Page 29 of Scarred Queen

“I can fix it,nena,” he said, his voice raw. He went to his knees in front of her and took her hand in his, pressing his lips against the back, touching the mark. “Fuck, Casey, for the first time in my life I feel shame. Shame because when I first saw this mark, all I could think was that I wanted to twist it, to take it for my own. To burn this beautiful flesh with my own mark.” She saw that shame deep in his soul as fury burned in his dark eyes. He looked at her from the floor, a position of significance for a man like him to take in front of a woman. “That I could ever harm my woman so brutally, strike her low, the way your late husband did, makes me sick to my soul. I swear to you,nena, I will take the mark away. You will never have to see itagain.”

“Don’t do that,” she whispered, taking his hand in hers and squeezing. “I earned this mark, Reyes. It belongs to me through the pain of giving birth, of having a stillborn child, of a botched suicide attempt, of having a mean bastard for a husband. I should thank you for putting him in the ground for me. No, I think I’ll keep myscar.”

“But it will always remind you of that time in your life. What if you look at it one day and regret keeping it?” he asked, pressing the back of her hand against hischeek.

“It won’t happen. I don’t believe in regrets,” shesmiled.

“What do you mean,nena?” he asked, burying his face in her lap. “Everyone hasregrets.”

“Well... if you were going to do something you shouldn’t or something you might regret, then just don’t do it in the first place. Then you’ll have nothing to regret.” She shrugged. “Or if you have impulse control issues like me, then just learn from the stupid thing you did and don’t do it again, rather than looking back and spending your life wishing there were a bunch of things you’d done better. I have no regrets, Reyes, not now orever.”

He looked back up at her, his dark eyes shining. “You are so damn beautiful, Casey. Fucking amazing.” He tugged on her hands and pulled her up until she was standing with him. “Now I need you to promise mesomething.”

She knew what was coming, what he would ask of her. What he was going to demand. She shook her head and tried to step away from him. She couldn’t giveit.

He took her jaw in his hand, his hold gentle and bent his face to hers. She was wearing flats so he was a few inches taller than her. “No,nena, you need to listen and you need to make this promise. Because I know you and I know when you make a vow you don’t fucking break it for anything. Just like you don’t believe in regrets, you don’t break yourpromises.”

She pressed her lips together and squeezed her eyes shut to block him out, her only defense now that he refused to let her drift away fromhim.

“You promise me you’ll never try to take your own life again. Not for any reason,” he demanded his eyes glowing with a fervor that promised he would do anything to extract this vow from her and then spend a lifetime ensuring she never brokeit.

“Reyes,” she whispered brokenly, tears falling again. “I can’t give you thatvow.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

“You will,”he snarled in her face. He took her by the shoulders and gave her a quick shake until her eyes snapped open. “Tell me why the fuck not? You plan on taking your own life to escape me, is that it?” His voice escalated as this thought occurred to him. “Because that will never happen, Casey,nunca. I will make you my prisoner, wrap you in chains for the rest of your life if that’s what it takes to keep you safe.” His voice became a vicious snarl and his fingers bit into her shoulders by the time hefinished.

Casey placed her hands on his chest, splaying her fingers and ran her hands up and down from his pectoral muscles to his stomach soothingly until she saw his eyes droop in response. “No, Reyes, no baby,” she breathed, stepping in close to him. “It’s not like that at all. I love it here and I love being with you. This is the best time I’ve ever had in my life. Please, you have to believeme.”

“Then why?” he demanded from between gritted teeth, “won’t you make this vow tome?”

“Because I don’t know what life will bring for me, what kind of dark twists it might have in store,” she whispered, pleading with her eyes, trying to make him understand. “And since I don’t believe in regrets, I refuse to give a vow that I might have to break if my motivation becomes powerfulenough.”

He stared down at her, his expression one that she was becoming vastly familiar with; admiration mixed with fury. “Not good enough,” he growled. “Give me your word anyway, Casey. Promise you will never consider taking your ownlife.”

She lifted her chin defiantly. “No.”

He took the messy ponytail at the back of her head in a fist, jerked her head back and slammed his mouth over hers, taking her lips in a brutal kiss meant to punish her for her defiance. Passion rose quickly up within Casey, she threw her arms around his neck and was soon meeting him kiss for kiss enthusiastically, despite the rage simmering just below the surface of each stormy, bruising sweep of his mouth over hers. She moaned against him and opened her lips to the demanding thrust of his tongue, allowing him entry when he ruthlesslyinsisted.

Her workout T-shirt tore as easily as tissue paper under the angry insistence of his fist. Her bra followed and then her yoga pants and panties until she was naked under the intense assault of his stormy emotions. She stood before him, her hair tumbled down to cover her shoulders andbreasts.

“Reyes, wait!” she gasped, backing up. “Not so angry, please! I don’t want it tohurt!”

He growled and made a grab for her wrist, jerking her hard against his body. She shivered when he drew her in for another fierce, punishing kiss. She moaned into his hot mouth, opening for him. She was soaking wet between her thighs, ready for whatever he threw at her. But she wasn’t used to such rage. His love-making to this point had been a simmering controlled passion that took her to heights she’d never known before Reyes. This was new. Exciting, but alsoterrifying.

“Make. Your. Vow.” hesnarled.

“Please, Reyes…” she cried out, twisting in hisarms.

He lifted her in his arms, his hands on her ass and strode backwards until he thrust her against a towel rack. She let out a small scream and gripped him hard. He stared at her, his eyes furious and filled with dark, heated lust as he sank his fingers into her body from underneath, the thick digits eased by her body’s own natural lubrication. She moaned and clung to him as she sank down onto his fingers and then arched, ridinghim.

“Oh fuck!” she panted, her eyes rollingback.

He leaned in and licked between her breasts before biting a path to her small, taut nipple. She gripped his head in both hands and arched shamelessly into the amazing, incredible heat of his mouth. She felt his fingers moving in and out of her slick pussy, playing with her while holding her high up off the floor. She had no idea how he managed such a maneuver and, as she built toward an explosion of epic proportions, she didn’t reallycare.

She closed her eyes tight, thrust her head back, slid her long, silky legs along his hips and rode his skilled fingers. Whimpers of ecstasy erupted from her throat as he slid his fingers first deep inside her, massaging her, then back out to slide and flick along her dripping slit until she went wild in his arms. He barely managed to hold her up against the wall with one straining, bulging arm considering how much she was writhing against him uncaring of the weight she was throwing at him. He slid his fingers back and forth until she thought she would burst into flames, until he was wet enough from her fluids to slide the tip of his finger into her tightass.

“Oh god, Reyes,” she moaned, digging her fingernails into the flesh of his arms over his shirt. “Oh, oh, my fuckinggod!”

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