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He gave me a look that was downright sinful. “I would like to remind you how much you begged and cried when I played with your nipples,conejita.” I gasped and tried to smack him, but he held onto my hand, grinning now. “Stop being cute. That’s what is exciting.”
I dropped my head against his chest hard enough that he let out a littleoof. “So, you’re happy that your brother is going to make a full recovery.”
“Of course,” Omar said. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my brother,conejita.”
I hummed softly. “I’m close to Matteo too. I understand.”
“You’recloseto that moron?”
“Hey!” I did smack him this time. “Matteo is young, and he’s doing everything he can to impress my father…Besides, my brother has a photographic memory. He doesn’t even need to get agoodlook at something to have it committed to memory. He’s been really useful to Apá.”
“That doesn’t make him smart.”
Anger was beginning to bubble in my belly. “Like you and Angel didn’t grow up in your Padre’s shadow?” I asked. “Waiting for him to give you a kind word? Isn’t that the fate of men like you and my brother?”
I felt him deflate, and he ran his hands up and down the length of my spine. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t want to fight. Please.” He sighed. “I need to tell you something about the meeting I had with your father and Felix.”
He sounded nervous, and it immediately stoked the fires of my own anxiety.Please don’t send me home, I begged the universe.Not now.
CHAPTER22
Omar
Iwasn't sure what her reaction would be to the news that her father and fiancé left her for dead…but it wasn't this. Lyse sat beside me, staring at the bedspread beneath her fingers. “Conejita?” She barely stirred. “Lyse, talk to me.”
“What do you want me to say, Omar?” she asked, and her voice sounded far away.
I wanted to sit up, to hold her, but whenever I tried, my head would swim, and she would press me back down. “Are you sad?” I asked. “Angry? It’s okay to feel…whatever you’re feeling right now.”
She was quiet for a moment. “What are you going to do now that you’ve lost your leverage?”
She’s asking if I’m going to kill her, I thought dumbly. “By rights, you know what I should do.”
Her breath shuddered. “Are you going to?”
Gritting my teeth, I forced myself up, fighting my swimming vision.
She let out a little cry. “Lie down! What are you doing?”
I cupped her face, tracing the apple of her cheek with my thumb. “Who do you belong to,conejita?” Lyse’s gaze met mine. Tears shimmered in her dark eyes. “Who. Do. You. Belong. To?”
“You,” she said.
I pulled her in and kissed her. It wasn’t chaste; it wasn’t gentle. I forced her lips open with my tongue, and I claimed her until she whimpered and pressed into my touch. “You’re mine, Lyse,” I said against her mouth. “I don’t break what’s mine. Understand?”
Lyse sniffled. “You don’t?”
“Never,” I swore. “I protect what’s mine.”
She kissed me, soft but insistent, and we settled back together so that she was in my arms again. We were quiet for a long while. “I knew that my family saw me as a business transaction,” she said. Her voice was muted. “That’s normal for us, right? But…” She sniffled. “I thought they feltsomethingfor me.” She looked up at me. “Families are supposed to have some kind of affection for each other, right?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. I couldn’t truly say that I loved anyone outside of my siblings. “Matteo sticks up for you, right?”
She shrugged. “He and I have a good relationship, but he would never go against Apá’s wishes.” Lyse swiped at her eyes. Tears were wetting my shirt. “He would never protect me from him.”
“I will,” I declared, feeling nearly savage. “I’ll protect you from everything.”
“From your family?” she asked.
