Page 39 of Devil Mine

She places the tray under her arm and straightens, giving me a smile. “Maybe not yet,señora, but judging by the size of your engagement ring, I’d say your fiancé wanted it made abundantly clear to anyone who speaks to you that you’re completely off the market,” she says with a cheeky laugh. “Buen provecho.”

She walks back into the restaurant, leaving me to stare down at the massive rock still adorning my left hand. My stomach flips like it always does every time I look at it.

I shouldn’t be wearing it.

It’s why I ran away in the first place.

The only reason I am is because it keeps other men away. They think I’m taken so they leave me alone when I’m out, especially at night. As a woman traveling alone, I need that additional security.

That’s it.

That’s the only reason, even though sometimes I feel like I still have the taste of him on my lips, intense and intoxicating as ever. Randomly, I’ll have flashes of his demanding mouth on mine and flush bright red, the temperature of my body skyrocketing out of nowhere. I swear I’ll hear echoes of his voice, throaty and effortlessly commanding, telling me he’s going to take what he wants and then doing just that.

He left a reddish bruise on the side of my throat that took weeks to disappear, but not before it taunted me every time I looked in the mirror. On more than one occasion, I found myself absentmindedly grazing against the sensitive flesh with unsteady fingers, thinking about how completely he had me at his mercy with just his tongue on my neck.

And, eventually, his fingers in my pussy.

I shift in my seat, ashamed that there’s a sudden rush of arousal coursing through me and not the discomfort I should be feeling. Thiago had deduced and known things about me that he couldn’t know, that no one has ever known because I’ve never dared to say them out loud.

Things I crave deep in my belly that are in complete opposition to the things I know Ishouldwant.

The relationships I’ve had in the past have been boring, bland, and predictable. So deeply uninspiring that they’re not even worth thinking about. Missionary sex under the covers, fumbling fingers barely and rarely getting me to orgasm, and rolling over and immediately falling asleep once the deed is done. The kinkiest thing I’ve ever done is having sex in the kitchen with my ass resting on the island.

Thiago blew all of my previous sexual experiences out of the water in twenty minutes, using two fingers and his tongue and not even letting me come.

Where my mind despises him, my body is in riotous opposition and hungers for him.

I hate it, hate to admit it even just to myself, but the truth is I ran because if he ever gets me alone again, I’m afraid I won’t put up a fight.

I ran because he thinks that he can take everything from me and that one encounter in the hallway proved that he absolutely could if he tried. Worse, that if pushed, I might actually justgiveit to him.

And here I am, still wearing his ring.

He’s right, I am foolish.

More foolish still, I find myself wondering if he’s at all involved in the search for me or if he’s running business as usual while his men do the hunting.

It doesn’t matter.

It’s not like I want to be found.

???

Chapter Fifteen

Thiago

At that exact moment

Ipound against the closed front door until it opens, revealing Dagny Hanssen, Tess’s best friend.

Her mouth drops and she takes a terrified step back when Marco raises his arm and points a gun at her forehead.

“Where is she?” I ask calmly. The lethal edge in my voice reveals that I’m anything but.

The amusement I felt when Tess first disappeared is long gone. Whatever patience I had is too, short lived and easily combusted by the flames of the fury raging inside me.

She’s been gone a month and with each passing day I lose more of my fucking sanity. I didn’t have much to begin with and my reserves are getting dangerously low now. I’m tormented by visions of her, seeing her where she isn’t, I’m tortured by thoughts of who she’s spending time with, and I’m plagued by dreams where I get my hands back on her curves and finally take what’s mine.

---