Page 38 of Shameless in Vegas

“Joder.” Her hands are white-knuckling the sheet. “Cariño. Baby.Yes.More.”

The bed is creaking, the headboard smacking against the wall, but her deceitful words of fake adoration and ecstasy are the only thing I can hear.

“Cariño… mi amado… mi alma…”

Darling. My beloved. My soul.

Lies.

Murderous, conniving bitch.

I fuck her as hard as I wish I could throw her through a goddamn window.

But I won’t. I’m not the violent one in this marriage. I only continue to thrust into her to the point that we’re inching up the mattress. Our bodies lurch and shift forward so far that her head makes contact with the headboard, bumping against it twice before she braces her palms against it and buries her face in a pillow. It mutes the sound of her screaming my name, and the explosion of stars behind my eyes comes just as the walls of her pussy clamp around my pulsing cock.

With my chest heaving to catch my breath, I slide out of her, and she utters a sated moan as she melts against the bed.

“Mis cielos,” she says with a tiny giggle. “I love when you wake me up like that.”

I force a convincing laugh as I climb off the bed. “Yeah, I bet you do.” Glancing over my shoulder at her, I offer a casual smile. “I’m going to grab some water. You want some?”

“Mm-hmm,” she says with a nod and a sigh. “Thank you,amor.”

“You bet,baby doll.”

Turning from her, I slip into the en suite and close the door behind me.

The sleeping pills are in a cabinet, and I pluck one out of the orange prescription bottle. Using one of the crystal glasses on the counter, I crush the small tablet into a fine, white powder and sprinkle it into the glass. I fill it and another one with water from the matching decanter and stir the powder with my finger until it dissolves.

Returning with the glasses, I sit on the edge of the bed and hand the spiked one to Natalia.

I clink the glasses together. “Cheers to the official society announcement of our marriage,querida.”

She grins and laughs lightly. “You’re so adorable,” she says, then lifts the glass to her lips. “Cheers, indeed.”

I sip my water, eyeing her over the rim while she downs the whole glass.

That’s right,diabla. Chug it all.

Let the games begin.

TEN

NATALIA

BLINDING LIGHT SHOWERS MY face, causing my eyes to flinch and squeeze tighter. My whole body jolts and braces on pure reflex in preparation for the inevitable fist or pistol butt or other hard, blunt object being slammed against my face. But it never comes, and then I remember that I’m not with Xavier or the other cartel shitbags or one of my previous violent targets, rather I’m with Joaquin, who isn’t a monster that smacks women around for sport.

Rubbing my eyes, I groan and then turn my face toward the pillow to find refuge in its artificial darkness.

“Rise and shine, baby doll!” Joaquin crows from somewhere nearby in the room. He whips the blankets off of my body and then slides his hands under my shoulders to lift me up so he can pepper my neck with loud, smoochy kisses. “We gotta make hay while the sun shines, so up, up out of bed.”

I rub my eyes again and squint at him. “Make hay…? What?”

“Yeah!” he chirps, covering my forehead and cheeks with more kisses. “Didn’t your Mamá ever say that shit when you had a bunch of stuff to do?”

Attempting to blink the sleep out of my eyes, I stare at him, noting the spin and throb of my head. How much did we drink last night? As a rule, I never drink too much because I have to make sure I’m sharp enough to do my job, but I guess I really tied one on at the party last night.

Did I though?

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