Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NICO
Vale, tienes tu fuego.
There, you have your fire.
The barbed knife I’d given her snagged at my skin, before dropping to the floor innocently.
The dark stain she put in my chest spread across the fabric.
Crimson seeping into black. I should have worn white.
Still, something told me this was going to be my favorite shirt. Our first kiss sealed with blood.
I traced the outline of my lips with my tongue, sealing the memory of hers.
Reluctantly, I stepped away from the counter, picked up the knife and went looking for the first-aid kit in the kitchen.
I cleaned the knife with water and placed it next to the sink.
Ready for the next time she had a jab at me.
It had only gone in half an inch before she’d hit my sternum.
If she was planning to get through to me like this, I should probably give her a bone saw.
It was all worth it because she’d tasted better than I’d imagined, and I’d imagined her ten to the power of a hundred times.
Sweet. Spicy. Mine. I unbuttoned my shirt and glanced down at the blood coloring my chest. Not much damage, but it was going to be a bitch to clean up.
I fumbled around looking for a cloth because I was too distracted.
She tasted like a drug. One that made you feel like you were in heaven when your heart was still pumping.
Finding a clean cloth right in front of my eyes, I wiped off the mess.
Magda was going to be pissed when she discovered the blood on it, but I had other problems. Like curing my newfound addiction.
Maybe I would find something that tasted like her in heaven.
My breath hissed between my teeth when the antiseptic burned my chest. Fuck.
I was going to hell. They probably wouldn’t cater to my needs.
Ripping some gauze, I wrapped it around my chest. If I’d tasted her eleven years ago, I would have snatched her out of Marbella without a second thought, no matter how much I had respected Juan.
Perhaps he knew that. Maybe that was the reason he sent his daughters out to the beach every time I was in his office, even after he had warmed up to me.
I had wanted her. But time and sins had kept me away.
Eleven years had to pass before I tasted her.
Barely. Nothing had changed. I should still be her endgame.
That was the only way to avenge Juan’s death.
But would it hurt if I extended my life for a bit?
That taste… I traced my lip again… one small kiss had got me rock hard…
I needed more of that before I let her put an end to this charade.
Three pairs of eyes followed me when I walked back into the room.
All the way from the doorway to the table, where I sank into the chair and picked up my dessert.
The creama catalana was good. I licked it off the spoon.
But not as good as the taste of my pretty little assassin.
Nothing could spoil the memory of that except for the silence spreading along the table to me.
I looked up. “What?”
“You have a spot on your shirt,” Daria pointed, eyes wide like I’d plonked roadkill on the table.
Christ. It wasn’t that bad.
“You want to wash it for me?”
“There’s a palm print on your face, too.”
“I’ll take that as a no.”
Stefano smothered a grin behind his hand. “Someone had their claws out.”
My pretty little wildcat. I bit back the amusement on my lips. Enzo’s gaze leveled with mine. He looked torn between wanting to shoot something and give me a hug.
“How dangerous is this maid of yours?”
Very. “I can handle her.”
“Clearly.” Stefano gave my chest a pointed look.
“Nico.” Enzo gave me the big brother look. Sometimes I forgot that behind all his derangement was a man who’d kill for his family. “You aren’t planning on doing anything stupid, are you?”
I had to keep my girl away from him. “I wouldn’t do anything you wouldn’t.”
He leaned back in his chair, thumb grazing his jaw as he observed me. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“I think Nico should keep his maid,” Stefano said firmly. “She obviously puts him in a good mood.”
That she did.
It was like I’d lived all my life in black and white and she was the rainbow of colors splashed onto my walls. Uninvited. Unwanted. Then again, temptation never walked in with an invitation.
Because I wanted to taste more of that mood, I left my door unlocked.
I could hardly wait until she tried to kill me again.
I knew my little wildcat would try soon now that she got a taste for it.
But this time, I was going to take what I desired, and there was only one thing I’d desired for the past eleven years.
ANNA
What kind of man even slept fully dressed? On his back, one arm folded above his head and the other rolled underneath his pillow. A subtle light to the side illuminated the bed as if it were a stage set for performance. To the side, his bloodstained shirt hung like a masterpiece on the wall.
I took a step into the room. The thud of my heart was so loud it could be the heavy, punchy beat of a bass.
I hadn’t changed after the night I’d had.
Besides, after I was done with him, there would be no sleep for me for the rest of the night.
My bag was packed. The Uber app installed. My flight booked. This was it.
Two steps into the room, my legs shook so hard that it was a surprise they didn’t alert him to my presence. Another step. I found it hard to breathe. It felt like an iron plate shoved to my chest. Murder. I wouldn’t recommend it. It wasn’t for the faint of heart.
Another three steps and I stood at the edge of his bed.
He really was beautiful. Like a sculpture a mastermind had taken a decade to create.
Even with his eyes closed, he was almost too much for my weak heart to handle.
I didn’t even know why I hadn’t noticed his looks until the kiss a few hours before.
It should have been the last thing on my mind, but it still showed up like the annoying buzz of a wasp.
I didn’t like how it had made me feel. All the more reason to finish the job and get the hell out of his house.
Black sheets draped from his waist to the foot of the bed. The madness in me wondered if he was naked underneath or fully dressed.
Why did he sleep fully clothed? Of all things, in a white dress shirt. It would stain crimson, and just the thought of it made me stumble back a step.
I wasted another few minutes watching him. Watching his chest rise and fall.
Joder, just get it over with!
Papá was gone. No matter what I did, I couldn’t bring him back. He didn’t just die. He had to go like that. Slaughtered like he hadn’t mattered. It didn’t matter how beautiful he was. The outward appearance of beauty still locked a monster inside.
I reached my decision in a pulse point. My hand gripped the wooden handle. My arm snapped out. The air whizzed past me with the speed of my movement. The point spiked into his neck.
I readied my body for impact, but only the tip had grazed it. I was so out of sync that it took me a second too long to realize what had happened. His arm behind his head had moved and was lodged around my wrist. Holding it in place.
A choke of despair barreled out of my throat.
It was mixed with fury and relief. ?Joder!
His eyes were still closed. How had he blocked me?
Maybe it was instinct. I jerked back, but he was faster.
In one swift move, my arm was almost pulled from my body when he yanked me to him.
The force of it toppled me onto his chest.
Layers of skin, a sternum, and a still-beating heart behind it.
The beat of the bass might as well have come from him.
I struggled. He gripped my ass, pulled me off my feet, and I landed fully on top of him.
My palm went to push him away, but he caged it against his chest. Then his eyes locked with mine.
Not a hint of sleep in them. He was seated.
On his bed. I was straddling him. He’d trapped me.
I realized that just as his cool tone slid down my spine like ice.
“Took you long enough.”
He didn’t give me time to react. To think, to plot, to explain.
To run. With a force that shifted the air, his lips smashed into mine.
It was intense. Intoxicating. And it dragged me down into a surge of lust. It shocked my senses.
My mouth dropped open. His tongue slipped inside, bringing in heat and liquid that made my nerve endings sizzle.
His hand fell from my wrist. Next to us, the knife surrendered with an innocent thud.
His grip on my ass tightened. His nails sank into my skin.
Sparks of pleasure and pain rushed to a place they shouldn’t have.
His other hand ran through my hair, fingers coiling and uncoiling in my locks.
For some reason, it felt like a vibration. As if his hand were shaking.
It was erased from my memory when he yanked me closer and sank his teeth into my lips. The taste of copper exploded in my mouth.
I shouldn’t have liked it. I bit back the moan that was crawling at my throat. A thick groan of lust surged within his body. He had me gripped so tightly in his arms I was almost pasted to him from top to bottom. And below. The thick, hard rod prodding me insistently was exactly what I thought.
Something shifted. When I knew better. He was the figure of desire, and God help me, I wanted him.
He was wearing sweatpants. Hidden underneath it was something that made me feel.
When I had felt nothing for so long. I couldn’t stop myself.
I was greedy. My hips rocked against him.
The thickness of his erection ground against the slickness of my panties.
A low groan of lust vibrated from his body, and I felt it in every fiber of my being.
I wrapped one hand around his neck and sank the other into his hair.
It was so soft. Like velvet matched to the abrasive touch of his hands or the rough tone of his groan.
My nipples brushed against his chest. Cotton that felt like sandpaper scraping against my pebbled nipples.
He possessed me. Each lick, suck, and bite on my mouth meant to destroy me.
He did a fine job of it. Pleasure dizzied my mind.
My pulse thrummed in my body. My heartbeat raced out of my rib cage.
Heat embraced my breasts. I hovered between wondering if I was about to have a cardiac arrest or fall apart from all the hinges holding up my weak body.
I wanted to rip his clothes off his back.
I wanted to rip mine. But there was no time because every time I grated on his thickness, electricity zapped to my clit and rushed up my body.
I moaned. Half sobbed. Desperate to get to that high. The pressure building and building but not enough to spur my release.
“Por favor.”
His hand gripped my ass. Squeezed. Spread them wider.
Then brought it down hard on his erection.
The wet silk of my panties was a lubricant against his pants.
I stilled. It was just what I needed. The red rush of heat flushed through my body.
My muscles pulsed. Clenched. My nails dug into the nape of his neck. And fire lit me up from the inside.
?Joder!
Pleasure wrung out of my body. His lips released mine, scattered down my neck, where he buried a rough groan in the dip of my shoulder. Then he jerked under me, his hand digging into my ass. I was so far gone into my own pleasure that I was only half aware of his.
My heartbeat rushed through my body. But there was never a high without a downfall. Mine came as sharp as the force of a slap on my face.
?Qué he hecho?
What have I done?
I snatched my hands off him. My skin burned with guilt as I stumbled off him.
“Stop.” His voice didn’t sound anything like him.
I didn’t have one.
I’d done something worse than avenge Papá’s death. I’d ridden his murderer for my pleasure. There was nowhere on earth I could go to forget that. Nowhere in hell I could hide to survive the truth.
“Anna.”
I didn’t stop. I ran. Then I stood outside barefoot with a bag in my hand and shoes somewhere in it.
The chill air bit into my skin, softer than regret and guilt.
My hands trembled too much to handle a phone.
So I walked. I walked and walked until I limped.
Then I limped to the next corner and called an Uber.
When it came, the driver gave me a look. I knew what he would see. A woman who’d sold everything, forgotten everything for one ride of pleasure.
In the entire ride in the back seat of the quiet electric car, all I could hear were my loud, explosive thoughts while shame kept me company.
Papá hadn’t deserved this.
I couldn’t save him that day. Because I’d been a coward.
I’d failed him again.