Sienna's POV

Ten minutes ago, I didn't know his name.

Now Kai had me pinned against the door of a penthouse suite in Monte Carlo, his mouth on mine like he'd been waiting years instead of one drink.

"Okay," I said, laughing against his lips. "Tell me again what you do."

"I drive." He kissed the corner of my jaw. "Fast."

"That's what every guy at that bar says. Half of them drive their dad's yacht."

"I'm a Formula One driver, Sienna."

"Sure you are." I tugged his tie loose. "And I'm a princess."

He pulled back just enough to grin at me, dark hair falling over one eye, and tipped his head toward the coffee table.

A racing helmet sat there. Matte black, a sponsor logo across the visor, scuffed in a way that didn't come from a gift shop.

I stared at it. Then at him.

"Oh my God. You weren't flirting."

"I was absolutely flirting," he said. "I was also telling the truth."

The city glittered through the glass behind him, the harbor full of lit-up boats that probably cost more than my entire life. I'd come to Monaco for my brother's wedding, not to end up in some race car driver's hotel room in a red silk dress I'd bought on a dare.

Kai's thumb brushed my cheek. His voice dropped, losing the cocky edge.

"Are you sure you want to stay?"

"Is that your line?"

"It's a question." He held my gaze. "Tell me to stop, and I stop."

I grabbed his collar and pulled him back down.

"I didn't ask you to stop."

We stumbled backward, my heels hitting the rug one after the other, and landed hard on the sofa. I was halfway onto his lap when I heard it. A long, ugly rip.

We both froze.

His titanium watch had caught in my zipper. When he lifted his wrist, a strip of red silk came with it, the dress split open from my shoulder blade to my hip.

"Well," Kai said. "That's going on my record."

"You destroyed my dress."

"Your dress attacked my watch first."

I laughed so hard I had to bury my face in his neck. He was laughing too, warm and shaking under me, and then his hands slid into my hair and the laughing turned into something else.

His palm flattened against the bare skin of my back where the torn silk gaped open, his fingers scorching hot against my spine. When he peeled the ruined dress down my shoulders, I didn't stop him. It pooled around my waist in a crimson heap, and the way he looked at me—dark eyes blown wide, chest rising and falling fast—made the air in the room feel ten degrees warmer.

"God, look at you," he muttered, his voice rough as he traced a slow line from my collarbone down to the edge of my lace bra.

I made quick work of his buttons, shoving his dress shirt off his shoulders until my palms met solid, lean muscle. He had the body of an athlete—all taut lines, warm skin, and a faint scar grazing his lower ribs that I kissed before he could think to cover it. His breath hitched, his fingers tightening in my hair as he hauled me up against him.

We didn't make it to the bedroom gracefully. He lifted me by the thighs, my legs wrapping around his waist as he carried me through the dark doorway and tumbled us onto the king-sized mattress.

Sheets tangled around our legs as clothes disappeared onto the floor. Every touch felt urgent and deliberate all at once—the scrape of his jaw against my throat, the heavy weight of him settling between my thighs, the scent of cedar and warm skin surrounding me completely. When he unclasped his titanium watch and tossed it onto the nightstand, his hands came back to me unhindered, pinning my wrists above my head for one breathless second before lacing his fingers through mine.

"Still with me?" he whispered against my mouth, his forehead resting against mine, every muscle in his body trembling with restraint.

For an answer, I arched up into him and pulled him closer.

A low groan tore from his throat as he sank into me, slow and deep, stealing the rest of the breath straight out of my lungs. My nails dug into the muscles of his shoulders as we found a rhythm that was dizzying, heated, and completely consuming. Every roll of his hips sent sparks racing under my skin, his mouth mapping every inch of my neck and collarbone while the headboard thudded softly against the wall.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the harbor lights kept burning, blurring into gold against the glass as I came apart beneath him with my face buried in his shoulder, his name breaking on my lips right before he followed me over the edge.

---

My phone alarm went off like a fire drill.

I jerked upright, tangled in a sheet that smelled like someone else's cologne, and squinted at the screen.

*Noah's wedding — be at the villa by 11.*

It was 8:42.

"No, no, no."

Somewhere behind a closed door, a shower was running. Kai was humming. Badly.

I scrambled off the bed, every muscle in my body aching in a way that made my face heat, and found my dress draped over the sofa where he'd tossed it. In daylight, it looked worse. The zipper had snapped clean off at the bottom, and the tear gaped wide enough to show the entire left side of my body. There was no version of reality where I walked through a five-star lobby in that.

There was also no version where I stayed for room-service eggs and an awkward conversation with a man whose last name I'd never asked.

I yanked open his closet.

White dress shirts. A pair of black tailored pants. A black jacket that probably cost a month of my rent. I grabbed one of each.

The shirt swallowed me. The collar still carried a faint trace of cedar, the same scent that had been on his skin last night, and for a second I almost lost my nerve. Then the shower hissed louder and I kept moving.

The pants were a disaster. I cinched the waist with one of his belts and rolled the legs three times, and they still puddled over my feet. I shoved my heels on anyway, twisted my hair into a knot, and plucked a black racing cap off the dresser.

I caught myself in the mirror and winced.

I looked like a woman who did this professionally.

"Sorry, pretty boy," I whispered, tugging the brim low. "Consider this a very expensive souvenir."

I left the red dress folded on the sofa, broken zipper on top, like an apology.

Then I ran.

---

The elevator was already open at the end of the hall, which felt like the universe finally doing me a favor. I stepped in and jabbed the lobby button four times.

The doors had just started sliding shut when the suite door behind me flew open.

"Sienna!"

Kai came barreling down the hallway wearing nothing but a white hotel towel and a look of total disbelief. Water ran down his chest. In one hand, he was clutching my ripped red dress.

"Wait! You forgot—"

The suite door swung closed behind him with a heavy, final click.

He didn't notice. He was too busy lunging for the elevator, one arm out, the towel slipping lower with every step. He grabbed for it with the hand holding my dress, which only made things worse.

A housekeeper rounded the corner with a cart of fresh linens.

She took one look at him. Wet, nearly naked, chasing the elevator with a torn woman's dress in his fist.

She screamed.

"No, no, it's fine," Kai said, holding up both hands. The towel dipped. He caught it. "I know her—"

"Security!" she shouted, already backing away. "Security, floor twelve!"

I pressed myself against the elevator wall, one hand over my mouth.

From the other end of the corridor, a guard came jogging, radio crackling on his shoulder.

"Sir, put the lady's dress down!"

"It's not what it looks like!" Kai said.

"Step away from the elevator, sir."

"She's *in* the elevator. That's literally the point."

The radio crackled again. "Twelve, do you need backup?"

"Possibly," the guard said, eyeing the towel. "Sir, I'm going to need you to stay away from the female guests."

"I am not—" Kai turned, finally, and looked straight through the narrowing gap.

At me.

At the black cap pulled low over my eyes. At his white shirt hanging off my shoulders. At his pants pooling over my heels.

He stopped arguing.

For one long second, he just stared, and I watched it all land on his face. Then the corner of his mouth started to lift. Slowly. Like he was impressed, and furious, and having the time of his life.

I gave him a little wave. Fingers only.

Bye.

The doors were six inches apart when his voice carried down the hall, low and amused and completely unbothered by the security guard reaching for his arm.

"Run while you can, sweetheart. I'm going to find you."

The doors sealed shut. The floor number above them blinked from twelve to eleven.

I slid down the wall and laughed until my ribs hurt.

Best escape of my entire life.

---

By the time I got back to the villa, the bridal suite was chaos. Hairspray, champagne, my cousin crying about a broken nail. I shoved Kai's clothes into the bottom of my suitcase, cap on top, and stepped into the sage-green bridesmaid dress hanging on the closet door.

It zipped up perfectly. No watches involved.

My phone buzzed on the vanity. Noah.

First came the wedding schedule, color-coded, because my brother is the kind of man who color-codes. Ceremony at two. Photos at three. Toasts at six.

Then a second message.

*Reminder: you are NOT allowed to flirt with my groomsmen. Especially the best man. I mean it, Sienna. Behave.*

I rolled my eyes and typed back a thumbs-up.

Then I glanced down at the suitcase, where the brim of a black racing cap was poking out from under my clothes.

And for no reason at all, my stomach dropped.

Sienna's POV

The AC in the bridal suite was set to arctic, and the only thing within reach was the black jacket I'd stolen four hours ago.

So I put it on. Over the sage-green dress. Like an idiot.

Across the room, Olivia sat at the vanity while a makeup artist dabbed highlighter on her cheekbones. She caught my eye in the mirror and raised one perfect brow.

"That's not yours."

"It's a loaner."

"From who?"

Before I could invent an answer, the door swung open and my brother walked in, tie half-knotted, holding a bouquet of white garden roses like it might detonate.

"Liv, the florist says these are yours, and I'm not allowed to see you, so I'm going to stare at the wall." Then Noah stopped. His eyes landed on me and narrowed. "Where were you last night?"

"Sleeping."

"Where?"

"In a bed, Noah. That's where people usually sleep."

He set the bouquet down and walked over, tugging the lapel of the jacket between two fingers. "This is a men's jacket."

"The hotel had a lost and found. I was cold." I shrugged. "They let me borrow it."

"The hotel let you borrow a three-thousand-dollar Italian jacket."

"It's a very nice hotel."

I shoved my hands into the pockets to look casual, and my fingers closed around something small and cold. I pulled it out before I could stop myself.

A silver cufflink. Engraved with a tiny number seven.

Noah looked at it. Then at me.

I closed my fist. "Also borrowed."

He sighed the way he'd been sighing at me since I was twelve, then reached for the bridesmaid brooch pinned crooked on my strap and straightened it, his knuckles brushing my collarbone. Gentle, even while he was annoyed.

"Today matters to me," he said quietly. "So please. Be normal. And stay away from my friends, Sienna. Especially the drivers."

"I'm twenty-seven."

"I'm aware."

"So why am I still getting the rules you gave me at fifteen?"

"Because at fifteen you kissed my lab partner, and at twenty-two you dated my roommate, and he cried on my couch for a month." He tapped the brooch. "Jacket off. Ceremony in twenty."

He walked out. Olivia was biting her lip to keep from laughing.

I slipped the cufflink into my clutch and told myself I'd mail it to the hotel.

Anonymously.

---

The ceremony was on the cliff terrace, white chairs lined up facing the Mediterranean. My job was to walk Olivia's niece, Lucy, down the aisle without letting her eat the petals.

"Slow," I whispered, squeezing her sticky hand.

"I *am* slow."

White gauze hung from the wedding arch, and the sea wind kept lifting it into the air like a sail. Noah stood beneath it, grinning like a kid. Next to him, his back to the aisle, stood a tall man in a navy suit.

Broad shoulders. Dark hair curling slightly at the nape.

My heels slowed on their own.

Lucy tugged my hand. "Aunt Sienna, *walk*."

The man turned around.

Kai.

Freshly shaved, in a different suit, since the other one was currently in my suitcase. His gaze moved over my face, then slid, slowly, down to my left shoulder, right where his mouth had been last night.

The ring box in his hand tilted. Noah caught it before it hit the ground.

"Dude. Hands."

"Sorry," Kai said, still looking at me. "Got distracted."

I made it to my spot somehow. After the vows, after the kiss and the cheering and Olivia sobbing mascara onto Noah's lapel, my brother threw an arm around Kai's shoulders and steered him straight to me.

"Sienna, this is Kai Mercer. My best friend."

Kai held out his hand. "Sienna."

He said it like he was tasting it. Like he was filing away that it wasn't Nora, the name I'd given him at the bar.

I shook his hand. Firm, quick. "Nice to meet you."

"Is it?" he said.

---

The photographer wanted the full wedding party, and of course I ended up beside the best man.

"Closer, closer," she called, waving us in. "Bridesmaid, lean toward the gentleman."

I leaned approximately one inch.

Kai bent his head, his voice low enough that only I could hear. "So. Do you always take everything a man owns, or was I special?"

"Smile for the camera."

"I had to leave that hotel in a bathrobe, Sienna. Security walked me to my car."

"Sounds like a you problem."

The flash went off. I kept my teeth showing.

"You owe me a suit, Sienna."

"You owe me your silence," I said through my smile. "Last night doesn't exist. Not to him, not to anyone. Say one word and I'll tell the press you cry during rom-coms."

"I do cry during rom-coms."

"Then I'll make it worse."

"Tighter!" the photographer called. "Sir, put your hand on her back."

His palm settled at the base of my spine, warm through the thin silk. Exactly where it had been on the sofa, before the zipper tore. My whole body remembered before my brain could stop it.

The flash fired again. His thumb moved, barely.

"By the way," he murmured, "I'm missing a cufflink."

"Okay, that's enough." Noah appeared out of nowhere and wedged himself between us, one hand on each of our shoulders. "Let's get one with the groom in the middle. Groom loves the middle."

The photographer shrugged and kept shooting.

Noah turned his head toward Kai, still smiling for the lens, and spoke under his breath. "That's my sister, man. She's not some girl at the paddock party you get to chat up."

Kai's smile didn't change. "Understood."

But when Noah looked away, Kai's eyes found mine over his shoulder.

He didn't look understood at all.

---

Dinner was served under strings of lights, the band playing something soft and French. I waited until Noah was trapped in a conversation with Olivia's grandmother, then cornered Kai by the bar.

"Here." I pressed the cufflink into his palm. "Take it. We're even."

He looked down at it, then closed my fingers back around it. His hand stayed over mine.

"Even? You've got my shirt, my pants, my jacket, my belt, and my favorite cap." He tilted his head. "So maybe we talk about compensation. Tonight."

"There's nothing to talk about. Last night was an accident."

"An accident."

"A one-time, never-happening-again accident."

He stepped closer. He smelled like cedar and something sharper underneath, the expensive cologne his sponsor probably paid him to wear. His mouth came close to my ear.

"Funny," he said. "You weren't this cold last night. Last night you were pulling me by my tie and telling me not to stop."

My face went hot. "Keep your voice down."

"Why? Afraid someone will hear?"

"What are you two whispering about?"

I spun around. Noah stood right behind us, a glass of red wine in his hand, his smile a little too pleasant.

Kai didn't move away. He just leaned back against the bar, completely relaxed, and looked at me with those dark, amused eyes.

"Go ahead," he said softly. "Tell your brother how we met. I dare you."

Noah's gaze went from Kai to me. "Met?"

My hand jerked. The cufflink slipped from my fingers, hit the rim of the champagne flute I was holding, and dropped straight in.

It sank through the bubbles and landed at the bottom with a tiny clink.

Silver. Engraved with a seven.

Noah looked down at the glass.

Then, very slowly, he looked at Kai's bare left cuff.

Sienna's POV

The cufflink spent the first dance at the bottom of my champagne flute.

Olivia had dragged Noah onto the floor two seconds before he could finish his question, and I'd escaped with the glass like a thief carrying evidence out of a crime scene. In the bridal suite, I fished the cufflink out with two fingers, dried it on a tissue, and wrapped it in my fist.

Then I opened the door and walked straight into Kai.

He was leaning against the hallway wall, scrolling through his phone. His jacket hung open, and his left cuff flapped loose where the missing cufflink should have been.

"Perfect timing," he said, and turned the screen toward me.

It was an email from the hotel. *Dear Mr. Mercer, we sincerely apologize for this morning's misunderstanding on the twenty-third floor. Our security team has confirmed there was no harassment of any guest...*

"They're comping my suite for the rest of the month," he said. "Apparently, nearly arresting a championship contender is bad for business."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you. I had to describe your stolen outfit to three different managers."

Down the hall, Noah's laugh carried out of the ballroom. I glanced toward it. Nobody was watching.

That's when I noticed the clear garment bag folded over Kai's arm. A flash of red silk showed through the plastic. My dress. The broken zipper sat right on top, exactly where I'd left it.

I reached out and touched the bag before I could stop myself.

"You kept it?"

He shifted the bag out of my reach and tucked the loose edge of plastic back in place.

"You stole my clothes and almost got me arrested. At least let me keep the evidence." He tilted his head. "Be honest. Did you plan to humiliate me? Is there a rival team paying you?"

"Yes. I'm a very expensive corporate spy."

He laughed, low and easy, and something in my chest tugged hard.

Last night, before anything happened, he'd stopped with his hand on my cheek and asked if I was sure. No smirk, no line. Just a real question, waiting for a real answer.

I didn't like how clearly I remembered that.

"I need to get Olivia's bouquet," I said, and walked past him.

---

The bouquet was waiting on a side table by the terrace doors, wrapped in ivory satin ribbon. Next to it sat a crumpled printout of the old wedding schedule, the version Noah had made before Olivia vetoed his idea of a forty-minute slideshow.

The terrace door was half open. I reached for the flowers and heard my brother's voice.

"I'm serious, man. Don't flirt with her. Not tonight, not ever."

"I was being polite," Kai said.

"You were standing four inches from her at the bar."

"Noah. Why are you so wound up about this?"

There was a pause. Through the gap in the door, I could see Noah's hand resting on the railing, his new wedding ring catching the string lights.

"A few years ago, a guy I knew humiliated her," Noah said quietly. "One of my friends. I brought him around, and he made her a joke in front of a lot of people. She pretended it didn't matter." He exhaled. "It mattered."

My fingers curled around the satin ribbon until it creased.

I remembered Noah sitting on the edge of my bed that night, still in his jacket, saying, *I won't let any friend of mine hurt you again. I promise.*

I'd loved him for it then.

Now I was twenty-seven, and he was still guarding my door.

"She is off-limits, Kai."

I pushed the door open.

Both of them stopped talking at once. Noah straightened so fast he nearly knocked his wine off the railing.

"Sienna. Hey."

"Hey." I held up the bouquet, ribbon crushed in my fist. "Don't stop on my account. You were just getting to the part where I'm fragile."

"That's not what I said."

"I'm twenty-seven, Noah. Not seven."

His jaw worked. For a second, he looked hurt, and I hated that I could tell.

"I know how old you are," he said.

From inside, Olivia's voice called his name. Cake cutting. He looked at me, then at Kai, then back at me.

"Five minutes," he said, and went inside.

---

The terrace went quiet except for the band and the sea.

I opened my palm and held out the cufflink.

"Dried it myself. You're welcome."

Kai took it, his fingers brushing mine. "It's still damp."

"It went for a swim. So did your dignity this morning." I leaned against the railing. The metal was cold through my dress. "How long did security keep you? Did they make you hold the towel with both hands?"

"One hand. The other one was holding your dress."

"The housekeeper will be telling that story at Christmas for twenty years."

"She asked for a selfie once they cleared it up."

I laughed. He pushed back his sleeve to put the cufflink in, and I saw a faded gray fabric band around his wrist, frayed at one edge, the letters almost rubbed off.

"What's that?"

He looked at it for a moment. Then he turned his arm over. A long, pale scar ran from his wrist halfway to his elbow.

"Crash at Suzuka, five years ago. Broke my arm in three places. Doctors said I might not grip a steering wheel properly again." He touched the band. "Your brother gave me this the day I walked out of rehab. Showed up at six every morning for four months and made me squeeze tennis balls until I wanted to murder him."

"Noah did that?"

"Noah did that." He smiled a little. "He's the reason I'm still racing."

The joke went out of me. I looked at the scar, then at the band, and suddenly the man in front of me wasn't just a cocky driver I'd stolen pants from. He was someone my brother had carried when he couldn't stand.

"Are you afraid of my brother?" I asked.

Kai fastened the cufflink and didn't look up.

"I'm more afraid of breaking a promise to him."

Then he took a step back. Just one, but it felt like a line being drawn on the terrace floor.

"After the wedding," he said, "we should probably just stop this. Whatever it is."

It was the right answer. It still landed like a slap.

I reached up and straightened his tie, because it was crooked and because I needed something to do with my hands. The silk was smooth and warm from his skin.

"Relax," I said. "Once was enough."

"Good."

"It was an accident anyway."

"You've mentioned."

I let go of his tie and turned toward the ballroom. The texture of the fabric still clung to my fingertips.

My phone buzzed in my clutch.

Jules. *CONTRACT SIGNED!! Vesper Racing approved the crew. You're shadowing their lead engineer, Mara Ortiz, all season. Full team roster attached. Call me!!!*

I opened the attachment. The documentary contract came first, my signature already on it. Then the team roster.

The first page had a photo. Dark hair, cocky grin, racing suit unzipped to the waist.

*Driver: Kai Mercer.*

I stopped walking. Slowly, I turned around and held up my phone.

Kai glanced at the screen.

His smile froze.

"Then why," he said quietly, "are you on my team's filming schedule?"