Page 33 of No Darker Temptation

“You’re in a good mood,” I tell her. “Had fun consummating your marriage?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We were exhausted, I fell asleep in my wedding dress.” She gives my shoulder a playful push. “A little birdie tells me you had company last night.”

I almost trip over my feet. “What? No, I didn’t.”

“You sure?”

“Brent’s side of the family is hardly tempting. Even I can admit he’s the only attractive one there. Not to mention his choice in groomsmen left much to be desired.”

“Mhm,” she sing-songs. “But that’s not really your type right? You like them tall, dark, handsome. European.”

I’m not sure why I feel so anxious but I don’t want Karina to know anything about what happened last night. At least not yet. “How many times do I have to tell you, Alejandro isn’t European, he just lives⁠—”

She jumps on me. “Ha! So he did show up. Shea and Taylor saw Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome slip into your room last night you little liar!”

I purse my lips and cross my arms over my chest. “Those fucking chismosas. Can’t mind their own business for the life of them.”

“¡Que sinvergüenza!” She squeals and pokes my sides. I try to walk around her and continue down the hall but she’s surprisingly strong for being so tiny. She loops her arm through mine and yanks us between two tall columns by the window. “He showed up, I can’t believe he showed up, oh my God⁠—”

I cover her mouth with my hand. “Tell the whole family why don’t you?”

Karina is practically buzzing with excitement as she bounces from one foot to the other. “Oh, that’s so romantic! A little stalkerish that he decided to crash my wedding but all will be forgiven if he brought a nice gift.”

A burst of incredulous laughter leaves me. I tap her arm. “Kay!”

Her expression warms with a genuine smile. She takes my hand and guides us both onto the windowsill where we take a seat and watch the snow fall. “How was it?”

“It was…nice?”

“You should see the look on your face. It was more than nice. You can’t walk in a straight line for shit. At first I thought you were hung over.”

My entire body is on fire. “I am hungover.”

She gives a cheeky grin. “Yeah…sure you are.”

“The wedding was practically over by the time I stepped out on the loggia. He found me there. We talked about a lot of things.” I rub my hands up and down my arms to stave off the cold. I’m wearing a fitted sweater dress and thick stockings but January is a merciless month—the chill seeps into everything. “He spent the night but I had to leave this morning to join you guys for breakfast.”

“What else happened? Aside from the fact you got laid for the first time in three months.”

I ignore her comment. “Nothing. I don’t know. I came down here a little early because I needed a minute alone to think….”

“Dee?”

I bite the inside of my cheek and the burning in my throat makes it difficult to speak. Karina begins to blur around the edges and I turn my attention to the snow outside. Maybe all the stress leading up to the wedding compounded with the emotion of the last twelve hours has finally caught up to me. Of course, it’s natural to want to cry. My cousin, the most important person in my life, just got married and is about to leave on a two-week long honeymoon on the other side of the world. On top of that, I fell in love over the summer with a man that almost got me killed—twice—and then he crashed my cousin’s wedding, told me he wanted to be with me, and then we proceeded to have the most mind-blowing sex of my life.

I feel like shit.

“He told me he wants us to be together.”

“Oh…all right,” she chuckles and reaches out to brush the hair out of my face. “That’s not so bad. I think.”

“It’s not bad, it’s the complete opposite of bad. That’s the problem.”

“It’s good that he wants to be with you?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re upset about it?”