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“You bared yourself to me and I left you.” She licked her lips and his gaze dropped to her mouth before returning to her eyes. “I walked away not because I thought you were less than who you are or because I didn’t accept it.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me.”You don’t matter to me.But that felt too much like one of those lies she’d been telling herself recently. It felt too much like something foul and she wouldn’t say it. Refused to think it.
“Why did you?” His voice was like magic and she found herself sliding her legs along the mattress restlessly. Wanting to be closer. Wanting his touch, but he didn’t put his hands on her. At least not physically. “Why did you walk away?”
“I realized then just how different we are.” She made the first move, cupping his face. Sliding her thumb along his jaw. And fuck, the warmth of his skin. The prickle of his five o’clock shadow. They melted her. “You are special, Julián. And fucking around with me—” She broke eye contact, but only briefly, coming right back to fall into his gaze. “Fucking around with me will get you nothing but pain. You don’t know me. You don’t know the ways in which I could break you. Those ways are plentiful, Julián. And they’re tried and true.”
He didn’t heed her warning. Not that she really expected him to. Still, she stifled a sigh when hefinallytouched her. Oh, she didn’t even hide her need for it—dropping her head back when he palmed her throat, arching when he slid that hand down and traced her clavicle with a knuckle.
Her eyes drifted shut.
She burned for him.
She’d never caught fire for any of the previous men she’d granted the pleasure of her company. But this one…
“The man you buried alive—” Toro spoke softly, voice wrapping around her like velvet. “—is he dead?”
“No.” She opened her eyes. “He’s alive. In fact, he’s now best friends with my son.” Her lips twisted at the irony. “They’re brothers, you see. My son and him.”
Toro’s eyebrows lifted.
She nodded. “Their father refused to claim mine as his own, but he had the audacity to send the one he did claim, the favored son, to infiltrate my ranks.”
“Infiltrate—”
“He was FBI.”
“Oh, shit.” Toro’s hand fell away and he dropped back against the pillows.
Seraphina chuckled darkly. “Yes. I knew who he was as soon as I saw him, and so I figured I’d teach his father a lesson.”
“You tortured an FBI agent.” Toro stared at her. Was he seeing who she was now? Had she enlightened him enough?
“I did.” She’d wanted to send Mark Dulles a message. It was only later she’d realized that Mark had never cared about the son he’d claimed to love. They’d all been pieces in his game and she’d fallen right into his trap. He’d sent his son, Donovan Cintron, to her to be slaughtered, and she resented Marc for it. “It’s why my son hates me now. Why he’s disappeared to somewhere I can’t reach him.” She eyed Toro. “You know him, don’t you?”
“Who?”
“The FBI agent. Though I’ve heard he’s retired now.”
He shook his head. “I don’t—”
“Donovan Cintron? Married to your uncle, Levi, right?”
Toro gaped at her.
Yeah, she had that effect. But she wasn’t done blowing his mind yet. “I’m sure you’ve heard of my son as well. Israel Storm.”
14
He’d knownSeraphina was dangerous, but having her spell it out with such nonchalance did things to Toro he probably should be ashamed of.
He wasn’t.
Hewasshocked at her revelation about his Uncle Levi’s—Daniel’s youngest brother—husband, Donovan, though. But Israel Storm being her son? That bit of news explained some things and cracked open even more questions.
“Who— What—” He didn’t even know where to begin and from the haunted smile on her face, she knew it. “Hurting Donovan in any way hurts my Uncle Levi,” he told her. “That’s unacceptable.” He wanted to make sure he put that out there up front.
She shrugged. “I don’t care about Donovan anymore. He’s served his purpose.”
What had been Donovan’s purpose when she’d buried him alive? She’d wanted to hurt his father like she said? Or was it more? “Did you love him, Donovan’s father?” Whoever he was. “Your son’s father?”
