Page 44 of Hostile King

“This is for you.” He raises his arm and smiles tightly. “André is on his way up with a pair of those boots you wear.”

I promised myself I wouldn’t let my heart rule my emotions. That I needed to clarify his intentions before making any decisions. However, seeing his tall physique and smelling his divine cologne has my nerves on edge.

“Thank you.” I smile back at him, frustrated at how gorgeous he appears in the sunlight of a new day dawning.

Tomás drops his gaze to the garment bag as he lays it out on the bed. His formal reaction makes my heart fold in on itself. “We don’t have much time. I need to get out of here in a few minutes. Are you in, or are you out?”

I frown up at him. “Did you finish it with Bianca?”

When his eyes meet mine again, they’re haunted with dark desire and secrets. A raw expression that makes my lungs stall and my stomach tighten. He rubs a hand over his mouth like he’s holding back. “There’s a car waiting outside to take you to the airfield. The jet is refueled and ready to go. I’ll join you before it takes off.”

Squaring my shoulders, I glare right at him. “Is that a, no?”

Tomás sighs heavily. “Carina…I need you to trust me.” He glances at his chunky gold watch. “We can talk on the flight back to Colombia.” I flinch when he reaches across the mattress, snares my wrists, and heaves me into his solid torso. “I told you already, I’m not marrying her.” His height makes him so tall, more so with me upright on my knees. Chest to chest, he brushes a messy lock of hair from my lashes. “What’s your decision?”

“I…want…”

How can I leave when Tomás Souza’s touch feels like my sanctuary—home. He’s the reason I’m still alive today. He’s my felonious hero.

Featherlight fingers untie the cord at my waist. My heart races at the thrill of it. He traces the contour of my bare breasts, skimming my belly button. Wicked shivers send flares of goosebumps down my spine. Every time our skin meets, I’m helpless to resist the charge of energy from him to me. The gentle pressure of his hand against my stomach reaches right through the skin, scorching my core.

“What are your instincts telling you to do?” His tone is both coarse and smooth like silk gliding over grit.

My hand skates to his and settles there. “I want to be with you.”

A rare grin dimples his left cheek, the sight of it chases my pulse into purgatory. It’s truly a gift to see this god-like man pleased by my announcement.

“Good girl.” He pinches my chin, raising it high to hold my stare.

“But my head is ringing with alarm bells…what are you not telling me?” Our gazes clash, my eyes searing his with a wish to catch the information he’s withholding.

His jaw ticks and I sense his fraying self-control. The close proximity of my nakedness next to his expensive attire sets off sparks.

My insides clench, wet and needy.

His dick hardens, thick and hungry.

With a firm squeeze of my jaw, he runs the tip of his nose along my hairline. “I’ll meet you on the jet. We’ll have the whole flight to thrash it out in private, but right now, I have a time sensitive matter to take care of.”

His disciplined lips brush against mine and he inhales deeply through his nostrils. I copy him, closing my eyes to breathe him in—sweet liquor and manly musk.

“Be honest with me,” I plead, my gaze flicking from his eyes to his mouth. “How are you getting out of it? Tell me the truth. That’s all I’m asking of you.”

“You want to hear the biggest secret of all?” I unintentionally moan when his thumb drags across my bottom lip. “No matter what decision you would have arrived at, I’d never let you leave me, Cari. I wanted you to come to the right conclusion by yourself. To prove your allegiance to me. You thought I’d pushed you away at the plantation. Fuck…I even believed it myself, but I’d sent my own brother to watch over you. I used his eyes to capture your every thoughtful look and his ears to hear your voice.”

He pulls out his phone, unlocks the screen with a few taps of his finger, and brings up a picture. A simple photograph of me in natural light wearing a troubled frown.

“You were spying on me this whole time?” I jerk away and frown when he slips the phone into his back pocket. His posture isn't threatening even though he’s confessing he’s a stalker with the desire to snatch me away. “And if I’d asked to walk away?”

Dominance ricochets through the muscles I know to be glorious beneath his designer shirt. “I would have haunted your wet dreams. Cursed your depraved nightmares. Prowled in every dubious shadow. I wouldneverlet you breathe without me, because that’s how important you are. Happy endings aren’t a reality for my family. They never have been, and never will be. All I can offer you is me, in each moment we’re together for as long as that lasts.”

He reaches for my injured hand, raises the inflamed skin to his lips, and presses a light kiss to the clean slice. His neck cords as he swallows, the restraint so thick I could claw it apart with my nails.

I should be utterly disgusted by his admission. By the trickery of deceit and the unhallowed decree he offloaded, but I’m not. It wasn’t an easy gesture to make. To kiss me like a gentleman, when the very element of his downfall is so visible on my palm.

My mind has forever been homeless. In this moment, as sunshine spills into the opulent suite of a high story hotel, he becomes my bricks and mortar. My solid foundation and my pillars of steel. But it’s missing one important factor. The nuts and bolts to hold everything together—an oath of forever—of love.

The door handle rattles, startling us both. Tomás releases me, does a sharp one-eighty and stalks to the door. A fisted thump follows.

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