Page 10 of Sin and Seduction

“My favorite sound in the world, apart from your screams. I could listen to your laugh on a loop, baby.” I blush at his words, holding his face in my hands as he kisses my wedding ring.

“I love you so much, Dante. I’m sorry about these last two weeks-”

“Don’t.” He stops me, his hand covering my lips as he continues to speak.

“Don’t ever apologize for responding to death as a human should. Grief knows no boundaries or time; you have to let it run its course.” He seems haunted as he says this.

He’s haunted because he’s met grief in the face before. It makes me realize how little I know of his father. I know Oscar would tell me about him openly. Even Sergio would if I pried him enough, but I don’t want to hear it from either of them. I want to hear about it from my husband. Talk it through with him.

“You have to talk to me about him one day, dear. I’ll wait, but it has to happen at some point,” I say to him, and he nods slowly, understanding exactly what I am referring to.

“When we go back to Columbia. I’ll take you to one of his favorite places.” His eyes go dark for a second, and I know it’s because he’s thinking of his sister—his missing sister.

Although I have been swallowed up in my own grief, guilt has still been a very present emotion in regard to Gabriela. She is in danger because of me, but I don’t voice this out loud because I know it would infuriate Dante. I try to hold my emotions at bay, keeping them as shadows in my eyes. Luckily, he hasn’t seen through it yet. He just thinks it’s still my sadness, my grief over my dead mother. When in reality, the weight of both the guilt and the world lays on my shoulders, pulling me down the more I think of his sister. She has all the right in the world to hate me now.

I hug him close, our hands rubbing all over one another. Nothing erotic, just two people finding solace and comfort in one another. Sharing smiles and whispered words, soft kisses, and unspoken promises. This should’ve been our wedding night. This is how I want every night to be forever. I will die a happy woman if so.

Dante starts to kiss me deeply, but his phone rings. He pulls back with a groan, answering the phone with a clipped and agitated greeting as his eyes travel along my breasts, his free hand toying with my nipple as I arch into him. I smile as he bites at my lip, holding back a moan as his hand dips down to swirl around my clit. My eyes roll back as he rubs me faster, his phone still pressed to his ear.

He stops suddenly, pulling away from me as worry crawls into the pit of my stomach. He rushes more clipped words into the phone before hanging it up and climbing off the bed. I scramble to find my bra and panties, pulling them on in a rush as I ask him what’s happened.

“They found Gabriela. Or they have a lead at least,” he says, pulling his clothes on in a rush before grabbing my dress and zipping me up.

“How and where?” I ask, feeling a sliver of hope in my worried heart.

“Oscar put a tracker in one of her bracelets long ago. It finally picked up a signal at James’s farm in Wyoming. Sergio is on his way now.”

He starts packing a bag with guns and ammunition from one of his drawers. My eyes widen as I realize what’s going on.

“Wait, I thought you said you weren’t going,” I said, panic lacing my voice.

“The situation has changed, mi ciela. This is my baby sister. There could be more men waiting there for us to arrive. I need all hands on deck for this,” he says, sliding a loaded handgun into the back of his jeans before hauling his bag over his shoulder.

I cling to him, practically begging him not to go, fear taking over me.

I can’t lose him, too.

“Let me go with you,” I say, and he immediately shakes his head, making me all kinds of pissed off.

“I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe. Even if that means making you angry with me, Esmeralda. Got it?” He waits for me to nod, and I finally do, grabbing his shirt in my hands as I whisper into his mouth before I kiss him.

“If you don’t come back to me alive, I’ll find you and kill you all over again,” I say, tears in my eyes as he kisses me softly before pulling me away.

“I know you will, baby. I know you will,” is all he says before he leaves the room, shutting the door behind him as I dissolve into tears.

5

Dante

I leaveEsmeralda in my bedroom, half-naked with tears forming in her dark green eyes.

It pained me to do it, but she’s safe here, and my little sister needs me. I have spent the majority of my adulthood learning and watching Juan Carlos. James Rowen is a complete anomaly to me. With this limited knowledge gained from Sergio, the only thing I really have to go off of is that he’s got the potential to be a lot more calculative than his late boss. This man is someone who murdered his parents in cold blood for an early inheritance check.

I throw my bag over my shoulder and head down the hall in the direction of the cellar. Although I packed guns in the bedroom, most of my weapons and ammunition are in the basement of this mansion. I’ve always been a gun enthusiast, as well as other weapons of destruction, but I’ve inherited most of my father’s collection, and I’ve kept it here at this Mansion rather than anywhere else. I meet Sergio in the hallway down the stairs. We pack a duffel bag full of powerful handguns, my men strapping several more to their belts as we head back up the stairs and out the front door.

As soon as we step outside, I feel the powerful winds whipping across my face as the jet begin to descend from the sky above us and lands on the wide-open space in front of my house. Sergio and my men begin shoving bags into the jet and rushing up the stairs as I follow suit, not daring to look back and fear seeing Esmeralda staring and waiting for me. The sight alone would be enough to make me turn back and forget about my mission to save my sister. As soon as we all pile in, the jet takes off, and we leave my Mansion behind until it becomes a spec in my vision.

“We have several cars waiting for us as soon as we descend in Wyoming,” Sergio says, and I nod my acknowledgment to him, staring out of the window as my home is now completely out of sight.

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