Page 195 of The Villain We Tempt

“Galina.”

I stop babbling when he grins and slowly shakes his head, tracing a thumb over my cheek again.

“All I need is you,” he says quietly. “Not a parade with balloons and a marching band. Just you. We can go wherever you want for dinner. We can go have a picnic in the Arctic Circle or, fuck, I don’t know, Point Nemo in the middle of the Pacific.”

My lip slides between my teeth as he touches his forehead to mine.

“Everything else can come whenever you’re ready…or never, for all I care.”

Wait, I think I might need that heart you just scooped out of my chest and tucked into your pocket…

31

GALINA

I’ve beenon dates before. Granted, they were rare, and when theydidhappen, there were never less than five of Papa’s men within earshot.

But it’s a lot more than a lack of chaperones that make dinner out with Lochlan one of the best nights of my life.

He ends up taking me to The Gray Docks, thisincrediblefarm-to-table place about an hour from Hawthorne Hollow.

No prying eyes. No phantoms of the past.

Just us.

It. Is.Magical.

Notjustromantic, and fancy, and expensive, and all that. We crack jokes all night long. We order half the things on the menu just so we can try them all. And Lochlan spends the entire dinner effortlessly slipping into this ridiculous, aristocratic British accent whenever the staff is around because he made the reservation under Lord and Lady Cavendish, “of the Kensington Cavendishes, naturally”.

Dork.

By the time we walk arm-in-arm out of the candlelit, oceanside restaurant, I’m on cloud nine.

We’re still a few miles from campus when Lochlan turns to me in the dim glow of the dashboard of his Defender.

“How are you feeling right now?”

A grin pulls my lips wide as I turn to meet his gaze. “Like I don’t want this night to ever end,” I murmur.

“Well then, how might we continue it?” he says with a wink.

Heat pools between my thighs.

“I have a few ideas,” I purr.

“In that case…” He reaches across the center column and hands me a strip of black, silky fabric. “Put that on.”

It's a blindfold.

“What happens after that?” I ask, my tone husky with need.

“Just put on the blindfold, little villain,” he murmurs.

I do so, tying it tightly around my face as he keeps driving.

Eventually I lose track of where we are, but the salty smell in the air when he stops the car and opens his door tells me we’re near the water. His strong hands help me out before latching around my elbow and waist, guiding me forward. My heels echo slightly on…wood, maybe?…but I have no idea where we are. I shiver with excitement when he pauses to unlock what sounds like a heavy, rusted metal door when it squeaks open.

“Wait here a minute,” he murmurs into my ear, his hands skimming my waist. I can hear him moving around the space, my pulse ratcheting higher.