Page 6 of Hearts Of Darkness

It caught me unawares.

I’ve learned to curb those sorts of feelings. I considerthem dead to me, like a couple of other things calleddecencyandcompassion.

Once I made my move there was no turning back. It was a compulsion. An incurable sickness. Something inside me warped and snapped the closer I got to her… Then, there she was. Two feet away and smelling like heaven. Not that a man like me will ever know.

Everything about her was intoxicating, her soft ass pressed up against my dick, the way she’d felt in my arms—so slender and fragile—the smell of her fear mixed with her perfume.

Did she sense my lust for her? It took every ounce of restraint not to taste her, then and there, forcing her to submit to me before we’d even left the liquor store.

We’re airborne now. From my vantage point, I can see the top of Rodrigo’s buzz cut five rows away. In the car, he’d requested a share of her once I was done, like she was a whore I’d picked up on the street to lose myself in for an hour or two—a cheap and easy consolation for tonight.

His words were disrespectful to me, to her, and it stoked the beast inside. The thought of that prick laying a finger on that angel had made the ramifications of our aborted mission pale into insignificance.

I’m feeling the urge to unfasten my seatbelt and beat the living shit out of him. To finish what I started. To watch his ugly, scarred face dissolve into blood and bone beneath my relentless, pounding fists. The asshole will be dead in under a minute, and I can almost taste my satisfaction.

He’s not one of my usual men. He works for my older brother, Emilio, which puts an even bigger target on his back as far as I’m concerned. I have no loyalty to this man. If hesurvives this plane journey, he’ll never do another job for me again.

Miami is a couple of hundred miles behind us now, and I’m replaying that kiss in my head. She tasted like the sweetest damn honey. The way she’d kissed me back made a mockery of her prissy manner. I’d envisaged long nights of sin wrapped around her body, and I was halfway drunk on her light and innocence until some long-forgotten sentiment clawed at me from the darkness.

Mercy.

That bullshit didn’t belong in my aircraft hangar, but when I felt her fingers delving into my hair, I didn’t want her by force anymore. I couldn’t risk breaking her… I’m not known for tender touches and soft kisses. Hell, there are damaged women all over the world who can testify to that. So, I let her go.

I let her go.

Bad move.

Now, I can’t stop thinking about her. She’s planted a seed that I’m aching to fuck into fruition. My good girl,my angel, has another side to her, and it’s one that I intend to discover. One night, that’s all I need. Just one. When things blow over, I’ll return to Miami and take what I’m owed. This kind of lust will never be satiated until she’s in my bed with her fingernails tattooing her need for me across my back and that dark hair spilling all around her face.

Mine.

She has no choice in the matter.

I always take what I want.

3

EVE

It’s two a.m., and I can’t sleep. I’m lying underneath the covers in total darkness with all four walls closing in on me. Seventy-two hours have passed since my ordeal, but I can’t stop reliving it in my head. Everything about that man was wrong. He shattered my life with his appearance, and now he’s tormenting me with his memory.

I lied to the cops.Who the hell does that?I gave them a false description of the dark-eyed devil who abducted me at gunpoint and left me stranded in a private hangar on the edge of Miami Beach. The man whose aircraft I’d stood and watched fade into the night sky until there was nothing left to see except a flashing tri-color blur.

I told them he was five-seven with light brown hair and blue eyes—a complete contradiction to the heartless criminal, the trained killer, the man who didn’t thinktwice about forcing himself on me.

My cell beeps. It’s Anna:

You still awake, babe?

I glance at the clock on the nightstand. Her shift at the bar must be nearly done. She volunteers at an animal shelter by day and transforms into a cocktail-shaking vixen at night. She’s a hot blonde with a heart of gold, and people love to tell me how she adds extra shots of tequila to their margaritas.

I message her back right away:

Friendsreruns are for life, not just for insomniacs x

Another lie. I haven’t switched on my TV for days.

A few seconds later, my cell rings.

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