Would she find a sledgehammer?She needed to break down the wall he’d erected between himself and the matter of her freedom.She spun away for the offered respite.If he wouldn’t listen, fine.She had other means of persuasion at her disposal.
Something he wouldn’t see coming.
Chapter Five
After dinner and aquick shower, Enrique reclined on the sofa and braced his arm behind his head.Firelight danced across the roughhewn walls, mesmerizing him with every flick and dazzle.The soothing warmth of the hearth kept the mountain chill at bay.As the wind whistled, the crackle and hiss of the fiery logs eased the pounding in his skull.
The rush of water in the bathroom pipes tortured him.
Lourdes was naked.In his shower.Scrubbing her slick skin with flowery-scented soap.Lilac—her favorite.At least, she always smelled of that whenever he saw her.
Muscles tense and back aching, he shifted on his makeshift bed and propped his bare feet on the armrest.The patchwork quilt beneath him bunched.Lourdes hadn’t tried to escape while he was in the bathroom—the alarms on the windows or door would’ve blared had she opened them without punching the passcode into the wall panel—so maybe she would behave throughout the night.After his long day of kidnapping and mayhem, he needed to crash like an addict winding down from an acid trip.
He scoffed and rubbed his eyes.Carajo.He needed sleep.By the time his stubborn princess finally realized how well a real man treated his woman, she would marry him.She wouldn’t dare return to her asshole father and submit to the loveless union he had in store for her.
The door squeaked open behind him.He stiffened, gluing his gaze to the flames.If she only knew the restraint he called on to give her privacy.She had probably dressed in the same pajamas he’d kidnapped her in.Soon, she would slide into his bed.Without him.Like that was right, or fair.He reached for the drawstring of his pants, then stilled.Not yet.When she fell asleep, only then would he seek release.
Lourdes coughed lightly from right behind the sofa.
What was she playing at?He fisted his hands over his eyes, counting backward from twenty.“Go to sleep,” he muttered once he reached five, and she was still standing behind him.Finally, the air shifted.He breathed easier and dropped his hands to his chest.Then she moved into his line of sight.Shock snapped him upright.He scrambled to his feet.
The vixen stood before him in a lacy peach-colored bra-and-panty set.The golden light caressed her curves and cast her glorious body in sharp relief.Her hair graced her shoulders in thick, damp locks, begging him to pull them.The unusual almond-brown shade of her irises burned darker, deeper in the firelight, tempting him to drown in them.
Enrique dragged in a deep breath.“Lourdes, do you know what you’re asking?”
“I thought I was demanding.”
Aw, hell.She was lightning in a bottle.A firecracker with a demure reputation.Her minty breath fanned his face as he cupped her flushed cheek.“Once I start, I won’t stop.”
She licked her lips and swallowed so hard her throat bobbed.Her gaze roamed across his tattooed chest and arms before darting back to his face.
Well, well.She wasn’t as secure as she wanted him to believe.He traced the line of her jaw before he seized her mouth.Lights flashed behind his eyes.Dios mío.Her taste.Rich, decadent, feminine.Even the flavor of her toothpaste rocketed through him.Her flowery scent enveloped him, drawing him deeper under her spell.He palmed her hips and feathered quick kisses across her chin to the slope of her neck.
Panting, she squeezed her eyes shut and stood stiffer than the hardest, finest blade.
“Relax, princess.”Enrique drew back and exhaled through his nose.No pouncing.He had to take his time.Ease her into it.“Part temptress, part innocent.You’re a potent combination.”He trailed his finger down the frilly edge of her padded bra cup.“How many men have you slept with?”
