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She’s standing at the edge of the balcony, overlooking the harbour.

“How was the concert?” I decided to start easy with something comfortable.

“Amazing, easily one of the top ten experiences of my life,” she beams, and I chuckle.

“I’m glad, I’m sorry you had to come home to that.”

She shrugs. “I’m used to it, thank you for standing up for me.”

“Don’t thank me, it’s the bare minimum for you to be treated with respect in your own house.” The words feel hypocritical coming from me, especially after the way I treated her last night, because I didn’t handle her with the respect she deserved. “With that being said, I didn’t treat you with respect last night.”

She stays silent and turns so that her back rests against the railing. “Why don’t we start with what was going on in your head. Because from what it sounds like, there’s more to what happened than what you said.”

I nod. She’s right, there are a million things I wish I said, because a million thoughts are running through my head whenever I think about her, and I’ve been struggling to organise them.

“I don’t want to be just sex for you,” I say. She raises a brow, but allows me the time to formulate my sentence. “I don’t want your first time to be with me just because you’re horny. I want it to mean more. I know I said I want you to beg, but that was all some bullshit. I want you towantto give it all to me because you want to, not because you feel like you have to,” I say.

“Did you even stop to think that maybe I do want to or did you only think about your feelings?” she asks. It doesn’t come across as malicious, but rather as if she’s genuinely curious.

“If anything, I think I’m considering your feelings more than mine.”

“I think you’re still holding onto that idea that virgins get attached.”

“No, Theá. You’re not understanding me. I don’t want to just fuck you, I want to make love to you to the point that you forget the idea of another man. And I will only do that when you understand the consequences of what that means.”

Her deep brown eyes meet mine, large and doe-like as they search mine. “It’s getting late, we should head inside,” she says.

I cup her face gently and bring her gaze back up to mine. “You’re more than a pawn, Theá. You’re the queen. You control this entire chess game. It’s all about what you want.”

“What if I don’t know what I want?”

“Then we’ll figure it out together.”

Chapter twenty-six

Antonio

Contrarytowhatmostpeople think, Adriano is a genius. He’s so smart that it’s actually stupid, because he rarely uses it to his full ability. Instead, he uses it to manipulate people or remember every secret he’s ever been told.

Today is a prime example of just how smart he is. When he suggested Monaco as the place for Theá and me to stay for the duration of the plan, I presumed it was solely because Monaco sits perfectly between Italy and France. But alas, I should’ve known better.

Adriano chose Monaco, specifically Monte Carlo, for the exact reason I hate the city: theFormula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco.

Where he’s obsessed with the sport, I find it boring and draining. I mean shit, the cars drive in circles for two hours. It's an absolute snooze fest, and the humming of the engines is the perfect white noise.

Again, Adriano is a genius because he not only managed to have me stay in this city as an excuse for him to visit—not that he needed another excuse—but he also managed to convince us to meet at the Grand Prix itself.

“After you,” I say to Theá as she scans her VIP paddock pass lanyard and enters through the turnstiles. It’s swarming with fans looking for autographs, team staff, and media. It’s all a bit overwhelming; even the CFP dinner seems mediocre in comparison.

I rejoin her and interlace our fingers as we walk through the paddock towards theScuderia Premiopaddock club, Adriano’s favourite team, of course.

While everyone is sporting a mixture of team merchandise, Theá and I look like something straight out of a French Riviera movie. Well, she makes me look a lot better. She’s wearing a gorgeous, golden-yellow halter neck dress that makes her rich, brown skin glow even more than usual. Half of her natural curls cascade down her back while the other half is clipped up, allowing small tendrils to fall and frame her face.

It’s beautiful in the most natural sense. The kind of beauty where you know she’s not even trying, no matter how much she tries to say otherwise.

I watch as her eyes travel all around the paddock. I’m so enamoured by her that if it weren’t for the sudden screams, I would’ve missed it completely.

Whylde Kings is heading into theScuderiaPremiogarage with fans rushing up to him and cameras flashing.