Page 36 of Vicious Heir

Before she could do or say anything more, I was moving out of the room to get in the shower. If I stayed with her, I would fuck her, and while neither of us would be upset about that, I needed to make a point both to her and to myself.

I showered in a quick, perfunctory manner, willing my dick to subside. By the time I’d brushed my teeth and pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms, it had mostly listened to me. Back in the bedroom, Emma had removed her makeup and wrapped herself back in our sheets. Her back was to me.

Shit.

“Emma?”

There was no answer. I climbed onto the bed to find her asleep. Her sweet-smelling hair was spread out over the pillows. Without thinking about it, I curved myself around her back and wrapped an arm around her. In her sleep, Emma wriggled back against me, seeking me out.

How is she this pretty even when she’s asleep?

I pressed my lips to her bare shoulder — a soft gesture that I would probably never do when she was conscious. A smile tickled at the corner of my mouth for a moment before I shook it off. What was wrong with me? I couldn’t do this kind of thing. I couldn’t let myself be…soft because of her. It was a mistake.

And yet…I couldn’t seem to pull myself away from her either. I kissed her shoulder again, and she pressed herself more firmly against me, as if she were comforted by my presence in the bed. “Sleep well,mi esposa,” I said softly with the full intention to turn over and sleep on my side of the bed.

But when I lifted my arm off of her, she made a sad, whimpering noise that had me gathering her all the closer. In her sleep, Emma shifted and threw her arm across me, resting her head against my chest. I froze: I’d held her like this only once before, and although Emma asked to be held from time to time, I always made excuses for why I couldn’t.

Feeling her this close, without the haze of sex around us, felt too intimate. Like I was pulling back too many layers for her to see underneath. It was no way for the next head of the Castillos to behave.Turn over and go to sleep; you have an early day tomorrow, I thought, sounding exactly like my Padre.

“I can hear you overthinking from here.” Emma's soft, sleepy voice startled me out of my thoughts.

“I’m not overthinking anything.”

She snorted and glanced up at me. “You are,” she said, and her hands grabbed onto my arm, keeping me in place. “But I like this…please, stay here. Just for tonight.”

I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t find a way to move away, especially when she’d pleaded for me to stay so sweetly. Emma was a lot of things, but sweet wasn’t normally one of them. Demanding and sarcastic, sometimes afraid, yes. But sweet? The only one I’d seen her legitimately sweet around was Lara. Everyone else, me included, got her faux sweetness. We got the warped personality of what she thought she was meant to be.

It bothered me more than I knew how to express to see her acting so unnaturally. But I knew that it was all for Padre, so she wouldn’t inadvertently insult him. It was my fault for her feeling like she couldn’t be herself…and it was safer. But I was starting to hate it.

“Just hold me, okay?” she reiterated.

“Okay.”

CHAPTER19

Angel

Sitting across from the man who ordered my death was a slap in the face. Worse than any literal slap in the face my father had ever given me. Luis Rojas was an opportunistic bastard, and he had been actively trying to kill my men and me for weeks…and now he wanted peace.

“I’m surprised Gustavo sent a boy still wet behind the ears,” Luis said. “Your father wouldn’t deign to meet with me himself, is that it?”

I was going to put a bullet between this man’s eyes. I could imagine the whole thing playing out in my mind. I could kill him before anyone in this café could react. Then, I would take care of the young man sitting beside him: Matteo Rojas, Luis’s only son and heir to the family empire. With both of them dead, the Castillos would have no direct competition in the area, and there would be no more assassination attempts.

The license plate that Manny gave me came back to a man connected to the Rojas family. It wasn’t just the incident at the club. They went after the youngest of us too. Fucking bastards, the lot of them.

“My father trusts me to do what must be done,” I said and glanced at Matteo. He was the same age as Lili. “I see you brought your own boy to watch.”

Luis ground his teeth together; I could see how his jaw clicked back and forth. “Matteo is learning.”

I agreed. “And I have learned.” I sat back, casual and unbothered. “Why are we here, Luis? I’m a newlywed, and I’m eager to get back to my bride.”

Though, that was necessarily true. I’d left Emma in bed, creeping quietly so as to not wake her. I woke up still wrapped around her, and the sight of her relaxed face, utterly unguarded, had made my stomach twist. Looking at her like that was like staring into a bear trap and wanting to get into it.

“I want peace between our families,” Luis said.

I bit back the insult that rose on my tongue like bile. “Your man shot at my cousin last night,” I said. “You sent a spy to assassinate me in my own club. And now you want peace?”

“Are you calling my Apá a liar?” Matteo demanded and sounded every bit like a little boy. Lili had a better hold of her tongue than this; she would never interrupt.

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