Page 81 of Vicious Temptation

remi

The unmistakable growl of a Supra echoes behind me, and I smile the second Valentina’s little green monster appears in my rearview mirror.

After a quick shower at home, I called her and asked her to meet me at Furia, just like old times.

The hours I have left with her are slipping away too quickly, and when I think about her leaving again, the heaviness in my chest becomes a little harder to bear.

Since she moved, we’ve called whenever we could, but the best chisme, inside jokes, and random bullshit we usually share just don’t feel the same with thousands of miles between us. I’ve tried to act like I don’t miss her as much as I do, but lately, it doesn’t take much to get to me.

“Don’t you fucking cry,” I mutter, wiping quickly beneath my eyes. “That’s the last thing you need right now.”

I take a couple of deep breaths until I get myself under control. Valentina pulls up beside me, and I lower my window as she matches my speed.

“You fixed her!” she shouts over the wind.

“Did you ever doubt me?”

“Never.” She flips me off and guns it down the road.

I laugh as her Supra shoots ahead, slipping through gaps in traffic that have the drivers around her laying on their horns. But I know Valentina, and she sees every opening before she takes it, knowing exactly what her car can handle.

Unfortunately for the rest of Philadelphia, I’m worse.

I drop a gear and bury the throttle, my GT-R surging forward as I chase after her.

“Oh, you’re asking for it.”

Her taillights flare red before she takes the next corner at a speed that would make most people piss themselves. I follow, grinning as my tires grip the turn.

God, I missed this and missed her.

I punch in her contact, and laughter immediately crackles through my speakers.

“Still trying to keep up, Remi?”

“Talk less, drive more.”

She flips me off out the window again, and I do the mature thing and blow past her on the straightaway.

“Remi!” she shouts, laughing harder now. “You bitch!”

“A bitch and the winner. What more can I ask for?”

For a few perfect minutes, it’s just us again. No family drama or people trying to kill us, and especially no drop-dead gorgeous cop built like a fucking tank taking up entirely too much space in my head.

I can’t even get through a drive without thinking about him.

“Why the hell are you here?”

“Hey, you called me, remember?” Valentina says, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I rub at my temple. “No, not you. Ignore me.”

She doesn’t answer right away, but I know that silence.

I have a feeling she knows something’s off, and that it has nothing to do with the shootout at Lachlan’s I told her about earlier.

“We can go back to your place,” she offers. “Order dinner and binge some shitty movies.”