Page 1 of The Villain We Tempt

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GALINA

The worst thingI’ve ever done has a million views, and no one has a clue.

Everyonehas at least one secret they don’t tell a soul. Maybe it’s something dark and horrible: a crime, an affair. Something they’ll keep buried inside and carry with them to the grave. Maybe it’s something that embarrasses them or clashes with how their world views them, or how they view themselves.

I’ve got one. A secret, that is.

Something dark. Something potentially embarrassing.

Something scandalous.

I hide this side of me partly out of fear of that potential embarrassment, and partly because it clashesviolentlywith how the world sees me.

But mostly, it’s because this dark thing inside me honestly kind of scares me.

Not because of what it is, or because I can’t control it.

But because I have no idea where it came from.

I do know what fanned those first little flames into an inferno, though. It was BookTok; aka, the book-loving corner of TikTok. And I took my first steps down this path thanks toromance books.

“All I’m saying is, if one of these guys walked up to you in real life and said and did the kind of shit that’s in those horny books of yours, you’d call the cops and file a restraining order.”

I pull myself out of my thoughts and turn to glare dramatically at Arianna.

“First of all, howdareyou.”

Ari grins at me and rolls her eyes. “Sorry. Did I insult your latest book boyfriend?”

“Please. Boyfriends, plural,” I huff with mock indignation. I take a sip from my red plastic cup of cheap beer as loud rap music blares through the party. “And yes, you did. Apologize, please.”

It started with more “normal” romance books. Beach reads. “Chick-lit”. Romcoms involving grumpy bosses and sassy, down-on-their-luck heroines.

Vanilla shit.

Don’t get me wrong: vanilla can be, and is, delicious. Vanilla gives you exactly what you want. You know exactly what it's going to taste like before that cone is even handed to you. Predictable, dependable vanilla.

But slowly, I started to want something different.

Something less sweet.

Something darker.

Something with surprises mixed in, so you weren’t ever sure what the next bite was going to bring you.

And the more I sampled the non-vanilla ice cream menu, the more I wanted to explore what the flavors tasted like the further away from vanilla you got.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I found dark romance.

No more grumpy, single-dad bosses with secret hearts of gold. No more quirky neighbors whose dogs bring them together. Thanks to BookTok, I found myself quickly gravitating to “morally gray” if not morallyblackheroes. The pile of books I fell into and never climbed out of involves masks, knives, blackmail and restraint, and very,veryquestionable definitions of consent.

The cliché would be to say that my first forays into romance books were vanilla, and then I ended up in rocky road. But the books that I’ve fallen completely in love with over the last few years aren’t even ice cream anymore.

The dark romance thatIread is more like licking a car battery.

Next to me, Lucia cackles loudly enough that even people across the party glance at her over the thudding, pounding music. “Galina, your book boyfriends are a walking red flag parade.”