Page 27 of Scarred Queen

Alejandro remained wisely silent as they approached the outdoor gym and weight facilities. Reyes caught sight of her right away, her pale blond hair shining like a beacon in the weak sunlight filtering through the cloud cover. He growled savagely and strode faster when he observed her take a nasty spill, his head of security having just thrown her to the ground over his shoulder. Reyes had his gun un-holstered and pointed straight at Nicolas’ face before anyone couldblink.

Reyes had become so protective of his American lover over her few weeks at the compound that it was almost a certainty that he would have pulled the trigger if she hadn’t reacted as fast as she did, scrambling off the ground and leaping in between the two men. Luckily for Nicolas, she chose to fling herself at Reyes instead of the head of security or his life would have been forfeit no matter what she would have said in his defense. Reyes could not have stood her touching another man in thatmoment.

“No!” she cried out, clinging to Reyes, her fearful eyes begging for mercy.Mercy for another man, he thought savagely. “Please, don’t hurthim!”

“Explain,” he snarled in a lowvoice.

“Okay, y-yes, I can explain,” she breathed, trying unsuccessfully to tug his gun arm down. She gave up and just wrapped her own trembling arm around his instead and talked as fast as she could. “It’s just that you’ve been keeping me with you every minute of every day and insisting I go with you to all these business meetings. And eventually you’re going to have to go off property to meet with your other associates and I assume you’ll have to take me with you… I mean you as much as admitted you won’t be leaving me behind. Ever. So, self-defense is a must. And I know you’ve been trying to teach me some stuff, like how to punch and how to duck a hit. But, Reyes, you’re a… well… you’re a really badteacher.”

Reyes blinked, finally releasing his head of security from the death glare he’d been giving him and turned his head to look at the psychotic blond he’d pledged his life to. A bad teacher? She could not possibly have just said that. “What the fuck, Casey?” hegrowled.

Alejandro took a step back and swallowed what sounded like a choking cough. If he wasn’t careful he was going on Reyes’ kill list too. Fuck, he was going to have to replace his entire, very talented team of men just for touching and looking at what belonged tohim.

Casey ran her fingertips up and down the arm that was still tensed and extended in case he still needed to put a bullet in Nicolas. She licked her lips, ensuring his eyes continued to stay on her beautiful face. “It’s just that you refuse to actually do anything that might scare me, Reyes, and we both know you pull your punches when you try to teach me. And,” she glanced over her shoulder at the two men that were now pretending to do anything but listen to their deadly boss go soft over a woman, then she leaned in and whispered, “we both know every time you get your hands on me you forget about the self-defense part of the lesson. We usually end up in bed before I learn anything about taking care of myself properly. Whereas Nicolas is actually interested in teaching me how to survive if things gosouth.”

Reyes groaned and dropped his arm around her waist, hauling her against his taut body.Fuck. She had a fucking point, and he hated it. He rubbed his face with his other hand, attempting to push away some of the aggravation. “Why couldn’t you just explain that you were attempting to take combat lessons instead of sneaking off,nena?” he askedsternly.

“Would you have let me go?” she askedseriously.

He thought about it for a moment and then gave her an honest answer. “No.”

Her face fell a little and then a look he’d not seen since he brought her to Bolivia swept over her face, paling her delicate features. Her fingers clenched against his stomach muscles where she was holding on to him. “What is it, Casey?” heasked.

“W-will you punish me?” she whispered. “I lied to you a-and left the house without your permission. I let another man touch me.” Her voice rose in alarm as she recited herinfractions.

He frowned at her, disliking the stiffness of her body, the withdrawal he could feel in her. As though he could feel the flinching of her soul as she curled within herself and slowly begin to drift to a place that he couldn’t reach. He shook her and then squeezed her waist until her beautiful eyes jumped to his. It bothered him that for just a moment, she was right, the dictator within him wanted to do exactly that. Murder his head of security and show his mistress her place. But the lover preferred that his queen be whole andundamaged.

“Tell me why you think I would punish you, Casey,” hedemanded.

Shakily she lifted her fist in between them and showed him the back of her hand with the shiny scarred “H”. Ah, so the truth finally emerged. He’d been waiting for her to tell him the truth of this scar. He turned and nodded sharply to his men, “Dismissed.”

He started pulling her toward the nearest building, the sauna, wanting to have their conversation in private. He knew whatever she was going to tell him wouldn’t be pretty. That it would be some story of mob justice against a mob wife who strayed or broke the rules. He also knew he’d need to bury his cock in the woman he loved after she told him her story of pain because he’d need to affirm that this beautiful, broken woman was still here with him. Still alive. And still in his keeping. He couldn’t seem to stop fucking her. It was like he needed affirmation that she wasn’t a ghost or some kind of figment of hisimagination.

He quickened his strides, his dick coming relentlessly to life as his brain thought only of branding himself all over Casey once more. And he couldn’t do that in a training field where one of his guys could come along. It was a poor excuse to have to remove their eyes. He was having a difficult enough time just knowing other people got to bask in her beauty when she was fully clothed, no fucking way any other motherfucker was going to see his womannaked.

He wrenched the door open and placed a hand on her back, impatiently waiting for her eyes to adjust before she entered the building. He’d quickly noticed in his time with Casey, though she seemed to have perfect vision, except for colour-blindness, her night vision was terrible. She refused to enter a room before she could properly see inside. He’d made a note in his calendar to get her examined by an eye doctor, find out if her strange vision issues were from her head injuries or if they were just a part ofher.

The sauna was warm at that time of day from being well insulated, though it hadn’t been used yet. He waved his hand at a bench and she sat down glancing up at him warily. He nodded at her, “Tell me about the scar,Casey.”

She licked her lips and gripped the edge of the bench, wiggling a little. Then she sighed and lifted her eyes, those beautiful multi-coloured eyes that had hooked him right from the start. He had to ruthlessly calm the blood that surged through his veins and remind himself to listencarefully.

“Did Ignacio tell you much about me?” she asked. “B-before hedied?”

Reyes stiffened, his gaze turning to stone. “Watch your tongue,nena,” he said with seething intensity. “Same rules apply. You are not to speak that man’s name. In answer to your question, yes, I took the… opportunity to speak to him at length about you. Whether or not he spoke the truth in his final hours remains to beseen.”

She glared up at him and he could see the internal struggle not to roll her eyes at him. She finally won the battle and dropped her gaze to the floor, choosing the self-preservation of her ass over sass.Good girl, he thought and bit back an approving grin. He knew he was often unreasonable where she was concerned. Acted more like an unpredictable caveman than a reasonable lover. He was struggling to find a balance with this equally unpredictable woman. And truth be told, he was loving every moment of their exhilarating journey together. If their present was any indication of their future, he couldn’t wait to spend a lifetime withher.

Finally, she shook her hair back, tilted her chin and snapped, “We’re not in the damn house, Reyes, the don’t-say-your-dead-husband’s-name rule doesn’t apply out here.” She just couldn’t helpherself.

He stared down at her for a moment then roared in laughter, startling her. She let out a small laugh, joining him for a moment until they both calmed. They stopped and looked at each other still smiling, eyes shining in amusement. She took a breath and said, in typical Casey fashion, “He burned my hand as punishment because I tried to escapehim.”

Reyes nodded gently. “I figured that much. How did you try to escape, Casey? How did he catchyou?”

Her gorgeous eyes grew cloudy, but she bravely held his. “I tried to kill myself,” shewhispered.

Reyes felt as though he was being plunged into a pool of ice. His body froze. He felt as though his heart stopped in that moment and then her long-fingered hands with their prominent bones, too delicate, too pale, reached into his chest and tore out his heart while it was still stopped. He’d known she was damaged. Known she was too frail for his world. And if he’d been willing to listen to his own damn subconscious, had fucking known this was coming. Had fucking known the woman he’d fallen in love with wassuicidal.

In a flash his brain rewound everything, back to the night he’d made his final decision. The decision to keep Casey. Deep in his gut he knew if he’d possessed this knowledge, if he’d known his queen was capable of ending her own life he would have gone the other way. He’d have taken her out with herhusband.

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