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“What?” Catalina prods, as if she can tell I’m about to be painfully honest. Curiosity rages behind her big brown eyes.
I sit up straight and clasp my hands together. “... I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since that first encounter at the gala.”
The air seems to go out of the room. Catalina’s elegant brows furrow as she tries to make sense of what I just said.
“... But you brushed me off...” she finally whispers, before clearing her throat and coming back with a stronger voice. “At the gala, I actually came up to you first and you treated me like some slave girl.”
All I can do is shrug. “I was busy and I’d never met anyone who could stick in my mind as incessantly as you have.” It’s the truth.
“Is that why you kidnapped me?” The shock is quickly wearing off, melted by her unceasing fire.
“In a way,” I allow myself to say.
“You don’t know much about girls, huh?”
That cut rubs me the wrong way. I lean forward, getting in Catalina’s space. “I know plenty.”
“I’m sure you’ve slept with plenty,” Catalina lashes back. “But they probably throw themselves at you. I bet you’ve never had a real girlfriend before.”
The accusation is true, but the immaturity of it angers me more than it should. I lead a multi-billion-dollar empire. I collect souls and dispense fear. Girlfriends are the last thing on my mind... at least, until now; until Catalina.
“I can show you what I do to girls,” I growl. The cutlery shakes beneath my forearms.
Catalina grinds her teeth but doesn’t respond. Heat flashes in her eyes and her chest puffs out over the table. “I’ve seen,” she finally says, through her tight lips.
“No, you haven’t,” I assure her.
“Do you take them to your dungeon? Lock them up in your towers? Cage them like your brother cages tigers?”
Catalina has every right to be mad at me, but that doesn’t mean I’ll take her insubordination.
“I make them tremble.”
Catalina gulps. I can’t help but smirk.
Two waiters arrive with our main meals. They place the steaming dishes down on the table and Catalina and I hold our eye contact through the haze. She really does look pretty tonight, not that it’s a surprise, she’s constantly smoking hot.
“Is that why you came for me in that garage? To make me tremble?” Catalina asks softly, when the waiters have left us alone again.
I bite the inside of my lip. God, I just want to throw her over this table and rip that sultry red dress from her body with my teeth. The hunger in my belly has suddenly evaporated, singed away by the fire in my loins... in my heart. “I came to take Carlos,” I say, picking up my knife and fork. “It was just happenchance that you were there, and I decided that I’d rather have you.”
“How flattering,” Catalina responds, faintly sarcastic.
I take a cut of my stake and savor the taste, trying to distract one hunger for another. “I’m not usually so complimentary, but I will say, you pull that red dress off better than he ever could. I’m glad I took you instead of him.”
A lilting giggle escapes Catalina’s plush lips, before she slams her palms over her mouth and stops it. She’s hardly quick enough. The intoxicating warmth drifts over our plates and into my nostrils, stroking my soul with a domestic delight.
I enjoyed that. Maybe her trembling body isn’t all that I’m after...
“You think you’re charming?” Catalina asks, after she’s suffocated her rapturous giggles.
I shrug. “I’m not as bad as you think.” That’s a lie. I’m probably far worse.
My dinner date huffs sardonically. “So I hear. According to newspapers in this town, you’re a veritable saint. They say you’re a Colombian Bruce Wayne.”
“I won’t stop them,” I smirk.
“I have a feeling you’re doing a lot more than just keeping out of their way. How much did it cost to get those stories in the paper?”
