Chapter 16
LUCERO
Onyx was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen.
My husband sat across from me at the dining table, a glass of wine and papers with various bios and faces staring up at him.
"Stop staring and help or you will go to the corner," Onyx said while taking a sip of his wine. He tossed another paper into the pile and grabbed another random one.
I had some guy in my hand that my family had a running into a few years back.
He'd suffered from broken ribs and legs.
He was currently wheelchair bound, and apparently, it was my fault.
According to my husband, everyone on the table hated my guts and either wanted me dead or to never hear my name again.
"Sorry, bella, you're just so gorgeous I couldn't help myself."
A light pink hue colored Onyx's cheeks but he refused to look at me. "Work. Remember this is why we're here."
I nodded. It was why he'd agreed to dinner but it wasn't why I was here.
All I wanted was to have him. The words on the page blurred, everyone looked the same and had the same kind of vendetta against me.
I was over reading the moment we'd started.
Instead, I held the paper up a bit more and went back to my favorite pastime: watching Onyx.
His feather light hair was pinned back by two pink bows with little frills on them. They looked adorable on him. I might have snuck a few pictures when I first saw him sit down. Gold-rimmed glasses sat perched on his slender nose, magnifying his eyes and lashes.
Onyx licked his lips, a habit he did anytime he was deep into reading something.
I'd seen him do it plenty of times while enjoying a book and contemplating work.
However, I didn't have a picture with him dressed like this with his tongue out.
I made quick work of pulling out my phone.
My coordination was off and I hit the table with the back of my hand so hard it jostled the entire surface.
"Are you okay?" Onyx looked up from his paper, concern written all over his cute face. His lips were red from the abuse he'd been laying on them while concentrating. His gaze looked me over as if he was searching for whatever had been hurt on me.
"I love you." The words came out of me before a solid thought took up root. How was I so lucky to get a man like Onyx?
"Idiot." He was around the table and next to me within seconds.
"What happened?"
I lifted my hand that was still clutching my phone. While I had the chance, I snapped a few pictures. The sound of the camera shutter gave me away.
Shit, thought I had it on silent.
"Lucero, give me your phone."
I locked it and moved it to my other hand. "My hand hurts really bad. I might need ice."
Onyx gave it a single glance before he was focused on my phone again. “What did you just do?”
“I told you, slammed my hand?—”
“No. Stop playing stupid.”
I tilted my head, smiling up at my dear husband. “No clue what you mean. Is it time for a break? There is that new bakery around the block that we should try.”
Onyx took his glasses off and really stared me down. If I was a weaker man, which I, in fact, was for Onyx, I would be on the ground belly up for him. However, I knew my husband. He’d delete the photos the moment he saw the endless folder of them.
“Lucero.” There was a warning in his tone that had the hairs on my arm standing straight.
I smiled. “Yes, bella?”
My stomach clenched and unclenched the longer he stood there next to me. He held out his hand. Those elegant fingers called to me. I wanted to slide my tongue over each one, tasting him in ways no one had ever done before.
“Hand it over now.”
“What?”
“Don’t ‘what’ me. Now.” He had the same tone my parents adopted whenever they wanted me to listen when I was younger.
I was up and out of my seat. I barely avoided colliding with him as I moved back. “They have a lemon dish that has great reviews. Even some of the girls at the club have been gushing over it.” I kept moving, creating distance between us.
“Lucero Elvis Marino?—”
“That’s not my name,” I growled. I knew he wanted me to change my last name, but as of right now, I wasn’t a Marino.
Onyx balled up his fists. “You’re pissing me off.”
How mad would he be if I pointed out that even while angry, he was stunning? I wisely kept my mouth shut and put my phone away.
“I’m sorry, bella.”
“Then give me the phone.”
I shook my head. “You will get even more angry.”
Onyx’s perfectly shaped lips parted and then closed.
He did it a few more times before he pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head.
His French came out muffled and blunt. “Pourquoi est-ce que je m'inflige cela ?
C'est un idiot.” Onyx tossed his arms up in the air staring at the ceiling as he continued to ramble in French. “Pourquoi moi ? C'est le karma ?”
While he was distracted, I slipped my phone back out and got a few more pictures.
Onyx’s full outfit was something straight out of my wet dream.
Honestly, anything Onyx wore pretty much had me going.
The jean shorts were tight and short, showing off his thighs.
At the bottom of them was pink lace that made it look even more delicate.
Bows and pink roses decorated the jean fabric.
His top was a pink scrunchy tube top that was molded to his figure.
His cute outie belly button was on display, begging me to come and take a bite.
The sleeves were puffy and hung low off his shoulders.
Mine .
“What are you doing?”
I was so wrapped up in admiring him, I’d forgotten to put my phone back away. Instead of taking a single picture, I’d gotten a video of him cursing in French while looking delectable. There was no way in hell I was letting him get his hands on this.
“Nothing.”
Onyx’s silence filled the room with a choking layer of tension.
My stomach felt full as if I’d swallowed a bunch of rocks.
Seconds ticked by ever so slowly. With each one, beads of sweat collected on the back of my neck.
When ten seconds passed without a single word or movement, I thought he’d given up.
He flew across the table in the span of an eye blink.
“Fuck.” I ran to the other side of the room, stepping on all the papers that fell.
“Lucero.”
“Yes, love of my life.”
Onyx didn’t seem to find me even a tad bit amusing. “Give me the phone.”
“I can’t.”
He crossed his arms as his pink lips dipped into a frown. “But I really want it.” Onyx batted his thick lashes my way. “I thought you lo—cared about me. You said I could have anything I want.”
Fuck, fuck, fuck. Was I being a bad husband? My insides twisted with the thought of denying him anything.
“You don’t really want it, do you?” My heart rate tripled as I thought about what he’d find.
Onyx inched to the right, getting closer to me with every passing second. “So you’re done denying it?”
I licked my lips, feeling like the prey. In all my twenty-eight years, I’d never once felt like the one who got hunted. With Onyx that seemed to be the case more often than not. Every step he took to get closer to me and my phone, I took another to get away.
“Lucero, are you running from me?” Onyx twisted his hips and gave me the cutest face known to man. “Are you afraid of me?” There was a smile on his face that could only belong to someone truly dangerous.
I took another step back, spotting the exit. “No?”
“Was that a question?” Onyx’s voice dipped into the husky tone laced with his French accent.
He’s playing dirty.
My cock twitched as my insides fluttered. He knew damn well what that voice did to me. I cleared my throat and shook my head, trying to dislodge the fog of need that crept up.
“If you don’t want cake, maybe we should get back to work. We still haven’t figured out who wants me dead.”
Onyx kept slowly chasing me, not allowing the distance to grow. “They all do. We have to narrow it down to who knows the right words to say. Not to mention, my fees are high.”
“But you give the money back,” I said.
Onyx stopped his pursuit for a second to study me. “How do you know?”
“I know everything about you.”
“Un putain d'effrayant. Il faut que je prenne de meilleures mesures de sécurité.”
I smiled. He was certainly talking about me. I was starting to collect tidbits here and there from my husband.
“Lucero, I’m not going to chase you.”
My stomach dropped as I looked to the ground. A part of me looked forward to being hunted.
“You cannot be serious right now,” Onyx groaned. “Fine, if I catch you, you have to give me your password.”
“Okay, and if I win?”
A single brow climbed up Onyx’s forehead as he stared at me. “I fear the answer but what do you want?”
“A kiss.”
“I should’ve guessed.” Onyx tried to hide it but I caught the slight smile my words brought to his face. “Well, you’re not going to win.” He dropped in a squat before popping back up and jumping with the motion. He did the move a few more times before stretching his arms and back.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Stop talking and get ready to run.”
“I don’t need a head start.” I was a lot faster than I looked, and although my husband was terrifying, I was too. Not to mention, I wasn’t missing this stretching bit. I wanted to burn every movement he made with his body into my memory.
Onyx shrugged as he rolled his shoulders before he hopped up on the table and rolled over it in one fluid motion.
Shit.
He closed the gap in a single breath. I was gone in the next. I made a beeline for the exit, hitting the living room with heavy steps. A single glance over my shoulder and my eyes widened as Onyx held up a gun aimed my way. No words came out of my mouth as he fired off twice.
I swerved right and crashed into the couch. I fell over and went to push myself back up but my hand slipped, and I fell face-first onto the ground. The pain was more of an ache as I tried to move again. My fingers and toes tingled as it took way too much to make my limbs move.