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She holds his gaze, completely unthreatened by him, before responding, “Only because I’m pretty sure that she’s going to kick your ass.”
She turns on her heels and pauses in the doorway. Her voice full of the experience of someone who has been there before me, “And she’s right. You fucking deserve it.”
forty two
ANDRES
“You’re a fucking asshole,” Lex’s fist pounds against my chest again, and I grab her wrist as she is about to strike me again. She struggles against my grip as I force both her hands behind her back. For a someone who has been recuperating in bed for the past two days, her current rage has her stronger than ever. Being careful not to hurt her still healing body, I pin her hands to her lower back and hold her mere inches from me.
Her chest rapidly rises and falls, but these heaving breaths aren’t filled with her usual excitement and anticipation. They are seething with anger.
Very much valid anger.
“Let me go, Andres,” the angry words spill from her mouth with venom as she continues to fight against my hold.
Not responding, I stand fast in my stance and grip, giving her the opportunity to wear herself out. She fights me hard and repeatedly yells various curses and insults at me. I silently take them all, letting her place all that anger on me where it truly belongs.
When she finally begins to settle, I raise an eyebrow and mockingly question, “Are you done,mi reina?”
“Not even fucking close,” she retorts. “Get me some pants, and I want some panties. I’m going home.”
“No. You aren’t. You have three dead men and cops all over your apartment,mi reina,” I loosen my grip on her wrists. “Fine. Then I’ll go to Jessa and Deanna’s. I want to be anywhere but here. Anywhere but with you.”
“For your own safety, you aren’t leaving this apartment right now. Three well-armed men didn’t just randomly stumble into your apartment. They didn’t pick you on a whim. They fucking went after you to get to me.”
She stares at me in silence, her eyes still filled with ire and disdain.
“I’m the fucking devil in disguise. You’ve seen me. Youknowwho the fuck I am,” I place my hand on her side as I speak. “I’ve killed more fucking men than faces that I can remember. I’ve done it to protect the empire that Alejandro and I have built.”
“It’s a fucking transportation company,” she huffs and condescendingly rolls her eyes.
“No one gives a fuck about Marcano Enterprises. The empire they want is our fucking drug cartel,” her eyes widen at my words. “There are plenty more men roaming this city who will eagerly do far worse to you than what happened the other night. To you and Isabella. There is nothing they wouldn’t do to the both of you, just to hurt Alejandro and me. That will never happen to you again. I refuse to let anyone lay a fucking hand on you again,mi reina.”
“Stop calling me that!” she seethes. “Mi reina…I’m not your fucking queen.”
“Whether or not you want it,” I grip my t-shirt at the back of my neck. Pulling it over my head, her eyes fixate directly on the tattoo covering most of my chest, “You willalwaysbemi reina.”
“What if I don’t want this?” She turns her back to me and stares across the room before continuing, her voice so soft I have to strain to hear her, “What if I don’t want to be yours,”
“You don’t have a choice. You’ve never had a choice,” I take a step forward until my chest is nearly pressed against her back. The backs of my fingers dust down her upper arms as I whisper, “Neither of us ever had a fucking choice.”
With both of us rooted in place, the only sounds in this room are those of our breathing. I listen to hers, the harsh angry breaths slowing to soft, steady ones.
“I have a fucking choice,” her voice trembles as she speaks. “Get out.”
“Leaving this room won’t rid you of me,” my voice gruff as I walk to the door. “I didn’t just claim your body. I’ve invaded nearly every last fucking inch of you. I’m in your dreams…I’m in your nightmares. Nearly every thought that passes through your mind involves me. Try to deny it.”
She slowly turns in place until she is facing me in the doorway. Her eyes are red and well with tears, her breaths silent as her chest rapidly rises and falls.
“I can see it in you,” I turn my back to her. Facing the hall, my fingers grip the door hard enough for it to pain my hand, “because I’ve been fucking consumed with you since the first moment I saw you.”
Her thoughts are clouded with anger, but I know that she is just as consumed with me as I am with her.
“You’re fucking obsessed with the man in the mask. Withme,” I slam the door and stalk toward her. “And it’s fucking maddening, isn’t it?”
forty three
ALEXYS
