Page 109 of Scorching Sienna

“Monsters are chameleons. Well, most. My dark side is quite obvious. Yet, you saw more. Not all of us can be more than what we are. I think that is why some become what they do. Their search for that feeling driving them.”

Sienna shakes her head vigorously, propping herself up again.

“No, Damon. You have a dark side. But you are not a monster. Not to me.” Would she be saying that if she had stayed tonight? Probably not. But she didn’t stay. And so we are saved from that theoretical situation—a win I would take.

“So what happens now? There's still that text I got. Someone isstill out there.” She shivers, and I run my hands up and down her back, the fear in her eyes not fading.

“Don’t worry about anything. All of this will be over soon. Trust me.” Her eyes search mine, and then she nods and smiles.

“I trust you, Damon.” A gift I would not squander. One worth so much more than most people could comprehend. The first time it has been gifted to me in its entirety.

“So while I deal with that, I want you to arrange our wedding.”

Even though I still had to ask her brother, hence why he was coming toSintomorrow. His answer was irrelevant. Sienna would become Deangelo. But I wanted to do it right. I wanted to ask him, seeing as their father wasn’t around.

“There is no limit to the budget,” I say, leaning over to open my side drawer while she sits up, straddling my waist.

“It’s for you. Spend as much as you want.” She takes the black card I give her, her gaze drifting from it to me.

“I mean it. I have more money than I could spend in this lifetime. So don’t limit yourself to this city as a location. We can have it anywhere you want.”

She doesn’t argue. It’s a material thing, something that holds little meaning to me—and to her as well. That doesn’t mean I don’t recognize how fortunate I am. I came from poverty, and because of that, or perhaps in spite of it, I’ve come to understand that the true value lies in things beyond the physical.

“Okay. It will be small and intimate, so who are the people most important to you?”

“You are the most important.” She swats my chest and rolls her eyes.

“You know what I mean,” she says, exasperated while smiling.

“I’m going to invite my brother, Dee, and the kids. And thenMarcello and Lucy.” She tilts her head to the side and laughs. “Wow, actually, that’s all from my side.”

“Jordan, Kai, and Gavin.” She holds her hands up, dropping her fingers as she counts.

“Wow, party of nine, here we come.” She laughs, her breasts jiggling as she does. Fuck, like this, she looks so beautiful and free.

“Does it bother you that you do not have more friends and family?”

“It did when James died. But it wasn’t so much a specific person I missed. It was just the company. But since meeting you, I realized I only hated being alone because I didn’t love myself. I didn’t love the person I became after that incident.”

Her eyes drift over to the mirror on the wall and connect with her own.

“I love who I am now, thanks to you, Damon.” Her eyes drift from hers to mine in the mirror, and she smiles.

Her gaze drifts back, and she circles her name on my chest before her eyes move to the side, latching onto the tattoo of the ghost rider.

Her finger grazes it, and then her eyes meet mine.

“I’m sure if he were here, he would be invited. I wish I could have met him. You chose your company carefully, so he must have been something special.”

Thoughts of Nicolo rise at her words, but I try not to think of him, his memory tainted by the woman attached to him. Julia Scarva.

I tilt my head to the side, watching my rainbow’s finger trace the tattoo's outlines that symbolize our friendship and Nicolo’s meaning to me. As I stare at it, the name on the note in my suit pocket pops into my mind.

Bright Simpson. Bright Simpson.

It repeats and repeats, joining with the sensation of Sienna's finger against the fine black lines of the ghost rider.

The click of everything falling into place is so profound I sit up.

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