Page 14 of The Red Queen

“I know things about you, Desiree,” he told her.

“You know nothing!” she snapped, crossing her arms protectively.

He raised a brow, then moved to sit on the edge of her bed, facing her.

“You were eleven, were you not, when Nicolas Garza took you as both his slave and his protege?”

“Ten,” she corrected him, then realized her mistake by the flare of triumph in his gaze. Perhaps he already knew and perhaps he didn’t, but if his goal was to engage her in conversation, it was working.

She wouldn’t give him what he wanted, so she fell silent, allowing her spine to fold into the pillows behind her.

He continued, unperturbed. “Garza formed you into the woman you are today. Skilled, efficient, and brutal. All characteristics I would admire in anyone else.”

She had to bite her lip to refrain from asking what he meant by ‘anyone else’.

“The difference is, you’ve been brainwashed into doing the bidding of a dead man. When he was killed, you had no direction, so you targeted the person who killed him. An immature and ineffective strategy. What would you have felt had you succeeded in your vendetta against Mateo Gutierrez? What would you have done after he was dead? I doubt you can act without your master.”

Anger suffused Desi, and without thought, she launched herself at Giovanni.

He was expecting it and caught her easily, flipping her onto her back and covering her.

As she fought him, he anticipated every move, blocking her and tangling her limbs with his. His skill astounded her. She’d worked every day on honing her combat skills, yet this man, easily fifteen years older than her, subdued her with little effort.

She blamed her missing finger and the antibiotics for her weakness, but she suspected he was just better. Stronger.

She subsided, turning her head away from him because his face was too close to hers. She could feel the heat of his body covering her. It was disturbing and exhilarating at the same time.

She’d never sparred with anyone other than Nico. He hadn’t wanted his men touching her, yet he’d liked to let them watch. To show them what they were missing while he beat up and fucked his Latina beauty. Sometimes… not often… he would get drunk and allow them to fuck her, too. It had been humiliating, but she’d learned to cope.

“Let me up,” she growled, baring her teeth at him.

“When I’m ready,” he said, his grip on her wrists tightening. He lowered his head until he was speaking in her ear. “Always when I’m ready, Desiree.”

She head-butted him, slamming her forehead into his face with a satisfyingthunk.

He might have been able to anticipate most of her moves, but not all. She was going to teach him the benefits of giving her space.

He swore, his grip tightening until she felt the bones in her wrists grind together.

She cried out in pain, unable to hold the sound in, but he didn’t release her. Rather, he looked down, a glow of triumph on his face, despite blood from his nose dripping down to his lips and chin.

“You surprise me when I hadn’t thought it possible,” he admitted. “I’m going to enjoy our time together.”

She glared at him but didn’t respond. He was already getting more from her than she’d intended to give.

He stood, dragging her from the bed. “Once you’ve been reprogrammed, I anticipate a happy relationship between us.”

“Fuck you,” she snarled, digging her nails into his arm.

He swung her around and she flinched, thinking he was about to strike her, but he didn’t. Instead, his lips covered hers in a quick, harsh kiss that sent zings of sensation from her brain to her nipples and down further.

She gasped and stiffened in anticipation of an attack.

Instead of attempting further intimacy, he set her away from him and pulled his gun from his holster.

For a second, she thought he was going to shoot her and flinched back. When he didn’t pull the trigger, she wiped her sleeve across her face to clean the blood he’d smeared on her with his kiss.

“I apologize, but you are unpredictable, and I can only allow so much physical confrontation before it becomes tiresome. Now, I would like for you to accompany me upstairs for our evening meal. It has become clear that you won’t eat properly unless supervised by myself.”

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