest.

There’s something terrifyingly beautiful about a man willingly branding himself with the darkest parts of you.

I stare up at the ceiling for a moment, then glance back at Val. “I love him.”

Her face lights up. “Oh, I know.”

“Shut up.” I laugh, grabbing one of the pillows beside me and hugging it to my stomach. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

I roll onto my side to face the phone. “I think I’ve known for a while. I just wasn’t ready to say it yet.”

“And now you are?”

I think about Miami, about sitting beside him and handing him truths I’ve spent my entire life protecting. I think about asking him to meet my family because keeping him separate from the rest of my life suddenly felt impossible.

“Yeah.” I don’t have to think about it. “Now I am.”

Val’s smile softens. “Then I’m happy for you. You deserve that crazy, obsessive, I’d-kill-and-die-for-you kind of love.”

I smile because that’s exactly how this feels.

“I used to think I could have fallen in love with Ryuji, that we could have been something special. We were so much alike, and neither of us would’ve had to change or hide where we came from.”

“Maybe you would have loved him,” Val says. “Just differently.”

“Yeah.” I trace a loose thread in the comforter with my fingertip. “Because I’ve never felt anything like this with him. Not even close. I’ve never felt anything like this with anyone.”

The certainty is there, but so is the one question I haven’t been able to shake.

“Val, do you think it’s too soon? How the hell can I already be this sure of someone?”

“There’s no set timeline. You either feel it or you don’t, and you clearly do.” She gives me a knowing look. “So stop asking yourself whether you got there too fast. Take your time with everything else. Enjoy that man and let yourself be happy. You deserve it.”

I know she’s right. I trusted Thiago with truths that could destroy my family if they fell into the wrong hands, his hands, and then asked him to come home to meet the people I love most. I might not have said the words to him yet, but I’ve already given him every part of me that matters.

“Yeah.” I smile into the comforter. “I think I can do that.”

She tries to hide a yawn, but I catch it. Six p.m. here is one a.m. in Moscow. Back when we were tearing up the track at Furia, we watched the sun rise more times than I can count. Now Val is a domesticated wife who can barely keep her eyes open past midnight.

I laugh at the thought, and her brow furrows.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I grin. “Get to bed. I’ll update you tomorrow.”