Page 8 of Surrendered Hearts

His fingers slip under my panties and find my back hole. Pushing his thumb against it, he curves his hand under me to reach for my clit with another finger.

Holy hell, this is what I’ve been missing for two years.

He’swhat I’ve been missing.

I need to tell him to stop. To fight him off, like he said. But even I know there’s no way I’m doing either of those things. Not when he’s making me feel so damn good.

Except, I have to, or the dynamic between us will shift altogether and I’ll lose any footing I have.

Drawing on every ounce of strength I have, I push his hand away and straighten. Turning, before he can stop me, I meet his gaze. “Take this as me fighting you off and telling you no.” Placing my hand to his chest, I add, “I will marry you. I will move into your New York apartment. But I will not travel with you, and I will not fuck you. Those are the only ground rules I’m agreeing to, and if you don’t like them, consider this marriage over before it even began.”

With that, I leave his suite and almost run back to mine, my heart beating way too fast.

This marriage must go ahead.

There’s no way out of it for me.

What I just said to Javier is an empty promise and he knows it as much as I do.

All that’s left now is to wait for his response.

And pray I don’t buckle under the need I have for him, because the only truth in all this mess is that I want him like I want no other man.

Javier Torres might be going into our marriage feeling no love for me, but I love him. And that will be my downfall.

4

JAVIER

Fuck.

Emilia has no fucking idea what she does to me. And thank Christ for that. If she did, she’d be dictating her terms all over the place and getting away with them.

I pour myself a strong drink after she leaves my suite and throw it down my throat. I pour another and repeat.

Exhaling a long breath, I check the message that just came in on my phone.

Lorenzo: Diego just arrived. We have a problem. You free yet?

Me: Yes. Come up.

My brothers arrive less than five minutes later, stress lining both their faces.

“What?” I demand, feeling the exhaustion that’s been my constant friend the last few weeks as I’ve prepared for this wedding and the handover of the cartel from my father to me. Our enemies have been making threats and I suspect that’s what Lorenzo and Diego are about to tell me; that another one has been issued.

“It’s Perez,” Diego says, breaking the news like it’s the last thing he wants to tell me.

Every muscle in my body strains. “Emilia again?”

Diego nods. “He’s threatened her family this time too.”

“Fuck.” I pull my phone out, issuing a string of directives to my brothers as I tap out a message to the head of my security. “You two take care of her family. Get them safe, and don’t take no for an answer from any of them. Put as many of our men on it as needed. I’ll sort out Emilia.”

Felipe Perez heads a rival cartel. He threatened Emilia’s life two years ago when we were together. His men managed to get inside her apartment when she wasn’t there and sent me happy fucking snaps of themselves from it. Their demands were simple: we had to surrender some territory to save Emilia’s life. We gave them what they wanted, and I walked away from her to save her being caught in the crossfire ever again.

I suspected another threat from Perez; he knows my weakness and won’t hesitate to use it against me. However, I’m prepared for him this time. The only weak link in my plan is Emilia. Her refusal to agree to my terms of marriage wasn’t unexpected, but it’d make my life a lot fucking easier if she’d just do what I say.

Bruno, my security head, enters the suite as my brothers leave. “I’ve called extra men in,” he says, his body as tense as mine. “How many do you want stationed at Emilia’s room?”

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