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I make up my mind. She’s coming home with me tonight.
“I’m going to fuck you like you’re mine so keep your eyes open and watch.”
No hay veneno más dulce, que el del amor verdadero
“There is no sweeter poison than that of true love,” Alejandro says
“I have terrible taste in women.” “Present company excluded, of course.” He dips his head. “Of course.” “So I’m assuming your views on love are…?” “Love is overrated, archaic, and manipulative.”
“Dahlia—” I push against him. “Don’t touch me. Don’t ever touch me!” At that, he has the audacity to look smug. “Well…that’s certainly a departure from your behavior last night.”
“Everyone knows that between the two of them, they don’t share a single working braincell.”
“Sé que tienes miedo,” his voice softens as he tries to appeal to me. “Pero te prometo que nadie te hará daño. Mucho menos mis hermanos o yo.”
Los muertos guardan sus secretos,
He killed those people for you, I think. And if he’s willing to kill for me then what else is he capable of?
“If you want to be treated like merchandise, then I can do that.”
“Alejandro, please—” “Good. You know how to beg.” His eyes roam over my face before settling on my mouth. “If you don’t get out of that dress, I’m going to rip it off of you. When every inch of fabric has been stripped from your body, you’re going to get on your hands and knees. And with your face pressed against the cold floor, you’ll get fucked from every direction whether you want to or not.”
“You would kill for me?” Alejandro’s gaze narrows, the line of questioning piquing his interest. “Yes,”
“My God, I just want to fucking devour you.”
“Dahlia.” I expel a deep breath. “Please. Don’t ignore me.”
“I won’t do it again.” “What can I do? What will make you happy? Tell me and I’ll do it. I’ll climb a ladder into the fucking sky and bring you the moon if you ask me to. Tell me what you want. I can’t give you what you want if you don’t ask.”
“I’m going to max it out.” I make my way to the door. “It doesn’t have a limit.” “Well…then, I’ll rack up a bill so high you’ll need a ladder to reach the top!” I almost laugh. “Have fun with that.”
Dahlia crosses her arms over her chest, chin lifted. “I’m an expensive habit.” I hover at the threshold. “Don’t worry,” I tell her. “I can afford it.”
I imagine all the ways I’d take her, on every surface, in every position, all while she begs and pleads with tears streaming down her face. But she doesn’t deserve it. Not so long as she keeps lying to herself about what we are and what this is.
It’s as if he took the whole “me hating him” thing to heart. God, he’s so sensitive. We’re Latin! He needs to grow a pair. Insults are our love language.
“Alejandro’s very straight forward. You’ll have better luck ripping off the Band-Aid and getting it over with. Say you’re sorry. It’ll take five seconds.” “Five seconds of my life I can never get back,” I grumble. Diego laughs. “God, you’re such a brat. I have no idea what my brother sees in you.”
“Do you think he’s angry with me?” “I think he has a sense of self-preservation. Something you lack.”
“I don’t know. I think you’re all right.” He cracks a smile. “Yeah?” “Yeah…in a really annoying, I have to deal with this guy because he’s family kind of way.” We lock gazes. I smile at him. “In another life, this would’ve been kind of cool. You being one of us and all.” I hold the seashells close to my chest. “But not this life?”
“At least you have a sense of humor about it.” “I know…it helps that my parents were terrible people.”
She sat there and listened to me divulge the absolute horrors of my life and she refuses to let me take myself too seriously. And I fear I’m dangerously, perilously close to falling in love with her.
He dies with his eyes open, glossed over, and sky blue. He’ll never see the sky again.
My hand catches his shoulder. He stills as I reach up to cup the side of his face, fingers grazing the injury beneath his eye and I wonder how long it’ll take for the bruise to fade. A day, a week, a month? How long will I have to look at him and remember how close I came to losing him?
“That’s a very, very dangerous game, you’re playing, hermano.” “She was crying the whole night. I was comforting her.” “With your clothes off?”
“Look at you…you’re such a good girl.” I grip her chin. “Look at the way you take every inch of me.”
“Yesterday…the man I killed. I don’t regret it.” She blinks and I can’t tell if they’re tears or water. “I’d do it again. I’d kill anyone who tried to hurt you.”
“I don’t ever want you staining your hands with blood. Much less for the likes of me.”
Selfishly, I want her to fall hopelessly, fatally, and absolutely detrimentally in love with me. However, if she does, what’ll happen when it’s finally time to send her home? Because she can’t stay here forever nor can I keep her, despite how badly I want to.
Problem is, I’m not sure she wants to go back anymore. I fear I’ve ruined her forever.
“You’re fucking poison for a man, did you know that?” I smile against his lips. “The sweetest kind.”
What’s wrong with me that I want him so badly I’d give up my soul to have him? He’s evil. A criminal, a murderer, a kidnapper. And yet, I call out his name, over and over again, like the beginning and end of a prayer.
“Don’t move again or you won’t be able to sit for a week.” I’m not so ashamed that I can’t beg. “Please.” “Look at you.” His teeth graze the shell of my ear. “That tight little pussy taking every inch of me like I’m yours.”
“After I’m done fucking you in my office, I’m going to take you to bed where I can take my time. Make you come so hard you’ll never disobey me again.”
“Oh God…” He presses his lips against the shell of my ear as he speaks. “Baby, God can’t do to your body what I can. Now lift your hips.”
“Don’t infantilize me. I know what sex is and I know you and my brother have been fucking since you laid eyes on each other. What grosses me out is doing it without a condom, as if either of you two idiots can afford getting knocked up right now.”
“I promised that I would see you home safely.” His voice drops to a whisper nearly carried away by the summer wind. “Es tiempo de que cumpla esa promesa.”
“Please…please don’t send me away.” “I’m not sending you away, Dee. I’m sending you back to where you belong.” “I belong with you.”
“When you first brought me here, I didn’t get to choose whether or not I could leave or stay. Let me choose now. I want to be with you. Alex, I love you. Please—please don’t send me away.”
“I need you to go back.” “Alex—” “Three months, Dahlia. Give it three months.” He opens his eyes. Hazel and brown. “At least until Karina’s wedding. And then if you still want to come back, I promise, I’ll honor your wishes. I’ll go and get you myself. But you have to give it three months.” “Why?” “Because I need to know you lived your life and still chose to come back to me. That’s why. I can’t keep you here like this, like a prisoner. We need a new start and we can’t have that if you stay.”
“You aren’t mine yet, Dahlia. But you will be. Soon. I promise.”
