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“It’s an acquired taste.”
“It’s awful. Yuck.” She ran her finger over her tongue with a shudder. “Gross. Ick.”
He found himself smiling. “You’ve never had Scotch before?”
“Um, no. And now that I know it’s devil’s juice, I won’t be having anymore.”
He let out a bark of laughter. Devil’s juice? Damn, she was funny. “Probably just as well since it’s three thousand dollars a bottle.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you kidding me? Oh my God! I probably just spit out fifty dollars!”
His laughter deepened and she smiled at him.
“You should do that more often.”
“Get spat on?” he asked.
Her nose wrinkled adorably. “No, laugh. But also, I’m really sorry about that. Gross.”
“Perhaps next time, you should ask first,” he suggested.
“I need to ask?” she asked dryly. “I thought we were going to get married, file our taxes together, and pump out two point five kids.”
“Two point five kids?”
“Yeah, I don’t know what that means. I think it’s a math thing and I was never good at math. That’s not the point.”
“I got a bit ahead of myself.”
“A bit ahead?” She pulled at her hair. “Alejandro, you’re so far ahead I don’t have a hope of catching up. I can’t do this.”
There was panic in her face. Real panic.
He cupped her face again. “Breathe, Pequeña. No, don’t try to shake your head at me. Just breathe. This will be all right.”
“No! You don’t understand! They can’t do this. They don’t get to decide whether I’m yours or not. They don’t tell me what to do.”
Fuck.
She didn’t want this.
Want him.
He had to bite his lip against telling her that she had no choice. It was hard.
But she was right. Those assholes didn’t get to tell either of them what to do. He was the most powerful man in the city. He couldn’t believe he’d been going to listen to them.
Maybe because you want her to be yours.
And she still would be. But it was going to be their choice. Not because of those assholes.
“All right.”
“I’ve got a good mind to call a meeting of my own and stick their drinks where the sun doesn’t shine.”
“Very vicious of you, Pequeña.”
A strange look crossed her face. Something that looked like a mix of sadness and fear. He didn’t like that. Then she seemed to rein herself in.
“You are right. They don’t get to tell you what to do. No one has that right but me.”
“You?”
“Me,” he said firmly.
“You know, that wasn’t exactly what I meant,” she said dryly.
“Can’t change the truth.” He shrugged.
“Good Lord, you’re impossible.” She chewed her lip. “What happens if they find out we went against them?”
“That’s not for you to worry about.”
“Uh, it’s about me so it’s definitely something for me to worry about.”
She didn’t get it yet, did she? She didn’t have to worry about anything while he was taking care of her.
“No, you don’t. I won’t have anyone dictate what you can and can’t do.”
“Except for you.” She sent him a wry look.
“Now you get it.”
She rolled her eyes at him.
“Someone is getting a bit too sassy for her britches,” he mused, trying to lighten the mood.
“I am not!”
“You rolled your eyes at me.”
“You’re being crazy.” She puffed out a breath. “You’d think they’d be pleased that Vince is gone. Not wanting a good enough reason for you to get rid of him. So if I was just an ordinary employee, no one would care that he’d tried to rape me? You’d have just walked on by?”
Fuck, no. He wouldn’t have. “I don’t stand for men hurting women. Any of my guys ever hurt a woman or child, they’re dead. However, the rest of them . . . well, I don’t trust them. If you’re mine it gives me a reason to kill him in their minds because he touched you. If you’re not, then it looks like I killed him to take over his business interests.”
“Fucked up.”
“All these men care about is saving their own asses. They’re suspicious, paranoid, egotistical, and dangerous. I took out two of them in one day. It’s enough to make anyone antsy.”
“Shit. Will they . . . come after you? Hurt you?” Her eyes were wide.
He liked that she was worried about him. But she really shouldn’t be.
He gave her a cocky smile. “No one can hurt me. I’m the most powerful man in the city.”
“But . . .”
“The city might suffer a bit before things settle down.” He gave her a firm look. “But that’s not your problem.”
She looked pensive. “I could stay here a while and we could pretend, right? And then, we could fall out of, um, love for each other, and I could leave.”
Like fuck.
He forced himself to take a deep breath. “You’d have to leave the city. Lay low for a while. But it’s doable.”
“Oh, then . . .”
“But I don’t want to pretend,” he told her. “When I told them that you were mine, it felt right. They won’t tell us what to do, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you. All or nothing. Those are my terms.”
