He disarms me and flips the safety back on before dropping the weapon onto the sofa. While one hand gains control of the gun, his other arm wraps around me and pulls me against his body. It’s all hard muscle and bone. He’s so much bigger than me—bigger than I realized from a distance. I can’t help but brace myself with my hands on his chest. My palms itch to slide down to the rock-hard abdomen I feel pressed against my tits.
“OW!”
I’m utterly unprepared for his hand to land across my ass.
“Pablo! Stop! OW!”
“It may have been hot as fuck watching you during that meeting and when I went to the pharmacy, but your obstinance isn’t attractive. You are going to get yourself killed if you don’t listen to me. If you won’t agree to my help on your own, then I won’t give you a choice.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck if I’m attractive to you. Let go.”
“My spanks might push your hips toward me, but you’re pressing the rest of your body against mine on your own. You give a fuck.”
His hand lands across my ass over and over. It burns like a motherfucker, but he isn’t wrong. I may want him to stopbecause it hurts, but I’m not pushing away from him. I’m not truly rejecting this spanking. I feel safe despite him being a virtual stranger. He’s doing it because I turned down his offer for protection. Because we both know I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face.
But I’m not ready to agree to his offer. I don’t trust him entirely.
“You’d knock me over if I didn’t use you to brace myself. I don’t consent to this. Stop.”
His arm drops from around my waist immediately. He stops spanking me and steps back. As he observes me, it’s as though he’s surprised by his own actions. He looks at me as though he’s not sure what to make of me, as though he’s confused.
“Chiquita—”
“Why do you insist upon calling me that?”
“I don’t know.” His answer is swift, and from his still befuddled expression, I believe him.
“Pablo, I’m not going anywhere with you or anyone else.”
That snaps him back to reality as his eyes narrow. He glowers at me, and I’m certain this look has made plenty cower before him. I lift my chin and lock gazes with him. He cups my chin, but he’s gentle even though he holds it in place when I attempt to pull away.
“Your stubbornness will get you killed. Humberto’s put a quarter-million-dollar bounty on you. I heard your conversation with him yesterday.”
“How—Did you tap his phone or mine?”
Confusion gives way to anger.
“His. I didn’t like how he spoke to you, and I definitely won’t allow you to go back into the Amazon on your own. Do you have any clue how lucky you are that you’re alive? No one—not me nor any of the men in my family—travels there alone. We’d loseour ever-loving shit if any woman in our family even suggested doing it. You sure as hell aren’t going.”
“You don’t dictate to me, and you shouldn’t have listened to any of my conversations.”
“You weren’t the reason I listened, but I learned plenty. I also know Humberto far better than you.”
When he cocks his eyebrow at me, I bare my teeth. I try to shove him away.
“I’ve never fucked him. How dare you even hint that I have?”
I struggle to get free of him for real. He lets go just as fast as he did when I said I didn’t consent to the spanking. He has boundaries even he won’t cross. That’s reassuring in a fucked-up kind of way.
“Then you should believe me when I tell you that your unwillingness to follow his orders pissed him off. He can’t stand it when anyone defies him, but he’s limited in what he can do since he can’t leave his home. He can’t come here to intimidate you?—”
“But you can.”
“You don’t fear me,chica.”
“I don’t fear him either.”
“Then you’re as foolish as you are beautiful. I would never hurt you, and I’ll kill mytío abuelofor trying. Buthe willhave you killed and not suffer a moment’s doubt. You need to go somewhere safe. It can’t be to your mother or grandparents. That’s too predictable. You need to get away from Bogotá.”
