Page 45 of The Queen's Serpent

“Such an unladylike mouth on a wealthyPrincesa. Makes a man wonder what other parts of you are filthy,hmmm?“ He leans forward and sniffs my hair like a damn psychopath, and Ishove both my hands into his chest, trying to force him to move away from me.

An unhinged chuckle leaves his lips at my attempt to move him. “Poor little spoiled girl, out here all alone, a prisoner of a murderer and a tyrant.” One of his knees slips between my legs and forces me to be unbalanced, the branches behind me starting to dig into my skin.

“Get away from me!” I pant, the combination of his smell, the heat, and my fear making my body break into a cold sweat, and my head spin. I can feel acidy bile rising at the back of my throat, just waiting to escape me.

Don’t back down, don’t show fear, hold your ground.

“Have you thought about what I told you, Isabella? You’re running out of time. Every day, yourabuelagets closer and closer. Very soon she will find you, and then you will have to watch your lover die.“ His hot breath blows across my cheek as his hand rises, and he trails his fingers down my shoulder, his touch leaving revulsion in its wake.

“Why are you doing this? You’re one of his men, so shouldn’t you be loyal to him?” I pull my body as far back as I can into the bush, preferring to allow the branches to impale my skin, than let him touch me.

He reaches out again, this time grasping onto my long, thick braid and forcing me forward and into his body, until his sweat-slick skin touches mine everywhere my pretty dress doesn’t cover me. He wraps my hair around his fist and yanks my head forward, his lips close to mine, and a cry of pain leaves my own.No, fuck no!

“I’m loyal to myself first, Isabella, and I want to stay breathing and get the fuck out of this jungle, and you,hermosa, are my meal ticket to never work another day in my life. You’re going to come with me, and together, we will reach your grandmother’s men, and then she will reward me for saving her princess.”

An evil smirk crosses his face, and it terrifies me. “But first, I think I will get a little taste to see what makes you so special to him.”

His lips slam onto mine, forcing a gasp to escape that he takes full advantage of, and slips his slimy tobacco-tasting tongue into my mouth. His other hand wraps around my neck, pulling me into his body and forcing all the air out of my lungs, as he holds me tightly, while he plunders the inside of my mouth, and I try in desperation to push against him, to force him backward and away from me.

NO! I don’t want this. I don’t want this fucking psycho to touch me, never mind to kiss me.Oh my God, I’m going to vomit.I’m going to pass out from the lack of air.

I need to get him to release his hold on my neck and hair, before I run out of air and pass out, leaving me at his mercy. I struggle, trying to put all my anger and energy into removing his hold. My teeth bite down on his tongue, as I try in desperation to pry his fingers from my neck. The taste of blood, mixed with his vile breath, is almost too much for me to handle.

One moment, he’s touching me, forcing me to endure his violent hold, and the next, he’s ripped away from me, with a loud growl sounding through the trees, and he’s flying backward through the air. Paulo releases a harsh cry as he lands haphazardly on the ground, and before he can even move more than an inch, a large body is on him, slamming a fist into his face, and knees into his stomach and chest.

“MINE!” The word is roared loudly, and vibrates against the earth and vegetation.

The sound of skin slamming into skin, and bones crunching, is so loud and disgusting that it has me falling to my knees. The bile I desperately tried to hold back forces me to purge the contents of my stomach, and my head spins rapidly, disorienting me.Get up, you weakling! Get up, he’s going to kill him.

“I’ll fucking kill you!”Crunch.“She belongs to me!”Crunch. “Mine!”Crunch.

I try to rise back to my feet, but I’m unsteady and my head swims, causing me to see not one Diego pummeling Paulo, but two. I fall back to my knees and crawl in their direction, even as the sound of a fist hitting raw meat has me struggling to breathe. “Diego… stop… stop!”

Paulo tries to struggle against Diego’s ruthless blows, but I watch with horror as his movement slows, and his limbs become jerky and then fall to the ground, as he must lose consciousness. Diego doesn’t acknowledge my words. He keeps hitting him, and making feral animal noises, even though Paulo makes no attempt to fight back. The only word I can make out is ‘mine’ as he slams his fist over and over into Paulo’s face.

I finally reach them, and I try to grasp onto Diego’s shoulder, to pull him off of Paulo before he kills him. The sight before me is right out of one of those terrifying horror movies, with so much blood, and Paulo’s face all mangled and unrecognizable from the impact of Diego’s fists. A sob manages to exit my lips, and is instantly swallowed by the sound of flesh striking flesh. Why I’m trying to save the fucking asshole who just assaulted me, I’m not sure. All I know is I don’t want another death on my conscience.

“Diego…” I try again to pull at his black shirt.

His hand strikes back at an odd angle and grasps onto my neck, tightening its grip, and I instantly can’t breathe. “I’ll deal with you after I kill this miserable traitor, slut.” He puts all his force into throwing me back, and I land on my elbows and ass. Tears slide down my face at the impact, and the burn of my flesh scraping against the hard earth, but also at his cruel words.

Run, Issy, run now. He’s lost his fucking mind!

He grabs onto both sides of Paulo’s head in his large hands, and snaps his head to the side, the sound loud, depraved, and ominous.Holy shit, he just snapped his neck. He releases hishold on Paulo, and he falls like a dead weight beneath him, his head hitting the earth with a sickening thud.

His green eyes are alight with an inner fire, filled with insanity, as he gets to his feet and moves towards me, a beast tracking his prey. I crawl like a crab to get away from him, panic invading every part of me. Fear like I have never felt sears through my very soul. He’s going to hurt me. My Diego is gone, and has been replaced by this feral monster before me. “Pleeaaasee, Diego.”

He quirks one of his dark brows. “Please? Please what, Issy?” His voice is rough and filled with rage. “Did you think he could help you escape? Were you trying to score drugs from him? Is that why you have been ill, or are you just that much of a whore that my cock alone can’t satisfy you?”

“He… he attacked me.” Tears continue to slide down my face as I keep crawling backward, until I’m pressed up against the trunk of a tree with nowhere else to go. “It’s not what you think!”

“Sure he did, Issy. He’s only been loyal to my family for years, and never been violent with another woman, to my knowledge, but out of the fucking blue, he attacked you.”

The disbelief and disgust on his face decimates what little pieces of my heart he had mended with his affection over the last couple of weeks. He doesn’t believe me. He doesn’t believe that I wasn’t trying to score drugs off that piece of shit lying dead mere feet from us. Fuck, if he wasn’t already dead, I would kill him myself for ruining what peace we had managed to attain.

“You need… to believe me… please. I… I only want you.” My words stumble out of my mouth in ragged sobs. How could he do this? How could he believe that I would do something like that?

He reaches out and grabs a fistful of my hair on the top of my head, yanking until I feel strands being ripped right out of my skull. “I don’t believe you. It’s your M.O., Issy. You offer yourself up to men to get what you want. You had me convinced there fora bit, that you actually care about me, but you don’t, do you, my broken doll?”

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