Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
She turns her wrist over, tracing her tattoo with her fingertip as she speaks, going around and around the red of the crosshair.
“I thought he was going to kill me,” she whispers, voice cracking.
It’s too much for me to take. The pain in her voice makes me feel like a failure. Like I’m not doing enough to show my woman how much she means to me.
Reaching over, I touch her hand as tenderly as I can.
She snaps her gaze to me, her mouth shifting between a frown and a smile like there’s some inner war playing out.
“I won’t let him hurt you,” I tell her firmly.
“Why?” she whispers, cautiously touching my fingertips. “I don’t get why you care. Is it a frick-you to Gabriel…”
I smirk down at her, almost smiling in pure joy. “Frick you?”
She smiles, amidst the pain. “You know what I mean. Was it a way to annoy him?”
I sigh darkly, shaking my head. The thought of using Liliana as a pawn sickens me.
“No.”
“Then why, Damien?”
Because you’re going to give me a family. You are marked, Liliana, marked for me. For life. I’m going to mark you with a ring, my seed, and the declaration that no other man ever gets to touch you.
My hand whips away as though the moment is getting too hot. Not just emotionally but physically, like the desire is scalding.
“It’s complicated,” I say gruffly, turning to the window again.
“But I’m not a chess piece.”
I can’t help but feel my lips tug up. My face is turned away from her so she doesn’t see. Or if she does, it’s the barest twitching of my lips.
“Definitely not.”
There’s a pause. I keep my eyes fixed on the road, at the landscape passing us by.
“Uncle Nick wants to find out what’s going on. He said I might’ve been a pawn.”
“And he left you with me?” I ask with a note of anger in my voice.
Liliana has to be protected.
I’d never be a threat to her; the thought is laughable. But if Nick believed it, why would he abandon her?
“He’s not sure what’s happening. But he did say you’d never hurt me. Or anybody, I mean. Not just me. I think he was trying to convince me to go with you.”
“By saying you could be a pawn?”
She sighs. “He wants to find out what is going on.”
I keep quiet, clenching my fists. Nick did the right thing, leaving her with me.
I’ll never let anybody hurt her.
When she sighs again. I sense her turn to the window, so I glance over. Her hair spills down over her shoulder, tempting me to reach over and brush it aside. The shape of her dress has me stirring, her curves are hugged tightly by the fabric.
“This is all so crazy,” she whispers.
“It is,” I agree.
“Nick says you’re a good man,” she says. “Is that true?”
I sigh darkly. “It’s difficult to say what makes a good man.”
She turns to me quickly, arms folded, pouting like she’s trying to win a medal for it. I resist the urge to reach over and brush my thumb across her lip, to make them part for me, to give her a preview with my finger of what I’ll do with my throbbing cock.
“Do you steal from people?”
I grin like a jackal. “Why do I feel like I’m talking to a cop? I can’t share anything about my business with you, Liliana. Not until….”
I stop myself before I finish the sentence.
Not until I’ve made you my wife. Not until I know you feel the same. Not until I know you’re in it for life.
“Nick said you’re a good man.”
I turn to her, staring her right in the eyes. It’s a cliched phrase I’ve never quite understood, getting lost in somebody’s eyes. But it’s happening right here, her depths beckoning me closer.
She stares all vulnerable, prey-like, completely at my mercy.
“Maybe you need to believe that,” I snarl. “Maybe you can’t accept you’re in a car with a monster.”
She tosses her head, not backing down, even as a flicker of fear touches her face. Shame touches me, making me lean away.
“How are you a monster?”
“The war,” I say, despite myself. It’s like I have to give her something, letting her know it’s not okay, how I reacted. “What happened, the truce, the tattooing. It’s all so sick.”
“But you tried to do the right thing. We were Cartel kids. You didn’t owe us anything.”
“Yeah.” I turn back to the window, unable to take her gaze anymore. “I guess I tried.”
“So that makes you a good person, then. Not a monster.”
I laugh gruffly. “How do you know I’m not both?”
“Well….”
She pauses, and I’m sure she’s smiling. I can sense it, which I didn’t even know was possible. I can sense her smile.
“Who says I’m not both, too?”
I laugh, carefree. She does the same. Soon we’re both laughing.