Chapter Nine
Elizabeth
“You.” One word, and my heart thudded against my chest. He stood there in a three-piece suit with the jacket unbuttoned, looking devilishly handsome.
Had he been flirting with Ava before we arrived?
No, she said she hated her boss and he’d been a real asshole lately.
He didn’t take his eyes off me, and I hesitated.
The fear that the anger was for me sent me running.
This morning nearly sent me into a panic.
Diego Hernandez was the man I’d gone to bed with.
He supposedly owned a large tow trucking company and a few other businesses.
I hadn’t seen his face before or anything, but I’d known that wasn’t his main source of income.
The man was a mobster. He had his hands in guns and illegal gambling.
The man held debts and secrets that could bury the city’s most important men. I gave my innocence to him.
I ran away again for the second time, but from the look in his eyes, he’d only let me go for the moment. There was no telling what he’d do if we met again, and something told me we would.
I hid away the rest of the day, ignoring the way my belly flipped as I thought about the way he stared at me.
Those powerful gray eyes focused on me with so much left unsaid.
I had to run again. Maybe it was cowardly, or maybe it was self-preservation, but someone like him had control, power, and money on his side.
Of course, it wasn’t those things that frightened me; it was the fact that he sent my blood racing and desire pumping through my veins, a greedy lust I didn’t know I could possess.
My mother and father had been consumed by different forms of greed, whereas I had avoided them whenever possible.
My car was flashy because my boss bought it, since I sometimes drove him around.
My apartment was a luxury of safety and comfort after a life of living in poverty after my parents used up all their money. I was never their priority.
My mother divorced my father after he gambled away their savings. Instead of taking me with her, she left with her boss. I hadn’t seen her since. My father dumped me with my grandmother, who raised me until I left for college. I was ten.
My father went to prison when I was seventeen for attempted murder and burglary.
He was lucky the man survived, or it would have been worse, but from what I heard, he had a bad time in prison.
He messed with the wrong people, and he was probably going to get killed.
He only reached out to me three times; each time he asked for money.
When I refused because I was broke, he told me I was dead to him.
Of course, he’d try again. The last time I was barely twenty, I said I’d never give him a dime.
My grandmother argued with him when he wanted to introduce me to some of his friends.
A dreaded sick feeling sat in the pit of my stomach after that, and I avoided the man at all costs.
I knew exactly what he was thinking. I’d been accepted into college by the time he was sentenced.
Mercifully, my school counselor helped me get away before my father dragged me into the same hole he’d been in.
My parents' actions, for however fucked up they were, taught me a valuable lesson: work hard and never get addicted.
Unfortunately, I felt as if I was failing miserably. I’d given myself to a mobster without the slightest bit of hesitation. Even though it was smart to run from him, I wanted to run back into his arms and beg him to forgive me for leaving that morning.
Unable to calm myself down, I stripped down and took a hot bath.
I had to decompress, and it always did the trick.
As the bath relaxed my tense muscles, I closed my eyes and imagined Diego with his hands over my body.
First, he’d grab me by the throat and demand that I apologize for leaving him and order me to never do it again. “Say it, beautiful. Say it.”
“I’ll never leave,” I moaned as I gripped the edge of the claw-footed bathtub and lay my head back.
My thoughts continued their filthy journey to a place where only Diego and I remained.
I needed my special toy to take me where I had to go, so I wrapped myself in a towel and pulled it out of the bathroom cabinet drawer.
My heart raced as I imagined Diego finding me and taking me all over again.
He’d have to punish me for running away.
My body heated so much that the water in the tub was the only thing that could cool me down.
I dropped the towel on the floor next to the tub and then slipped back onto the edge, letting my legs soak while I began to play.
I pressed the toy to my clit and pressed the on button.
The light vibration immediately sent shivers through my body while I thought of Diego with his strong hands running possessively all over me.
Goodness, it was as if he was in the room with me right now, touching me, making me scream.
I remembered that night like it was yesterday, the way he smoothly ran his hands up and down my skin, making every inch of my body tremble.
I pressed the button again, sending the vibration faster and harder.
Damn—I was on edge already. My moan grew louder as I remembered the way he ate me out and how I screamed with pleasure over and over that night.
I wanted to know his name—I almost begged him to tell me—but then I would have had to give him my name.
Now, I could shout it throughout my apartment as I came hard. “Diego, Diego,” I shouted. “I’m coming. Oh my God. I’m coming.” My blood pulsed faster than the damn toy, and my orgasm was so intense that I dropped the toy into the tub.
It vibrated loudly against the porcelain, then was muted by the water until it stopped.
“Well, I just ruined it.” I fished out my now-broken, happy-ending friend.
It didn’t matter; either I’d have to get a new one or something else because my mind was on that man, and that was the only way I’d shake him from my system.
He broke me. For two weeks, he was all I thought about and the only reason I purchased my special plaything in the first place.
Now, I was a wet mess and needed another shower to get the sweat off my body.
I unplugged the tub and then rinsed out the shower.
My bed never looked so good. I barely managed to slip on a T-shirt and panties before climbing into bed and passing out in the darkness.
It was pitch-black when something woke me from my sleep.
The only light illuminating the room came from the streetlight peeking through my curtains.
I swore I sensed someone in my bedroom. My heart picked up tempo like I’d just run a mile.
My sleep was long gone, even though I was certain it was still the middle of the night.
I went to move my hand from under my pillow when I froze.
It was stuck. Damn, I was tied up. I tugged and tugged, but the restraints were too taut.
“Now don’t go hurting yourself,” a deep voice that I hadn’t forgotten mocked me now.
“Ahh,” I screamed, tugging harder at the bindings.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t scream. Then again, I might enjoy it if you do.”
“You bastard. I thought you said you’d never hurt me,” I spat out, staring at those gorgeous gray eyes that seemed to have darkened with heat and anger.
They reminded me of when he challenged the bartender.
He smirked in the darkness, white teeth smiling with intent.
His body bracketed over me, trapping me in as he stared down at me.
I had no idea what he wanted, but my body reacted like it had on New Year’s.
“Well, that’s before you snuck out like a little thief in the night, using codes you shouldn’t have known, but now I figured out how you got them.” He leaned back, straddling me, and then a shiny glint of steel moved across his face. The cool edge of the blade caressed my skin.
“Careful, my sweet nothing. You don’t want to damage this precious skin,” Diego whispered.
“Why would you care?”
“Why would I care? I seemed to care a great deal about pleasing this luxurious, smooth, creamy flesh as I watched it turn pink and then red before I covered it in sweat and cum two weeks ago.”
“Fuck,” I stammered out as my body betrayed me. “What do you want?”
“You.” He flicked the blade under my cotton T-shirt, and with a quick motion, the material was torn in half.
“Oh my God. You didn’t just do that.”
“I did.” Even through the darkened room, his proud, smug smile was hard to miss.
“You’re unhinged.”
He shrugged and ran his hand up my side and then over my chest to my throat, where he held it, giving it a good squeeze. Leaning down, his eyes filled with a mix of anger and hunger, he said, “Whose fault is that? You stole my sanity, ladróna.”
“I couldn’t steal something you never possessed.” He growled and removed his hand from my throat and slid it into my hair, tugging on it forcefully.
“Don’t test me, my little thief in the night.” He bit down on my bottom lip; the slight sting shot straight through me, but I had to clarify things between us.
“I promised you only the one night,” I reminded him as I rolled my hip up and to the side, trying to flip him off, but the wicked grin on his face only darkened, and his hips pressed harder on mine.
“But I didn’t.” He lowered his gaze to my bare chest, slowly swiping his talented tongue over his lips like a man parched. “Fuck, they’re just as perfect as I remembered, but they’re missing this.”
Diego bent down and sucked hard on my left breast. A gasp fell from my mouth as he marked my flesh. He leaned over and tucked the blade away in a bag on the side of the bed and then smiled at me, focusing on my chest. “That is much better.”
He kissed down to my waist and then pressed his lips to my soaking wet panties. “Damn, you smell so good. Especially after you orgasmed so beautifully before bed.”
My already heated face turned redder than before. “What?” I gasped, hoping he was only making a rude assumption.
“It was hot to watch you fuck your toy while you called out my name.”
“You bastard.”
“That’s not what you were saying while you came for me.”
“That won’t happen again.”
“Don’t lie to me…and yourself, Elizabeth.
We both know that I’m going to make you come over and over again.
Spread those legs for me now, my little Liza.
I want to run my tongue over that sensitive clit.
I know it’s so fucking tender right now.
I watched you scream, aching after coming so hard, baby.
That was sexy. How often do you come to thoughts of me? ”
“Never,” I choked on the lie.
“Now we both know that’s a fucking lie.” He wrapped his hand around my throat and gave a little squeeze, and I swore it went straight to my pussy, sending my juices squirting down my thigh.
“You’ve been a bad girl. A very bad girl.
I already owe you a punishment.” His other hand went roughly to my cunt and pushed a finger through my slit, rubbing all my wetness back and forth before he raised his hand.
“Look at how wet you are. Damn, that’s beautiful.
” He licked his finger clean. “Now it’s time for you to get some sleep. ”
“How can I sleep like this?” I shook my arms, which were bound together to the headboard.
“Maybe I can help.” He slid behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. It did help, even if I didn’t care to admit it. Then his hand slowly slinked down my thigh and then up again, teasing me for a moment, and then he stopped again with a chuckle.
“That isn’t going to help me sleep.”
“That’s the point of a punishment, Elizabeth. You left me without a damn name, and I searched the entire damn city looking for you. Get some sleep, and maybe I’ll reward you if you’re still here in the morning.”
“Bastard.”
“Sticks and stones, love.” He kissed the top of my head and pulled me firmly against his strong chest. Damn it, where was his knife? When I got out of his ties, I was going to stab the fucker.