Page 55 of Hearts Of Darkness

“Nope. Fast cars have never turned me on. They alwaysstrike me as an over-compensation for something.”

“The devil is in the detail, my angel.” He crouches down beside me as I swivel into the seat. “Have you seen how wide that hood is? Right now, I want nothing more than to bend you over it, kick your legs apart and fill you up with my cock.”

Bam! There’s an instant reaction in my core. I stare at him, speechless, squeezing the tops of my thighs together to dull the beat. Dirty talk was never my thing before I met him. Now, I can’t get enough.

“I’m sure your men would enjoy the show.”

The playful gleam is gone in an instant, replaced with something far, far darker. “For my eyes only, Eve Miller.”

He rises to his feet and slams the door so hard it makes the whole car rattle. I watch him warily as he makes his way around to his side and falls in next to me. His own door receives much the same treatment.

“This car suits you,” I blurt out, trying to ease the tension.

“How so?”

“It emphasizes the whole dangerous vibe. You make men like the Santiagos look like accountants.”

His hands convulse around the steering wheel.

“Better swap it for a fucking sedan, then,” he muses darkly. “We can’t have any reminders ofthem.”

He could swap it for a Honda, and he’d still put the fear of God into me.

Will he ever slip up about his business dealings with them? He never mentions the Santiagos unless I do. I know he suspects I have ulterior motives for all my questions. I see his men training, and I hear the continuous noise of gunfire from his shooting range, but that’s it.Maybe this place belongs tothem.

Either way, it doesn’t matter. I’ll never be able to find it again. I have no location coordinates, nothing. Is it west…east? There must be thousands of private estates like these off the coast of Africa.

“Are you still taking your antimalarials?” he demands suddenly.

How does he do that? How does he always seem to know which direction my brain is heading?

I nod.

“Any side effects?”

“No.”

“Good.”

He flicks a switch and the powerful engine roars into life. The vibrations start pulsating up through my seat, escalating the drama between my legs. Maybe I’m coming around to fast cars, after all.

“Where are you taking me?”

“You wanted to see more of my compound, my angel.” He eases off the clutch and the car starts to roll forward.

“Why do you call me that?” I ask curiously. “I’m no angel, Dante. I’ve done things in my life that are undeserving of that endearment. Things I’m not proud of.” I think about Ryan and then about his former housemaid, Valentina.

Without warning, he slams on the brakes, pitching me forward into the dashboard. The edges of the seatbelt slice like blades into my shoulder.

“Isn’t it obvious?” He turns to face me, his brown eyes blazing. “You’re the light to my darkness, Eve. You’re the one good, true thing in my life that hasn’t been broken or corruptedby this whole fucking business.”

I’m stunned by his declaration. I’m mesmerized by the passion in his voice. How can a man like him produce words of such depth and honesty? That’s when I see the whisper-thin rays of sunshine breaking through the rain clouds. This man isn’t as depraved as he thinks he is. There’s a light in the shadows. There’s goodness in him somewhere. I can sense it.

“I think you’re doing a pretty good job of corrupting me all by yourself,” I say shakily.

“That’s different. I’m awakening something in you… Something that’s been there all along.”

I’m struck by a fierce, uncontrollable hunger for him.

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