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“I can tone down my whole…thing, if you want me to. I know I can be a bit much—” he started.

“Oh my god, no. No. That’s…it’s not that. Jesus.” The horror I felt that he’d think for even a second I’d want him to dull himself for my fuck-ass family was too awful. “I just don’t want to subject you to them. They’re not nice.”

“I’ve met worse,” he said flatly.

“I’m sure, but…”

“Look, we’re both petty bitches, right? So what’s pettier than you parading around their house with your gorgeous boyfriend who’s wildly in love with you.”

In spite of myself, in spite of the truth, hearing him say he was in love with me sent my head into a spin. I knew it was just to fake it. I knew I’d never be worthy of a man like him.

But it gave me a hunger I didn’t realize I was capable of feeling, and it took me a moment to answer him.

“It would be kind of nice to shut them up about how sucky my life is going to be.”

He laughed and brought his hands down to my hips, squeezing them. “Exactly. So go inside and tell them you thought I was caught up in a work project, but it ended early, and I surprised you with a beach house by the cove.”

It was too fucking tempting. Propriety told me to say no. Want told me to say yes.

“And we can definitely make use of the week we have before my family gets in,” he added.

My face heated. “What, ah…what do you mean?”

“I think you know what I mean.” He was quiet for a second. “You had fun, right? On the ferry?”

“Yes,” I breathed.

“We could have more fun doing that while also pissing off your family, and if you stay even longer, you could take some of the attention off me when my aunties get here, which will make it a nice quid pro quo, Clarice.”

I couldn’t stop my smile. “They won’t mind you dating a white boy?”

“Oh, they’ll give me shit about it, and you’ll have to prove you can take spice. But honey, trust me. They are going to love you.”

“And when it’s over?”

Aravind was very quiet now. He took in a breath and let it out. “I think maybe you’re not so bad. Friends could be nice, right?”

“Friends could be nice.”

Giving him up would wreck me, but it was honestly the best of all worlds.

“Just tell your parents that I had to take a job back in Bangladesh and you had to stay here for hockey reasons,” he said. “Tell them I cried and wailed and cursed all the gods for taking you away from me and that I vowed to never touch another man so long as I lived.”

I laughed again. “They would never believe that.”

“Trust me,” he said, his gentle fingers tracing my jaw, “when I’m done with them, they won’t doubt those words for a second.”

Fuck. This really was going to kill me.

Bowing my head, I gave in. “Alright.”

“Amazing,” he whispered, and then he took me by the chin and sealed it all with a kiss.

CHAPTER 13

TIAGO

I could hear feet scrambling across the floor as I opened the door, with Aravind right behind me. At least three people had been in the living room, but it was too dark for me to be able to see if they were still there.