Finally, finally.

I laced my fingers in his hair and pulled his head back. Even before my lips touched his, Tae Yang groaned from deep in his throat.

And kiss him I did, with everything I had. I explored his mouth until I'd never be able to forget it, every hot lick of his tongue against mine shooting awareness down my body. His hands on my hips and his thighs around them were the only anchors I had to this world, because I was getting lost in the kiss.

It didn't matter we tasted of soup, the heat was his. The softness was his. The scent was all him.

Me va a matar, I thought.

One of his hands slid up my back, blazing a trail of fire as it went higher and higher, until he threaded his fingers in my hair and pulled me even closer against him. I opened my mouth wider to get more of him and even that wasn't enough.

Tae Yang pulled away and stood up. I'd been about to protest when he picked me up again.

"Qué—"

"My neck hurts," he said as he carried me out of the kitchen.

Well, that made sense, with the way I'd been eating him up. "Oops."

One corner of his lips went up.

He walked us down a long corridor and kicked a door opened. I vaguely recognized his room from late night FaceTime calls. His bed had dark grey bedding and there was a massive piano in a corner, where he'd played me a song once. He lay me on the bed and was on top of me in one fluid motion.

A lock of hair fell over his forehead and I brushed it away. If anything, the gesture made his eyes even darker.

"This doesn't feel like a mistake to me," he murmured, leaning down to trail hot little kisses down my neck.

I held onto his sides, my hands finding his bare skin easily. His skin was impossibly soft over the hard ridges of muscles. As he settled between my legs, the sensation of him all over me made me moan.

Yeah, no mistake ever felt this good.

At least not in the middle of making it.

He found my mouth again and I almost lost it right there and then. I splayed my hands on his back, enjoying the ripping muscles as he drove closer against me, so much I could feel just how excited the exploration of my mouth made him. When he broke for air, he let his moist lips travel down my neck again, all the way to my cleavage where he tasted my skin.

If this kept going we'd end up very, very, very naked. And I really, really, really wanted to, but that was exactly how every other of my failed relationships started.

"Wait," I said, and he froze right in the middle of boobs.

Slowly, he looked up. His nostrils flared with his labored breathing, as though he were running a marathon. Mine was the same.

"I really am enjoying this," I said, my voice raspy as though thirsty. And I was, just not for water. I shook my head, trying to clear it. "It's just, this is exactly how it started with all my exes."

Tae Yang blinked really hard for a few seconds—then he pulled away. "We have to break the mold, right?"

He kneeled beside me for a whole minute, staring into the wall as he struggled to contain his breath. His chest went up and down as he caught great gulps of air and as I glanced down. His jeans were tight about bursting with a massive tent.

I did that. Good thing he couldn't see what he'd done to me, too.

I cleared my throat and he raised a hand. His voice was gravel as he said, "Just give me a moment."

"As much as you need."

I thought he'd excuse himself to the bathroom, but he lied down beside me and laced his fingers over his belly as though there weren't a whole situation happening downstairs.

"Let the record show I really want you," he said, as though speaking about the weather.

"I can see that."

Tae Yang turned his head toward me. "But I respect you even more."

I leaned forward and gave him a sweet peck on the lips. "Thank you."

He grimaced. "Don't tempt me."

"I should go home." I sighed.

"Give me another minute, I can't move yet."

"Or," I said, burrowing against his pillow. "I can text Mom to let her know I'll see her in the morning."

Tae Yang narrowed his eyes.

"Strictly so we can get some rest, and that's it."

"Don't get me wrong, I like the idea but won't she get mad if you're out the whole night?"

Maybe not if I told her who I was with. But he didn't need to know that yet.

I shrugged. "I probably reek of booze, so either way she'd get mad."

With that plan in mind, I wiggled around so I could take out the goods from my bra. Out went my ID, credit card, keys, lipstick and my phone. I sent Mom a quick text and didn't lie about a thing. I straight up said I was with Tae Yang and was too tipsy to get home, but promising to behave responsibly.

When I turned back around, Tae Yang had propped his head up and seen the whole show. "What else have you got in there?"

"Didn't you ask me not to tempt you?"

The boy clicked his tongue. "Bummer."

By that point Tae Yang was able to get up from his bed. He took a duvet out of his closet and joined me back in bed, getting under the fresh duvet.

"Look, if we get under the same blanket I may not be able to keep it in my pants."

"Fair point." I slid under his bedsheets and rolled myself up like a burrito, because I also didn't trust myself. "I could sleep on the couch."

His eyebrows went up. "So could I, but I'd rather be here."

I hid my smile under the blankets. "Good night, Tae Yang."

He rolled onto his side, facing me. "G'night, Cecilia."

It was a lot like the time we FaceTimed each other all night, lying on our beds with our phones on our pillows. But much, much better. I scooted a bit closer to him and closed my eyes, letting the exhaustion of a week longing for him take me.

A while later I felt his arm come around me, and that was when lights truly went out for a moment.

"A pararse mija, el desayuno ya casi está."

I squinted against the sunlight attacking my face and croaked out a, "Ya voy."

My bed was warm. Too warm. Not just because the sun was high up in the sky, but because my back was up against a furnace. Or someone.

Someone whose arm pushed me tighter against them.

Okay, that wasn't Mom. But that had been Mom's voice a second ago.

A headache pierced my head like an arrow, melting down the last neurons I had left. Qué coño está pasando?

"Ya voy no, voy ya," Mom said, clicking her tongue. "Y despierta al muchacho también, pa' que coma algo que está muy flaco."

"What?" I rolled around and came face to face with the stuff of nightmares.

Mom, hovering over Tae Yang's bed.

Tae Yang and I, wrapped around each other.

How?

Why?

How?

"Mamá! Qué haces aquí?"

She folded her arms. "No te dije que aquí es que trabajo?"

"No!"

As I sat up, Tae Yang groaned and started to turn around. At the last second, I held him in place—he'd been about to show Mom some impressive morning wood.

"Mom, go."

"Al menos se quedaron vestidos," she said on her way out.

A whine escaped my lips. I, too, was glad for that because this could have easily been much, much worse.

Even after all that, Tae Yang was dead asleep. I shook him with all my might so he'd wake up and he just threw an arm over his face. I grabbed said arm and bit it hard.

He yelped and at last, came back to the world of the living. "Aish, what was that for?"

"My mom is here."

His eyes went wide. He checked out the room.

"In the kitchen," I added. "Making breakfast for us. Why didn't you tell me she worked here?"

"She does?" Tae Yang looked and sounded as stupefied as I was.

I started to put two and two.

She did say she was working at a big house full of young, rich people. If Tae Yang's roommates were about his age, then check. And she'd also approved of me dating Tae Yang out of the blue, as soon as he'd shown up at the casino.

So either he had lied to me, or she had. And I was just about to find out.

I smacked his stomach. "Let's go."

He groaned as he flipped around and got up. "You're gonna be the death of me."

No doubt he referred to the issue that made him walk funny all the way to the kitchen.

Mom had turned the radio on in the kitchen. It was bizarre to hear Gilberto Santa Rosa while she served plates of scrambled eggs and toast with jam to Tae Yang and I in his kitchen. Which, by the way, was now as pristine as it had been before last night's soup episode.

"Uh..." Tae Yang's hair stuck out in all directions and he glanced down at his plate like he wasn't fully awake yet.

"So, who here lied to me?" I said, folding my arms as two pairs of eyes turned to me.

He scratched his head. "What?"

Mom sighed. "I didn't lie. Only I didn't tell."

I narrowed my eyes.

Loud gurgling filled the silence and Tae Yang winced. "Sorry, I'm hungry."

"Eat," I told him and to Mom, I said, "Talk."

Her lips pursed in a way that said, one more word from me and not only she wouldn't talk, she would bend down and take out her shoe before turning it into a weapon of mass destruction.

Even so, she talked. "He always face to piano. Never see me. But I see him."

"That was rude of me," Tae Yang sad as he forked a huge load of eggs onto his mouth.

Mom waved a hand at him. "Nah, you work hard and I like."

I hummed from under my throat.

So that was why. She'd seen Tae Yang in this big mansion and then swooping into my aid and voila, he'd passed the Coromoto Test for Men Who Could Date Her Daughter.

"You should've told me," I said.

Fed up with me already, Mom pointed at my plate with her lips. "Vas a comer o no? Se está poniendo frío."

"Yeah, yeah."

As soon as I started eating, a ruckus came from the front door, followed by a girl's voice. "Honey, I'm home!"

Tae Yang grunted but other than that, he didn't acknowledge it.

I did, a gorgeous girl in thigh-high leather boots and the tiniest black dress appeared, hauling a suitcase. The right half of her hair was platinum blonde, and the left half was pitch black. Behind her, a black guy stepped out of a fashion pictorial and into the living room.

"Hola Coromoto," the girl said, clearly familiar with Mom.

In turn, she tipped her head. "Buenos días."

These must be the famous roommates.

The girl took one look at me, gasped, and said, "This must be the girlfriend."

Tae Yang choked on his food.

The guy behind her sighed. "Ignore her, all she had for breakfast was sugar. I'm Quinn."

"I'm Cecilia, you can call me Cee."

The other girl shook my hand. Her amusement was contained to her eyes, as the rest of her face remained stoic. "Madison, never Maddy or Mad."

Beside me Tae Yang murmured. "Even though she is mad."

On her way around us, Madison smacked the back of Tae Yang's head.

Mom saw the whole thing and didn't share in my shock. She asked them, "You kids want something?"

"No, we're exhausted," Madison said as she stopped before Mom to give her a massive hug. Then Quinn followed suit.

Mom sent them out of the kitchen, saying, "You be good kids."

"What the hell is going on?" I said.

Tae Yang had the gall to chuckle. "It's only fair, I meet your family and you meet some of mine."

I shook my head and so only he could hear, I said, "We're moving too fast."

He winked at me. "Could've been worse."

And wasn't that the truth.

SONG OF THE DAY: IOI - Very Very Very

Tae Yang, Tae Yang, we all saw you freaking out there