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“Is that all you came to say?” Mathieu asked Jairo. “Because if so, you can leave now.”
Jairo just stared at Win. It saddened Win that they’d arrived at this place where they viewed each other as enemies. But it’d been inevitable. He’d known it, Mathieu had known it. It’d only been Jairo who’d been clueless. Win couldn’t help feeling bad about that. As Mathieu said, he’d done what he had to, to protect himself, to survive, which was something he’d been doing his entire life. It’d only changed once and that was when he’d gotten with Mathieu. But all Win knew was survival, and he’d used Jairo for that. To survive his broken heart, to protect himself from the pull of Mathieu’s orbit, to insulate himself against the reverberations of Mathieu’s betrayal.
He’d used Jairo for that. And Jairo had used him too, but Win had known from the onset what he was getting into with Jairo. Jairo couldn’t say the same. So yes, he’d done what he had to, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel like shit for the betrayal that lurked behind the anger in Jairo’s eyes. Because to a lesser extent, what Mathieu had done to Win? Win had turned right around and done to Jairo.
“I hope you get to your boy Cesar before I do.” Jairo broke Win’s stare, turning his gaze on Mathieu. “Because there’ll be nothing left of him by the time I’m done with him.” With those words, he turned around and walked away without a backward glance.
Win and Mathieu stood in silence as Jairo got onto his bike and rode off, his one bodyguard following closely behind. When the dust their motorcycles had spun up dissipated, Mathieu touched the com in his left ear.
“Did you hear all that?” He spoke to Jason, who watched out for them feet away, out of view. Jason must have answered in the affirmative because Mathieu’s jaw clenched and he nodded once. “I want them all found. Every single one. Kill them if they resist. But Cesar is most important. I want him alive.”
They left the parking lot and made their way back to Mathieu’s house with Jason driving. Win didn’t say anything, and Mathieu didn’t speak either. Jairo’s words just kept swirling around and around in his brain. Somebody wanted him dead, like for real.
A hit.
They’d put a hit out on him.
It’d been fear of someone finding out about Win that had prompted Mathieu to keep their relationship under wraps. He’d done all he could to protect Win from his enemies. And Win had thrived in the background. The spotlight had never been his thing. Maybe he’d adapted that carefulness after what happened to his parents. But he’d discarded it just as readily when he’d agreed to marry Jairo. Win knew nothing about Jairo’s businesses and his MC aside from the basics. Both he and Jairo had wanted it that way. Jairo also kept him away from his world, but it’d been harder to keep Win completely in the background.
And so Jairo’s enemies figured they’d come at Win in order to get to Jairo? They’d banked on Jairo loving Win. Jairo cared for him, just like Win cared for Jairo, but that was the extent of it.
Only, the people who wanted Win dead didn’t know that. They didn’t know it wouldn’t matter to Jairo if Win died or not.
At Mathieu’s, he found himself back in Mathieu’s office watching the other man issue orders to his men. When they were once again alone, Mathieu let out a breath and faced Win, addressing him directly for the first time since Jairo dropped his bomb.
“Come here.” Mathieu sat behind his desk and Win went to him, climbing into his lap, arms around his neck. Mathieu hugged him close. “You believe him?” He cupped the back of Win’s head, tugging him backward gently, just enough to stare into his eyes. “You believe Jairo?”
“Don’t you?” Wasn’t that why he’d already sent his men out to deal with Cesar and his group?
“I have questions,” Mathieu murmured. “But I want to know your thoughts.”
Win pressed his lips together.
“Win, talk to me.”
“Out of all the things that you can accuse Jairo Beltran of being, a liar isn’t one of them.” He knew that much. “He might have an ulterior motive for telling you.” Because if Jairo knew Cesar tried to kill him with that bomb that also almost took Mathieu’s life, why not just go out and handle it? Why bring it to Mathieu at all? Especially when he hated Mathieu. Win couldn’t answer those questions, but he didn’t doubt Jairo’s validity. “But if he said Cesar and his people are behind it then they are."
Mathieu’s hold tightened around him. “You have a lot of faith in him. Even after everything.”
“Because I know him.” Jairo had opened up to him, bared himself. The secrets Win held for Jairo had nothing to do with Mathieu. They weren’t threats to Mathieu or Win. They were only threats to Jairo. They only impacted Jairo. And Win wouldn’t share them. He’d take them to his grave, he vowed. It was the least he could do.
He peered up at Mathieu, cupping the other man’s face in his hands. “I don’t want to think anymore.”
Mathieu’s gaze remained steady on his face. “What do you want?”
Win wanted a distraction from the world around him. He wanted some sliver of happiness. He wanted a handful of moments where they weren’t worrying or strategizing. He placed a hand on Mathieu’s chest, over his heart, reveling in the steady beats. Funny how they’d come full circle. “I want you.”
32
Even after all thedamage Mathieu had done to his heart, Win still trusted him with his body. And Mathieu didn’t disappoint, not once.
He found himself on his back in Mathieu’s bed, legs around the other man’s waist, grip tight on Mathieu’s neck to keep him close, keep his mouth on him, delivering feverish kisses while their hands roamed.
Win undulated under him, arching into the heat and hardness of Mathieu’s body, moaning into his mouth. Mathieu broke the kiss long enough to strip Win and strip himself, and then they were naked and rolling around in that big bed. Hunger seared Win from the inside out, a heat—long denied—burning him up. He needed Mathieu to put it out. It could only ever be Mathieu.
Mathieu trailed wet kisses across Win’s jaw, licking and nipping his way down Win’s neck, his chest. Fingers plucked at Win’s nipples, making him writhe and clutch Mathieu tighter before they continued on, tormenting his body. His hips came off the bed, cock dripping pre-cum between their bodies as he begged without words.
Too many years, too little touch, his body soaked it all up and screamed for more.
