“Enrique, what are you doing here?”she whispered, her voice thready like gossamer wings.He had no business in Durango, the core of her father’s criminal empire.“What did you do to Yago?”She swallowed hard past her constricting throat and set her cup on the end table with a hard clink.She dragged her gaze to her bodyguard—one of four enforcers her father ordered to babysit her—and sighed in relief at the subtle rise and fall of his chest.
Gracias a Dios.Thank God.Yago was alive.For now.
She barked a short, bitter laugh and ran her shaking hand through her hair.“Papá is going to kill him for this.How do you even know where I live?Attacking my bodyguard and breaking into my apartment smacks of insanity.Do you have a death wish?It’s not even daybreak!”She thrust her arm toward the glass balcony doors, where the vertical blinds clacked softly in the breeze from the overhead vent.
“I’ll explain everything later.We have to go.”He grabbed one of her suitcases.“Get dressed.I’ll take your luggage.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”She grimaced at her blue-striped pajama bottoms and matching long-sleeved top, then planted her hands on her hips.“I’m getting married next week.You shouldn’t be here.”
“Married, right, to Diego Zayas.”He scoffed and dropped the suitcase before he crossed his arms over his chest.“Do youwantto marry him?”
The question sucked the air from her lungs.She opened her mouth, then closed it.Of course, she didn’t want to marry Diego.Her father had arranged the match without consulting her.No matter how many times she’d begged Papá to reconsider, he refused.His word was iron.Unbreakable.Soul-rending.
“I would rather eat nails than marry Diego, but I do not have a choice.At least he’s not as awful as Jacobo.”A lie, if she’d ever uttered one.She rubbed her queasy stomach, fighting the twist of old trauma.No matter how many years had passed, the memory of her first marriage still clung to her like oil.She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold in the anger and pain that burned inside her.“If I had a choice, I would not marry anyone.I would stay right here in my home.Alone.No guards, no deals, no father pulling the strings.”
“Youdohave a choice.Run away with me.Be my wife.We can go somewhere safe.Once we’re married, your father will have to accept it.”
“Papá is more likely to make me twice a widow than accept you going behind his back.I’ll convince Yago not to say anything to anyone.Should be easy.Papá would string him up if he found out you got past him.”She grimaced and shook her head.Maldita sea.Damn it.That wouldn’t work.There were cameras all over the building.Maybe Yago could wipe the surveillance footage.Maybe she could blame this on a robbery.Yago hadn’t seen who jumped him since Enrique wore a mask.
Enrique’s hands twitched at his sides as though he struggled not to touch her.“For seven years, I’ve wanted you.Dreamed of you.Waited patiently.A few months back, I tried to do this the honorable way and asked your father if I could marry you.He refused because he’d already made a promise to that womanizing pig, Zayas.I cannot watch you marry him.I won’t.”
Her mouth fell open.Tears pricked her eyes.“I-I didn’t know,” she stuttered.“Papá never said anything about you proposing.”Not that she was surprised.Her father despised her.Deemed her worth as what he could get out of her.If she ran away with Enrique, their crime of passion could spiral their respective cartels into war.Enrique had risked everything.For her.
“It’s impossible.If we do this, they’ll kill you.My father, or Diego, or someone else will come for us.They won’t stop.You must see that.”
Enrique stepped closer.“Are you coming willingly or not?”
His gravel-thick voice raked down her spine like broken asphalt.Goosebumps slithered across her arms.His presence consumed her little apartment.His masculine scent of citrus soap and leather infused the air and tingled her nostrils.Mysteries she longed to discover burned in his eyes.She’d dreamed of this moment—Enrique bursting into her life to steal her away to freedom.Paradise.But it wasn’t right.She couldn’t give in to temptation.Couldn’t let selfishness rule.She barely knew Enrique.All the time they’d spent together had been at parties or stressful dinners with her in-laws.They were rarely alone.Only ever kissed once, when he showed up outside her apartment building a week after Jacobo’s death.
Life was so unfair.She wanted to run.Scream.Kiss him.Never let him go.
He sighed heavily.“All right.One kiss.Then I’ll leave.”
Lourdes blinked hard, his sudden turnabout stiffening her spine, and she tugged on the hem of her shirt.Her nipples chafed against the fabric.Dios mío.No bra.Heat surged into her cheeks.She dropped her gaze to his full, dangerous, perfect mouth.
Maybe one kiss wouldn’t hurt.
No, of course it would.It would break her in half.To have what she desperately wanted in her hands and on her lips, then to give it up.Lord help her.She didn’t care.
Enrique tilted his head.“Well?”
She licked her dry lips.“A kiss.We’ll pretend this never happened.”
He clasped her cheek, brushed his thumb along her jaw, and nuzzled her hairline before he claimed her lips with a soft, barely there kiss.Moaning, she melted against him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.Tingles shot through her.His arms snaked around her waist and pinned her to his warm, tantalizing chest.He kissed her harder, deeper, seizing everything she had to give.Making up for seven years of nothing.Of lost time they could never get back.Mint and coffee flavored his kiss in the most erotic combination.She fisted his silky hair, then trailed her fingers down to grasp his smooth jacket.Her eyelids fluttered closed.Her dreams paled to the real thing.Kissing him.Tasting him.Breathing him in.Touching his hot skin.
It wasn’t enough.She needed more.Needed everything.All of him.
She broke away, panting, trembling, and peered up into his hooded eyes.His harsh, minty breath puffed across her face.She groaned at the scent.
“One kiss,” she whispered.“That was the deal.”
“Forgive me, Lourdes,” he murmured, his voice raw.He pressed a kiss on her temple, then leaned back.Creases branched from his narrowed eyes.
“For what?”
A sharp, sudden sting bit her neck.
She gasped, jerking away.“W-what did you—”
