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I sniffled, but I didn’t have a verbal response to such an overwhelming statement. I was still deeply shaken by witnessing the reality of Mateo’s violent capabilities.
But he hadn’t been violent with me. He could have unlocked the door right away and ripped me out of the car by force. Instead, he’d spoken to me quietly and was giving me the chance to absorb what was happening in my life. He was waiting for me to trust him to keep me safe.
I definitely wasn’t ready to trust him implicitly, as I’d mistakenly done this morning. But I did believe that he wouldn’t hurt me.
“Are you ready to go back inside?” he asked, allowing me time to make a decision.
I managed a jerky nod.
“You’re shaking,” he murmured. “I’m going to carry you.”
He reached for me, and I cringed.
“Easy,” he cajoled, not pulling away. He braced one brawny arm behind my shoulders and another beneath my thighs.
He carefully extracted me from the car, pulling me close to his chest.
I closed my eyes and allowed my cheek to rest against his shoulder. My entire world was falling apart, and although Mateo had a hand in its destruction, he was the only solid thing I had to lean on.
“That’s better,” he soothed me. “Good girl.”Chapter 9MateoI didn’t allow myself to sleep beside Sofia after pulling her out of my Ferrari, even though I was tempted to. I’d held her and let her cry in my arms until she’d exhausted herself. Then, I’d tucked her into bed and made sure she was asleep before retiring to my own bedroom for the night.
As a gesture of goodwill, I didn’t lock the door to the guest room. I didn’t want her to wake up feeling trapped and frightened. Not after last night.
Recalling her abject terror at the sight of me made my stomach knot.
Never again. I would never give her cause to look at me like that again: like I was a monster out of her worst nightmare.
I was choosing to give her space this morning, but I set an early alarm for myself as a precaution. I didn’t intend to give Sofia time alone to think about sneaking out again. I owed her a punishment for that already, and it would be tricky enough to administer without adding to her transgressions.
She was still soundly asleep when I went in to check on her. Deciding to let her rest, I went down to my basement home gym and put in a short workout. As long as I kept my phone nearby, I would be alerted to any disturbances to my security system. No one could get onto my property without my knowledge.
And Sofia couldn’t get out, either.
Judging by the open window in the guest room when I’d put her to bed, she’d snuck out that way in her mad dash to my Ferrari. This morning, I made sure to activate the security alert associated with window breaches on my home, something I obviously should have done sooner. I hadn’t thought Sofia would actually want to leave desperately enough to make a break for it, but I also hadn’t anticipated her witnessing me brutalizing the men who’d tried to infiltrate my property.
Thank fuck she hadn’t seen me crush the dead guy’s throat. If she was so distraught over shadowy violence from a distance, I shuddered to think how she would react to that kind of gore up close.
I limited my workout to the bare minimum, resolving to put in more reps later in the day. Now that I had Sofia to protect, it was more important than ever that I keep my body in peak physical condition.
After half an hour of weights, I wiped down my equipment and took the stairs to up to the ground floor two at a time, eager to get back to her before it got too late in the day.
I checked the guest room on my way down the hall. The bed was empty, but the bathroom door was closed, and I heard the shower running.
I set out another one of my clean shirts for her to wear, leaving it on the bed and shutting the bedroom door behind me to grant her some privacy.
After a quick shower of my own, I returned to her room. My hand was on the doorknob before I stopped myself from barging right in. I didn’t like having barriers between me and Sofia, but I hated the terror in her eyes even more. I would prove to her that she didn’t need to fear me.
She would come around soon enough. Our chemistry was undeniable, and she’d definitely been attracted to me at breakfast yesterday morning. I had to convince her that I was every bit as much that man as I was the vicious protector she’d seen last night. She would adjust to the darker part of me over time, once she understood that I didn’t act in violence because I derived twisted enjoyment from it. Even though brutality didn’t faze me, I wasn’t inherently sadistic like Adrián.
