Page 134 of Devil Mine

He’s dressed more casually than usual in a simple black tee leading into equally dark trousers. The short sleeves of his shirt reveal his corded, tattoo-covered arms. Seeing his sinewy frame against the backdrop of this sultry club sends a pang of lust shooting straight to my pussy. It turns downright painful when those dark, gleaming eyes of his find mine and a smile tugs at his lips.

“I’d protect you with my life,amor.”

My heart pinches at his husky rasp. Thiago bends his head to find my lips, but I turn my face away. He freezes, eyes boring questioningly into the side of my face as a muscle twitches in his jaw.

There’s a mass in my throat that makes it hard to speak. “That’s a lot of effort to go to for someone insignificant.”

He straightens, his tone sharp. “Insignificant?”

“Actually, that wasn’t quite the word you used. You said you weren’t burdened by “trivial, unnecessary emotions” like caring about other people because it would make you vulnerable. That you don’t get attached.” I can hear the bitterness in my voice. “I haven’t forgotten it. It's a good thing for me to remember.”

The words feel hollow and taste acrid on my tongue, but they have to be said. I’d be a fool to ignore what he told me, to hope that it could change.

Thiago nods slowly. Pensively. He reaches for my hand, hooking a finger with mine. I stare at where we’re joined, taking in the familiar jolt of electricity. He tips the underside of my chin and forces me to look up at him.

“Why?” he asks, eyes searching mine. “Do you want me to feel those emotions for you?”

I try tugging my hand out of his, but he squeezes tighter. “No, I–”

“Because I do,” he finishes, bringing my hand up to his mouth and pressing a soft kiss on my wrist. “I do.”

Emotion rushes to my head and makes my legs quake. Thiago pushes me backwards until we disappear into an obscured corner. His eyes shine in the dark like two beacons hypnotizing me. “And my obsession, my feelings, my constantneedfor you do make me vulnerable. They’re all weaknesses I can ill afford, that I should protect myself against.”

“How?”

“By letting you go.”

I flinch, unprepared for that answer. The cavernous void that cleaves itself through my stomach leaves destruction and chaos in its path.

As desperate as I once was to escape him, the thought of him discarding me now like I mean nothing is a hundred times more painful.

“You’re going to let me go?”

His nostrils flare. “No.”

My mouth dries at his harshly clipped response.

“Why not?”

A hand palms my throat and angles my head back against the wall. Golden eyes that shine in the dark stare down at me, going from my dilated pupils to my parted lips.

“I’m even more vulnerable without you.” He sounds almost frustrated by the admission. “I’m distracted. Unfocused.Elsewhere. Wondering where you are, what you’re doing, and who you’re with. Whether you think of me and if you smile when you do. I had the mattress in the guest room burned into inexistence simply because I hated the fact that you slept anywhere but with me when you first got here.” His hand tightens around my throat, his thumb rubbing against my pulse point. “I have to change everything about how I operate, how I survive, how I keep myself as invincible as possible, because now my heart walks out in the world free from my chest, wrapped in pink and looking dangerously appetizing to every single fucker in this city and if something ever happened to you I don’t know what I would do.”

My lungs empty at his declaration. At the tormented look in his eye. Then I’m standing on my toes and reaching for him, whispering, “I wouldn’t survive it if anything happened to you,” before I’m claiming his lips with mine.

It’s as close to telling him the whole truth as I can give him right now, those three little words hanging back just behind my lips.

Thiago drags me against him with rough hands on my waist, his lips opening to welcome my tongue into his mouth. He groans sultrily, heating my blood, and grips generous handfuls of my ass, pulling me against his hard cock. His hold jostles the plug inside me and I moan loudly.

A throat clears behind us.

“Sorry to interrupt,jefe. I need a word.” Thiago’s lips pull away with an audible sound and he looks over his shoulder at Marco. “The accountant called with an update.”

He curses, breathing heavily. “Let me get her settled, then we can talk.”

Thiago levels me with a sexually frustrated look that I’m sure mirrors my own. I know it must because his pupils dilate and his teeth grit in pained restraint before he looks away.

He grabs my hand and pulls me down the hallway into a large, lavish room with a private bar, multiple dancers, and couches occupied with tattooed men and women who clearly all belong to the cartel. They all stand and nod at us when we enter and walk past.

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