Page 23 of Brutal Monster
"I'm going to come inside you," I tell her, my voice rough with restraint. "Fill you completely."
Her eyes lock with mine, something primal passing between us. She nods, a barely perceptible movement.
"Yes," she breathes. "Inside me."
The permission breaks something loose in me. I flip us again, pinning Inez beneath me, and drive into her with abandon. Her legs wrap around me, heels digging into my lower back, urging me deeper.
"Come for me first," I demand, reaching between us to circle her clit. "One more time."
She fractures around me, walls clenching tight, her cry muffled against my shoulder. The feeling of her orgasm triggers my own, and I thrust deep one final time, emptying myself inside her with a guttural groan. Pleasure crashes over me in waves as I fill her, claiming her in the most primitive way.
"Mine," I growl against her neck, my voice a low rumble as I begin to move with deliberate intensity.
Her legs coil around my waist, pulling me further into her embrace. "Yours," she whispers, her voice a breathy affirmation.
I collapse beside her, both of us breathing hard. For a long moment, neither of us speaks. I pull her against me, her back to my chest, my arm draped possessively over her waist. I press my lips to her shoulder, tasting the salt of her skin.
"Stay," she murmurs, already half-asleep.
It's not a request I should grant. Staying the night crosses a line—moves this from fucking to something more intimate. More dangerous. But as her breathing evens out, her body warm against mine, I find I can't bring myself to leave.
"I'll stay," I whisper, though I'm not sure she hears me.
As sleep claims me, a distant warning bell sounds in my mind. This woman could be my undoing. And in this moment, with her nestled against me, I'm not sure I care.
This was never merely a transaction, nor was it just an alliance of convenience. From the instant my eyes locked with hers, a fundamental shift occurred in the fabric of my world.
With her wrapped in my embrace, I make a silent vow. I will protect this woman with everything I have. I will destroy anyone who threatens her. I will make her mine in every way that matters.
Even if it means war.
CHAPTER NINE
INEZ
THE FOLLOWING WEEK
The scent of death clings to my father's bedroom. It lingers in the antiseptic sharpness, the medicinal tang, the whispered prayers of the men who once feared him.
I enter with my chin high, heels clicking against the hardwood floor—a sound that makes three bodyguards flinch. Good. They should be nervous. The room feels too warm, too crowded with six of Papá's top lieutenants forming a half-circle around his four-poster bed. Their faces are masks of practiced grief, but their eyes track my movements like hungry wolves.
My father looks smaller than yesterday. His once-powerful frame has collapsed in on itself, skin stretched thin over bones that seem too fragile to have carried the weight of our empire. The machines keeping him alive beep in steady rhythm—the only reliable thing left about him.
"Mija." His voice cracks, a shadow of the thunderous commands that once made cartel leaders tremble. He lifts a skeletal hand, beckoning me closer.
I take it, feeling bones like twigs beneath paper-thin skin. "Papá."
His eyes—still sharp despite the morphine—flick to the men surrounding us. "You've all served me well," he says, each word a battle. "Some of you since before Inez was born."
Manuel—his oldest lieutenant—nods, hand resting casually near his concealed weapon. "And we'll continue to serve,jefe."
"No." My father's words silences the room. "You will serve her now."
The temperature seems to drop ten degrees. I feel their resistance like a physical force against my skin.
"Inez is my blood. My heir." He squeezes my hand with surprising strength. "She has outsmarted each of you at some point. Has she not?"
Reluctant nods. Averted gazes. The memory of my victories still stings.
