Not in a casual, surface-level way. This wasn’t a harmless crush or a passing thought I could shake with time. It was deep, it was wrong, and it went against everything I’d been raised to believe in. Dallas Veneto wasn’t just a bad idea—he was the enemy. Our families had been rivals at war,andhe was Tatum’s ex-fiancé. Entertaining him wasn’t just reckless. It was disloyal—the kind of betrayal that couldn’t be explained away or swept under the rug.
And yet, I couldn’t stop myself.
A simple phone call where he’d taken charge and gone out of his way to see me had me willing to risk it all. I hated that my pulse sped up at the sound of his voice, that my thoughts became a blur of fantasy the second he said my name, and I hated that he knew it. He could hear it in my silence, sense it in the way I didn’t hang up the moment he made his demand. That kind of control wasn’t something I gave easily, and certainly not to someone like him.
But here I was, holding the phone tighter, staring at the boutique’s side exit like I was waiting for the rest of the world to fall away. Part of me wanted to walk out there and shut him down once and for all—to remind him who I was and who he wasn’t. I wanted to protect my family’s name, my own pride, and the years of loyalty that couldn’t be undone with one forbidden conversation.
But the other part?
The part of me I kept locked behind steel walls?
She wanted to know what it would feel like to fall just once. To ignore the rules. To reach for something forbidden and feel the danger ripple beneath her skin. Dallas wasn’t safe, and he damn sure wasn’t good, but he was temptation wrapped in power, and every second I stayed on the phone with him, I felt myself slipping deeper into something I wasn’t sure I could crawl out of.
And I didn’t know if I wanted to.
Instead of popping off at the mouth, I exhaled slowly and replied, “I’m coming out. You have sixty seconds to say whatever the fuck you need to say. If I don’t like it, I’m putting a bullet in your ass. I hate when my time is wasted.”
There was a short pause, then… “I’m parked out back. Black Maybach. Come now, or I come in.”
“Do it, and I guarantee you won’t be walking out of here without injury.”
“Wanna bet?” he asked, and I closed my eyes, tilting my head back as I bit down on the inside of my cheek.
This was a deadly game—one I should’ve walked away from the moment he spoke, but when I felt that heat crawl under my skin, I knew… I couldn’t… not yet.
“Don’t move,” I said before hanging up.
I paused just long enough to confirm that this was truly what I intended to do, then moved quietly down the hallway on tiptoe, careful not to alert the girls. When I reached the back exit, I hesitated for a brief moment, then pushed the door open gently and stepped out into the crisp, refreshing air.
And there it was.
A gorgeous, black Maybach sat at the curb, engine idling, windows pitch-black. The back door opened before I could even approach, and I saw Dallas sitting inside, his legs parted, and one arm resting across the seat like a man with nothing to lose.
“Get in,” Dallas ordered, his gaze sliding over me slowly.
I didn’t move, letting him take in the whole sight of me. “You’ve got exactly sixty seconds to tell me why you’re stalking me, or this is about to get ugly.”
He smiled, an infuriating, slow, knowing smile. “Get in, or.... You won’t have to worry about getting ugly. I’ll do it for you.” He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Now, Sophia.”
“By now, you should know your threats don’t move me. I do what I want, when I want, and no one can tell me otherwise.” I crossed my arms over my chest, purposely giving Dallas a hard time so he wouldn’t think I was easy.
He leaned back into the seat, his gaze never leaving mine, one hand resting lazily across his thigh. “You don’t always haveto be so dramatic,” he said, smirking. “But fine, I’ll play your little game.”
He nodded toward the open door. “Get in. I won’t try to fuck you, and you don’t have to talk. Just to listen. Three minutes of your time, and if you still want to walk away afterward, I’ll let you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You can’t ‘let’ me do anything.”
He shrugged, unbothered. “So you say.”
I stared at him for a moment longer, weighing my options. Then, without a word, I stepped forward and slid into the backseat. The leather was warm from the sun and smelled faintly of his cologne—dark, expensive, and smooth with just enough bite to remind me of who I was sitting next to.
The door clicked shut behind me, sealing me in with him, and the silence that followed was heavy. Dallas didn’t speak right away. He just looked at me, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly like he knew he’d already won.
“Good girl,” he said finally, voice low.
“Careful,” I replied. “I’m already teetering on the edge. You don’t want to piss me off.”
His laugh was quiet as he shook his head. “You really gonna threaten me afteryoujust climbed intomycar?”
