Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118333 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
If I was honest with myself . . . I feared him too. I feared what would happen if I refused him. It didn’t bear thinking about.
I had always sensed something unstable within him. I had always kept him at arm’s length. But now I was firmly in his embrace . . . and I had to find a way to survive the suffocation.
Diego had been bold in his move to propose to me. It was his greatest play. He was as close as one could get to my father. My hand in marriage would firmly lock him in place. My father wasn’t naïve to this. Papa knew how Diego had always wanted me. And to secure Diego’s unwavering loyalty, he’d thrown me to the wolves. I didn’t know how to get out of this. I didn’t know how to break off this engagement. I didn’t know where Tanner even was. I knew my father and Diego were still working with the Klan. But they no longer came to our house. All those months of being with Tanner, being able to have him in my bed, by my side, had long gone.
Ice flooded my veins when I thought of the inevitable. The day when the Klan and the cartel would go to war against each other. This pact they had entered into wouldn’t last—couldn’t last. My enemy’s enemy is my friend.
Once the Hangmen were dealt with, and when the contract they had entered into expired . . . war would ensue. It would be cartel against Klan. A fight to be the strongest power in the crime underworld. My stomach flipped at the thought. At the knowledge that the man I loved and my family, the only people I cared about in this world, would be intent on killing each other.
“Let me walk you to your suite,” Diego said as he got up from the table. He guided me up with his hand, and I let him lead me away. My father kissed my free hand as I passed. I smiled, but only for the sake of keeping up appearances.
As we approached the rooms I had as my own on my papa’s estate, Diego’s hand tightened in mine. He hurried us through the hallways, my father’s men stationed along the way for our protection. When we entered my suite, Diego spun me around and pushed me back against the wall. My heart raced. His eyes were wide and he licked his lips. He took hold of both my wrists and slowly raised them above my head. He moved in to my lips, but I turned my head away at the last minute. “Diego,” I whispered, clenching my eyes shut as I gathered my lost breath. “Not yet . . .”
His forehead fell against mine. He was pressed against me; his scent infused the air around us and I could smell the red wine on his breath. He had drunk a lot. “Adelita,” he murmured, frustrated. “Cariño . . .” I winced at the term of endearment. I didn’t want to be his cariño. I didn’t want to be anything to him. He moved one of his hands from my wrists and slid it down my hair, over my cheek, and down to my chest. I whimpered when he palmed my breast.
“Diego—”
“Shh.” His hand squeezed at the flesh until it bordered on painful.
“You’re hurting me.”
He smiled, and it wasn’t a smile I had ever received from him before. His attention on me had always been sweet, endearing . . . This smile was cold and cruel. The alcohol had clearly lowered his control over the dangerous man inside. He released my breast, but then his hand started traveling south. My thighs clenched together when his fingers passed over my torso. But it was no use trying to stop him. He was bigger and stronger than me. Diego was the most determined man I’d ever met.
“You’re a cocktease, cariño. Always have been.” I shook my head, but he shushed me again, the sound harsh and sharp. “A face made by God to torment we who walk with the devil.” His hand cupped me between my legs. I made a garbled sound and tried to push him off, but he didn’t move. I held my breath as his fingers ran along my panties. I felt him getting hard against my leg. My bottom lip started to shake in anger. But I wouldn’t cry. I wouldn’t let him see me cry. Men like Diego got off on seeing women cry.
Diego kissed up my neck and over my cheek. “But I like that you’re untouched. I like that you’re a virgin and I get to be the first cock your pussy will ever have.” He groaned. “The first and last.”
I sucked in a breath. It shook. I stopped breathing so he couldn’t tell he’d unnerved me. That his touch repulsed me. I shut my eyes as he worked his hand under my panties. I needed to shut him out. To take myself away from this moment.