Page 5 of Alejandro's Prey

Alejandro opened Gina’s door and reached for her hand. A thrill ran up his spine when she placed her small hand in his, accepting his help without complaint. She stepped out onto the sidewalk and leaned into him as she steadied herself on her heels. She looked up at him, her grey eyes wide and guileless. She used a long, graceful finger to sweep aside a lock of pale hair that had drifted across her face in the breeze.

“Alejandro?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Si, Gina,mi amor?” he answered, feeling generous. He had his girl on his arm, finally. He was in the city, about to take her for a night on the town. Life was good.

“Unless you want to drag your bride down the aisle kicking and screaming, you’ll ask me to marry you,” she said pertly, turning away from him to take several steps toward the hotel. Then she stopped and looked over her shoulder, a hard glint in her steel grey eyes. “And you’ll do it properly.”

Chapter Five

Same suite, separate rooms.

Gina let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and glanced at Alejandro through the connecting door between the rooms. He’d left it open after ushering her through to her room. He moved around his room with an easy fluidity, as sure of himself in the confines of one of the nicest suites that the fanciest hotel in La Paz had to offer as he was on the training field with his men. He stood half facing away from her, his strong profile highlighted by the radiant hues of the setting sun shining through the balcony windows.

As she watched, fascinated and immobile, he reached up to tug the buttons of his shirt loose starting at his strong throat and finishing just below mid-chest letting his shirt gape open over his broad muscles. He placed those long fingers and strong hands at his narrow hips and stood solid, unmoving. She took a quick breath, trying to keep it as quiet as possible, but still needing to fill her lungs with air before she fainted from holding it for too long. He turned toward her anyway, though he couldn’t possibly have heard her inhale. The piercing look he gave her with those dark eyes shot a quiver of heat right through her body. She shivered and fisted her hands at her side, hiding them in the folds of her skirt so he couldn’t see what he was doing to her.

She wanted to go to him. As she’d wanted to a hundred times before; no, a thousand. More. She wanted to put her hands on him, run them over the muscles that she’d seen working out dozens of times with his men. Touch the shoulders that carried the burden of his king’s empire and place her palms against his, touch her heat to his, because she knew now that he wanted her as much as she wanted him. The thought stole her breath. But now was not the right time.

Separate rooms.

Though he hadn’t said a word when he’d opened the separating door and ushered her through the suite, she’d known as clear as if she could read his thoughts. He wouldn’t make love to her until she was his wife. The thought was both exhilarating and frightening. Alejandro was a conqueror. Reyes had seen it the first moment he set eyes on the man, which was why he’d hired him at any cost to stand at his side while he captured Bolivia and the surrounding borders.

Gina was about to become his next conquest. She could see it in the flash of his dark eyes, the set of his jaw and the promise of his every command as it led them to this moment.

A knock on the outside door of her suite startled her and broke their silent communication. Gina turned and took a step toward it, but stopped when Alejandro commanded sharply, “Stop, don’t move.”

Gina halted immediately, knowing better than to question his edicts. He moved swiftly toward her, pulling a gun from the holster under his arm. She was so used to seeing him and all the men around her armed that the movement didn’t phase her at all. She knew it was protocol and the likelihood of anyone unexpected knocking at her door was slim to none. They had men in the hallway acting as their protection.

Alejandro reached for her, wrapping his long fingers around her upper arm and pulling her behind him. He gave her a look that clearly said “stay” without actual words and went to answer the door. He placed her so she was standing completely out of the line of fire if anyone hostile was to enter the room.

“Si? Identify yourself,” he demanded at the door.

Gina didn’t hear the answer, but it must have been okay because he opened the door and indicated the person should come in. She watched curiously as a man and a woman entered the suite. The woman came in first holding two cases stacked on top of each other. Both were silver with gold trimming. She set them down on top of the courtesy desk, glanced at Gina and looked lingeringly at Alejandro. Gina hid a smile. She didn’t blame the lovely Latina woman for looking her fill. Alejandro was definitely something else. He was indeed beautiful to look at, and he was taller and broader than most of the men around them. Even more than that though, he carried himself with an enigmatic intensity that drew people to him almost as much as it repelled them when they realized that intensity was steeped in blood and death.

But for Gina, a woman born to the mob, everything about Alejandro drew her with a magnetic attraction that she was helpless to resist. And now, she knew, he was just as powerless as she. Which shifted the balance of power from the lion to the mouse.

She snapped her fingers against her skirt, making a slight but noticeable noise. Both Alejandro and the woman looked toward her. Gina gave the woman a stormy narrow-eyed look that told her everything. She could appreciate her fascination with the mob enforcer, but she was not to touch. Without another glance Gina turned her gaze toward the man who was holding several garment bags. He made his way toward the walk-in closet and began hanging them one at a time. Gina automatically tried to follow him in, knowing the items in the bags were meant for her.

Alejandro caught her arm and held her back. “Wait for him to finish,cariña.”

“But I want to see,” she murmured, tugging on her arm and craning her head to see around the edge of the closet door.

Alejandro pulled her back and gave her a look. “Gina,” he said in a low voice.

She looked up at him and decided her best bet was to wait until the wardrobe guy was finished. She knew Alejandro wouldn’t hurt her. But she also knew if she pushed her luck and got too close to the other man Alejandro wouldn’t hesitate to take him out. As she looked up at him, their gazes tangled, her breath caught in her throat. Elation flooded her body. Alejandro had finally declared his intentions; he’d drawn his line in the sand.

And she’d stepped up to that line, then redrawn one of her own.

Neither of them acknowledged the hotel staff as they finished, murmured their goodbyes and left. Instead, they stood locked in the moment, staring at each other as though it were the first time.

Alejandro brought a hand up and traced two long fingers across her jawline. She closed her eyes and inhaled sharply. He touched her mouth. “I’ve wanted to bite these lips from the first moment I saw them.” Not kiss, but something more brutal, barbaric. Like him. Her heart leapt in victory.

“Then bite them,” she whispered against his fingers.

He growled low in his throat and reached out to wrap his other arm around her waist and jerk her forward, slamming her hard against his body. She brought her hands up between them, not for space, but to brace herself against the sheer aggression pouring off of him. His fingers dug into the softness just below her ribcage.

“If I kiss you I won’t stop,” he rumbled dropping his head until his forehead touched hers. “I’ll bite, kiss, touch and fuck every part of you. I won’t be denied any longer, Gina.”

Her chest ached from the need to suck air into her starved lungs. He was killing her with his words, both spoken and unspoken.A year!An entire year of dancing around each other had finally led to this. And god, it was almost bittersweet. She loved this moment, she didn’t want it to end. She wanted to beg him to fuck her but knew she couldn’t. Shouldn’t. They would wait for their wedding.

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