Page 46 of Hostile King

Tomás pulls his lips back, so pristine white teeth bare. But it’s the hand flying to my throat that catches me out. My knees weaken in regret, aware I’ve pushed him for the impossible, but I’m not sorry I did it.

We’re both mentally scarred, yet neither of us are immune to love. I have to hear him say it, to prove to me this can work. That he’s true to his word and called off the wedding for a reason so pure it will bind us together.

I never thought it would happen to me. And now that it has, it’s a cruel slap in the face to love a man with no room for such an emotion.

Love has seeped into my flesh and bones. Turned my demons to smoldering ashes. Flashed an x-ray to reveal my emptiness and offered me substance beyond dreams and wishes.

I love him. I’ll never tell him.

And right now, in this moment, I’m afraid he doesn't truly love me back.

I’m terrified his blood savage fantasies are simply a weak thread temporarily stitching us together—an obsession, nothing more. That he’ll grow bored of us in time.

Seconds trickle past. He stares at me with his jaw twitching as unspoken thoughts stay hidden. I stare back at him, adamant I won’t wither. Neither André nor Shane says another word. Behind his eyes, I see relentless torment and a ghost of adoration.

Once his thick lashes lower, he slowly releases my neck. The same hand hunts out mine, carefully gathering it within the expanse of his. When he revolves my palm upwards, the cut stings, making me flinch a little. His throat works in the silence, our fingers linking to knit our flesh together in a simple, gentle gesture.

I’m breathless from the synergy of our inflamed skin binding, the thrum of our pulses colliding, and the impact of such a genuinely innocent act being sinfully sensual. It makes me sway into him, my heart nudging into the cage of bone protecting it from scorn and ridicule—from rejection.

This is the best response I’ll ever get from the man whose heart has spiky sides and whose soul is entombed in unpickable ice. He’s offering compassion, hunger, acceptance, and a chemistry so explosive it could extinguish the human race.

I swallow the lump in my throat and take in the sight of his honest unity. He strokes the back of my hand with his thumb, catapulting a trillion chills like tiny darts aimed at every molecule in my body.

“I don’t know what the hell this is with us,” his voice rumbles like a roll of thunder. “But not being with you isn’t an option. You’re mine, Carina Ferreira. And today, I’ll prove it to you.”

13

TOMÁS

I stare at her pretty pink lips and flushed cheeks.

Her touch alone soothes me in ways she’ll never understand.

It takes every shred of my self-discipline to move away, to break the connection I cherish more than life itself. My lungs burn to scream the truth, admit how her soul blends with mine. Not only to compliment it, but to offer it strength.

She knows our darkness speaks a language that no one else knows. We crave the same things, desire the same salvation, and hunt the same carnal satisfaction in each other.

But to say those words out loud.

To make my feelings official would be a fool's errand when I know the universe awaits another sacrifice. I’m a bad man, who does very bad things. And payback for those murderous deeds would be the death of her, or the death of me.

“Tomás…you only have fifteen minutes,” Shane points out, his voice breaks in the doldrums of my agony.

I suck in deeply and put a safe measure of distance between the woman I love and my fraying impulses. “Get dressed as quickly as possible, Carina. Stay close to André and do exactly what he asks of you. We have a plan.”

Her chest rises with furious breaths while her exquisite amber gaze darts from André to me.

“Is it dangerous?” A little crease wrinkles her brow.

I want to grab that gorgeous face of hers and kiss her fuckable mouth, hard. Revel in those sexy as fuck moans that rocket straight to my dick. Most of all I want to admit to her how I’ve got love on the brain—a compulsive, obsessive feeling that’s given me someone to worry about.

“If everything runs like clockwork, only a few people will die.”

Her eyes pop wide. “A few people?”

I shrug. “Yeah. It won’t be any of us if we act quickly.”

Despite the longing to hold her close and never let go, I have a lethal plan to seamlessly execute. A pivotal plot that would finalize this bullshit with the Morales cartel once and for all. After that, I’ll hide in her harmony and rest in the inner peace she blesses me with.

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