Page 9 of Scarred Queen

She looked him in the eye and said, “Never.”

He held her gaze for a long, uncomfortable moment. She refused to break eye contact. She knew it didn’t really mean anything. Anyone could profess to tell the truth and look a person in the eye. It was a stupid myth that people thought they could get away with a lie if they looked a person in the eye. But somehow, when his dark scrutiny swept over her and finally captured her eyes with his, she knew he could discern truth fromlie.

“Tell me,nena… for I find I am curious. Why would you bother to match words to actions with me? I am nothing to you. You could tell me one thing and then go home and do quite another. I would never know.” She felt his fingers drop from the back of the booth and ever so lightly touch the soft strands of herhair.

She shivered at the slight contact. She closed her eyes for a moment and resisted the urge to press into the touch. She was a little breathless when she spoke, her voice serious, “I don’t have much, Reyes, but I do have integrity. It’s something I had to teach myself over the years. Every time my husband and his men looked at me and lied, I promised myself that I wouldn’t allow a lie to pass mylips.”

His hand suddenly clenched into a fist behind her head making her flinch and he swiftly glanced around. His voice was a sharp growl when he spoke. “That is a stupid and reckless thing for a woman in your position to say. I hope you are smarter than to speak things like that around Ignacio Hernandez. He doesn’t strike me as a patientman.”

Casey shrugged carelessly and continued to play with the hem of her wrap avoiding his eyes, knowing he was getting a better glimpse inside her head now that he was forcing her to speak to him at length. “Ignacio knows how I feel about him. There’s a reason we don’t spend time with each other and haven’t shared a bedroom in years. Well… we’ve never actually shared a bedroom. He doesn’t like my shoes and girl things invading his space. What I mean is, he knows how much I despise him, so he hasn’t summoned me to share his bed in well over ayear.”

Oh shit, she was babbling again, way oversharing. The strained look on his face convinced her to slam her lips shut and sealthem.

“Fuck,” Reyessnarled.

He dropped his hand to the back of her neck, wrapping his fingers around the slim column of her throat through her hair. She cried out and brought her hands up to protect herself as he jerked her across the booth toward him. She sprawled in his lap, gasping as her hip grazed the hardness of what could only be his erection. She scrambled against him, trying to push herself back from his chest, but his fingers bit into her arms denying her the space she desperatelysought.

Finally, when he refused to allow her an inch and the fight ebbed from her, she allowed herself to lay stiffly across his chest and swallowed the sob that threatened to build up in her throat. A painful throbbing was beginning to pull from behind her eye socket. She wanted to shout at him, ask him why he was doing this to her. Was he truly interested in her? Or was he playing some sick game withIgnacio?

He pulled her steadily closer until she was fully in his lap, her long legs dangling awkwardly, half on the booth and half across his muscular thighs. She wasn’t able to brace herself and was forced to trust him to hold her up against his shoulder and chest. He leaned her in, angling her toward him until his scarred cheek brushed the pale smoothness of her own. She shuddered as the slight stubble of his shaven face scraped against her and the heat from his body warmed her. A whimper escaped her lips and it was on the tip of her tongue to break down and beg him to release her. But before she could speak, his deep voice interruptedher.

“When you come to my bed,cariña, I can promise you…” his warm breath touched her cheek and nose as he spoke and the pleasant smell of him combined with whiskey swamped her already overwhelmed senses, “I will never let youleave.”

The way he said it felt like a promise, not a hope. Like he somehow knew that she would end up in his bed. Vivid images of herself entwined with this man, embracing him in the throes of sexual ecstasy flooded through her. She made a distressed sound and tried to push against him again, but his hold was unbreakable. She bowed her shoulders and dropped her head, letting her forehead rest against hisshoulder.

“I’m sorry, Reyes,” shewhispered.

His shoulder jerked a little against her as though he were surprised. He brought a hand up and smoothed the hair back so he could see her face. “Why’re you sorry,nena?” he asked with afrown.

“You can’t have me,” she whispered, her eyes boring into his. “Even if you truly wantme.”

His dark eyes widened for a moment, trapped in the innocent beauty of her multi-coloured gaze. Before he could reply, argue with her, she brought a hand up between their bodies and pressed it against her chest and said, “I don’t have many things, Reyes. Oh, I have clothes and I have jewels. Things I don’t want and never really cared about. Things I would give away in a heartbeat for five more minutes with my family. But the things that are real in life? I don’t have many of those. But the things that I do have are mine. I taught them to myself over painful years of Ignacio’s lessons. The things I taught myself are honesty, integrity and loyalty. You understand what I’m saying,Reyes?”

He swore savagely, baring his teeth at her. Then he jerked his head in a nod. He took her hair in his fist and crushed the soft strands for a moment. “Yeah, I understand,Casey.”

“Loyalty,” shewhispered.

He growled and jerked her head back, baring her throat while pulling her closer against him, into the incredible heat of his body. She moaned, knowing her body was reacting to him in a way she’d never before experienced, flooding her with wet heat. “You feel that, woman?” he growled, leaning in to run his lips whisper soft across her throat, barely caressingher.

“Yes!” she gasped, her voice barely a whimper of sound. “It doesn’t matter, Reyes. I belong tohim.”

Rage vibrated in his voice as he spoke against her soft skin. “He doesn’t fucking deserve you.” He stood with her still in his arms, handed her off to Alonzo and said, “Get her homesafely.”

Chapter Eight

“Fuck that woman,”Reyes growled, downing a generous drink straight from the bottle before slamming it on thetable.

Casey Hernandez was dangerous. She was testing his calm. She was driving him todrink.

He strode to the window and glared into the night. His meeting with her had not gone as he’d planned. Instead of clarifying things, he’d found himself more confused, more entangled. She was an infuriating mixture of world-weary siren and stunted half-child that never grew up. When she’d flat out told him that her husband hadn’t touched her in over a year, he’d damn near torn her clothes off and fucked her right there in the booth, despite the few hundred witnesses swarming around them and her bodyguard a few feetaway.

Then she’d given him the one gift he couldn’t refuse, the one thing that was guaranteed to save her life in all this. She’d promised him loyalty. Well, not him. But as good as. She’d given her loyalty to Ignacio Hernandez, a disgusting pig of a man. One of the poorest excuses for a business partner that Reyes had ever had to work with – a situation that had only been allowed to go on this long because of the female. If she’d given her loyalty to such a man, because of a vow, most likely forcibly given when she was barely more than a child, then what would she give to Reyes when he finally had her wholly within his power? The thought took his breathaway.

He would settle for nothing less than Casey Hernandez’s utter and complete surrender; her loyalty. He would heal the damaged beauty and she would stand tall at his side as his scarredqueen.

He reached for the bottle again, swearing viciously when he knocked it sideways, spilling the contents across the table. He snatched it up, took another long drink and then threw it away from him in an uncharacteristic moment of rage. The satisfying shatter of glass barely calmedhim.

He wanted nothing more than to drag the woman out of that fucking mansion and away from the husband that should never have had her. Every time he saw her she managed to claw her way under his skin a little more and he feared for her safety in that damn gilded cage she lived in. If her husband didn’t do something to her, she might manage to fucking hurt herself. Either with the pills or her own reckless disregard for her safety. She’d say something stupid to Ignacio or one of his men. Roll her pretty eyes at the wrong guy at the wrong time. She seemed incapable of perfect obedience, no matter how hard shetried.

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