He stills.
Not because he forgot.
Because I caught him trying to find another way to control me.
He reaches for his wallet with hands that are not as steady as he wants them to be. I watch him because I need that too.Need to see this man who can command a room take time. Need to see him choose care when his body wants fast.
When he pushes into me, it is slow enough to break us both.
My head falls back.
His forehead drops to my shoulder.
For one second, neither of us moves.
“Okay?” he asks, voice wrecked.
I turn my face into his neck. “If you stop, I’ll kill you.”
He laughs, and then he moves.
The desk hits the wall with the first hard stroke.
Disco screams.
I bite Diablo’s shoulder to keep from laughing and moaning at the same time. He curses, grips my hips, and gives me exactly what I asked for. Want. Not fear. Not a cage. Not control dressed up as protection.
Us.
Our fight is still in the room. Carmen’s threat is still in the room. Lady’s roses, Shady’s silence, Rafael’s grave, every ugly thing waiting outside that door, all of it is still there.
But Diablo is inside me, shaking with the effort to be a man instead of a wall, and I love him so much it terrifies me.
His rhythm breaks rougher. His mouth finds mine again.
“Marry me,” he says.
I freeze.
He moves again, deep, and my breath tears loose.
“What?”
His eyes lock on mine. “Marry me.”
“Are you seriously proposing while you’re inside me?”
“Yes.”
“Diablo.”
“Say no if it is no.” His voice breaks on the next stroke. “But I’m done letting Carmen be the last woman Miami saw me promise myself to. I’m done paying Rafael’s debts with your pain. I’m done pretending I can breathe in any future where you’re not my wife.”
My eyes burn.
He stops moving.
That is what undoes me.
