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She stared at him, ignoring the weight of his grasp. The seeming permanence of his touch. The tightness of it. If he’d turned to her once he’d gotten the information, they wouldn’t be having this conversation. If he’d trusted her enough to be open with her, they wouldn’t be standing where they were and she wouldn’t be looking at him as someone she didn’t recognize. If he’d been honest… But he’d made the decision for her. A decision about her life, he’d made it for her.
He might not have meant to, but he’d acted just like all the other men she knew. The men who’d thought they knew best. The men who’d wanted to be her savior, as if she couldn’t save herself. Who’d wanted to be her helper, as if she couldn’t help herself. The men who’d thought strong-arming their way into her business was the way to get her to want them.
Funnily, she’d expected better—more—from Toro. After everything she’d shared with him, she’d expected him to treat her like a grown woman and not an innocent who didn’t know how the world worked.
The anger swirling in her gut evaporated. Poof. Leaving her only with the hurt and the disappointment.
“I want you gone.”
Toro blinked. “What?”
The hurt seemed to grow inside her until it was all she could focus on. She wasn’t even aware of how it happened, but she’d given him power and it was that same power he’d used, knowingly or not, to hurt her now. “I’m a grown woman, Toro. Grown enough to know what I want and what I don’t. Grown enough to know what I deserve and what I don’t. Grown enough to recognize when a man’s actions turn his words into lies. I’m done with you.” She pulled away from him, slowly, because she needed a moment to accept she wouldn’t be having his hands on her anymore. “I want you to leave.”
He stared at her, expression shifting as if he were dissecting her words in order to fully understand them. Then he scoffed. “Nah.” He shook his head. “My month isn’t up yet and I’m staying for every second of it. You don’t get to push me away. I won’t let you.”
Let.He wouldn’t let her. Seraphina smirked, then walked past him. She made her way up the stairs. Behind her, his footsteps were heavy as he followed. She didn’t look back. She couldn’t. And she didn’t speak because she’d already said all she needed to. In the bedroom, she gave him her back as she undressed.
His gaze on her was hot, heavy, and just like always, arousing, but she ignored it.
Until she felt him, his body heat first and then the weight of him as he stood at her back, his lips at her nape, his right arm snaking around to circle her middle.
She stilled.
“You won’t get rid of me so easily,” he murmured against her skin. He stroked her belly almost lazily,one finger circling her navel, brushing kisses to her nape that had her shivering against her will. “Despite what I know is going through your head, I’m not like those motherfuckers who came before.” His voice was husky, rough enough to bring goose bumps to her skin.
She cursed the effect he had on her—the answering pull between her legs, the tremor in her limbs. She cursed it and him in her head, but she didn’t shift away from his touch. Fuck, she must have used up all her strength to walk away from him downstairs.
It seemed she would always want him. Would always be attracted to him.
“All I want is to make you happy.”
She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth in order to stop its trembling.
“All I want is to see you shine. Don’t ask me to apologize for giving my woman what her heart desires.”
His hold on her was slack enough that she could move. And so she did, turning around in his arms, pressing her naked front up against him. His eyes flashed that familiar heat and he cupped her chin, tipping her head back.
Kissing her.
She let him. In fact, she returned it, deepening the kiss, moaning with her eyes closed. When he picked her up in his arms, she clung to him, and when he placed her on the bed, she laid back and spread her legs for him.
She gave him her body because she couldn’t help herself; apparently that belonged to him now. She gave him scratches down his back and bites on his neck and throat as he fucked her. She gave him her hoarse cries and her orgasm. Then she returned the favor, licking every inch of his body, spending an inordinate amount of time between his legs, sucking on his dick until he was shaking and cursing her name. She drove him out of his mind and when it was over, she gave him her arms.
Holding him one last time.
25
Toro woke alonein the bed. He rolled onto his back with a sigh and stretched his arms over his head, his half-open eyes searching the room for Seraphina. His heart lurched in his chest when his gaze landed on her closet. The doors were open.
All the hangers were empty.
He jolted upright and jumped out of the bed, still staring at the closet even as he grabbed his underwear off the floor and stepped into them. The closet was empty.
All of Seraphina’s clothes were gone. Her shoes. Her handbags.
Everything. As if they’d never been there in the first place.
Something cold spread through him as he backed away with a fist to his mouth and spun, ignoring his state of undress, and made his way downstairs, descending the steps two at a time.
