Page 15 of Valentine's with the Cartel

"I... I want to," he whispered eventually. "But it's still hard for me to fully trust that you mean what you say. That I'm really not just some pawn for you to move around a game board, especially after what happened today."

I felt my heart clench at the raw vulnerability in those words, knowing that the road to truly healing the wounds of his past would be long and winding. But I was more than willing to walk it with him every step of the way.

"You're not a pawn," I swore. "You are my reason for being, the missing piece that completes me in ways I didn't even know I was lacking until I found you."

I brushed away an errant tear that had slipped down his cheek with my thumb, marveling at its preciousness.

"Give yourself time," I urged. Time was needed, especially for things like what we were talking about. "Trust will come in its own right."

Chapter 9

Anan

Still positioned between Rafael's arms, my head swimming with all the revelations he had just shared about his past and our future together within the cartel, I couldn't help but be struck by how utterly different this conversation was from what I had been expecting.

I thought he was going to keep ridiculing me and make me feel further humiliated, but he was… actually kind of trying to understand me. Maybe I'd been too harsh in my initial judgment.

The way he stroked my skin and cradled me against him was so tender, almost reverent, like he couldn't quite believe I was real. It made my heart race in a way that had nothing to do with fear or panic. It was all about this need to stay with him no matter what.

And the things he was saying—that I was his priority, that I completed him... it sounded too good to be true after all the pain and betrayal in my life. Was I really starting to let myself believe this? That maybe Rafael wasn't just another cruel manipulatorout to use me for his own gain? I didn't know, but something was different about me this time, and I kind of liked it.

As if sensing my inner turmoil, Rafael chose that moment to trail his fingers down over the bulge of my erection, palming me through my pants with a teasing pressure that made me gasp and arch toward his massive body. A bolt of pleasure shot up my spine at the contact, my cock throbbing urgently against his hand as he rubbed and stroked in just the right way.

"Mmmm, yes," Rafael purred. "You like that, don't you? You like it when I touch this needy little dick." He punctuated his words with another firm squeeze that had my head falling back against the pillow with a guttural moan. It was so good. I couldn't believe he was so proficient in doing that.

I was dimly aware of how debauched I must look right now—lying limp and pliant in Rafael's embrace as he fondled me with expert ease. I'd told myself this wasn't going to happen, but it was.

I was too lost in sensation to care, my mind going hazy with each stroke of his fingers along the sensitive length of my shaft.

"There you go," Rafael encouraged huskily as he continued, his other hand coming up to tease and circle my nipples through the thin fabric of my shirt. "Let me see how badly you need it. How much you want everything I can give you right now."

I shuddered and bucked against him, chasing more of that delicious friction even as I clung to his wrists. It was too much and not nearly enough at the same time. Even now, he was still toying with me, and the difference this time was that I didn't mind it.

And I knew I was going to hate myself for what I was going to say next, but I couldn't hold it back any longer.

"P-Please," I whimpered, the word ripped from my throat without conscious thought. "Rafael, please don't stop."

He chuckled darkly in response, a wicked glint in his eyes as he leaned down to nip sharply at the shell of my ear. "Oh, but we're just getting started, little omega," he growled teasingly. "I'm going to take you apart piece by agonizing piece until you can't even remember your own name."

His voice dropped into a deep, commanding rumble as he pinched and rolled the sensitive buds of my nipples between his fingers, making me cry out in shocked ecstasy at the sharp spikes of pleasure-pain it sent rocketing through my nerves.

"And when I finally drive this thick cock into your needy little hole," Rafael continued hotly as he rubbed and squeezed in just the right places to wring intense shivers from my overstimulated body, "I want you begging so sweetly that there will be no doubt left in either of our minds who you belong to." He punctuated his words with a firm roll of his hips against mine, letting me feel how hard he was for me even through the barriers of clothing separating us.

The thought of him finally sheathing himself inside me, stretching and filling me until I screamed my pleasure for all the world to hear—it was enough to make my head spin. I almost fainted.

The ache at the base of my spine grew unbearably intense as my climax hovered just out of reach, my muscles locking up as I teetered on that razor's edge of oblivion.

"I... I can't," I panted even as I fought against the impending crest, not wanting it to end quite yet but unable to hold back for much longer. "Don't make me cum without you inside me!" The demand was torn from my very soul and I knew with sudden clarity that nothing could ever feel as right as Rafael's cock splitting me open while he poured himself deep within my heart. I never thought I'd ever say something like that to him.

I was dimly aware of the way my words hung in the air between us, a declaration of trust and devotion far more powerful than anything I had ever said aloud.

And I knew with a bone-deep certainty as I gazed up at Rafael's triumphant, adoring face that it was true. I belonged to him completely—body, heart, and soul. Whether through love or coercion was irrelevant in the face of something so absolute and unstoppable. All that mattered was that we were bound together for eternity, two halves of a whole that would never be torn apart. We were destined to be together.

Rafael's eyes flashed with savage satisfaction as he read the surrender in my expression, a feral grin splitting his features as he loomed over me like a conquering king surveying his hard-won prize. "Such a good boy," he rumbled approvingly, his voice deep and thick with lust even as tenderness suffused his gaze. "So quick to learn your place at my feet." He punctuated the words by capturing my mouth in a searing kiss that swallowed me up whole, plundering ruthlessly with tongue and teeth until I was dizzy from lack of air. And to think there was still so much more awaiting me.

When he finally released me long minutes later, gasping for breath as I stared up at him, Rafael simply smirked down at me with smug male pride, one hand coming up to stroke possessively over the wild tangle of my hair. "Now let's see how loud we can make you scream for your alpha." The words were spoken in jest but there was no denying their underlying sincerity as he gazed into my eyes with a heat that stole my breath all over again.

I didn't have time to respond before he kissed me once more, only this time it was deeper, rougher, a claiming that left me with no doubt about who owned me. My body yielded eagerly beneath him, opening up like a flower to the sun as I wound myself around him, desperate for his hands on every inch of skin.

---