Page 4 of Cartel Cobra

“You don’t know that.”

“We’ve been engaged for over a year.”

“But you never really dated.”

“Believe me, I know. We’re friends, but we don’t know each other nearly well enough to get married. This is so antiquated it feels prehistoric. An arranged marriage. I don’t know anyone else stuck like this.”

“You know this still happens in syndicates.”

Cartel? What Cartel? We’ll never admit aloud what our family is. The closest we come is to say our family is in a syndicate, and that’s only among select company. We don’t even say organized crime when we’re in the U.S. or corrupt in Latin America.

“To other people.” I sigh because I sound petulant. “I know I have to just accept it, but I’m scared we won’t be compatible once we live together. We could make each other miserable.”

“Are you scared about more than that?” Catalina watches me like a hawk.

“No. I’m not afraid he’ll hurt me. He knows I’d get on a four-way call withpapá, Enrique, and Luis the moment I’m out of his sight. Even if he took my phone, he knows I’m resourceful enough to talk to them. He knows he’d die that day. If one of them didn’t kill him, you or I would. I sense he can be nasty when he doesn’t get what he wants. I’ve seen hints of it, and it was there today. Like he was biting his tongue. Once we’re married and living together, there won’t be much I can do about him fighting dirty with his words. You know I won’t hold back for long. I might try to keep the peace at first, but it’ll devolve rapidly. I don’t want to live like that.”

“You could always keep him too exhausted to put up a fight. You said you enjoy having sex with him.”

“I do, but part of the reason I agreed was because I knew inevitably I’d sleep with him once we marry, so why not start sooner? It’s not like I can fuck anyone else, so I’d rather fuck him than be a nun.”

“And fucking is all it’s ever been?”

We’re keeping our voices super low, but this isn’t the place to have this conversation. We both glance around as we realize how foolish we’re being. I nod rather than speak my answer aloud.

“Like your least favorite flavor ice cream?”

I nod again. Vanilla’s okay, but I’d rather have anything but coffee flavored ice cream. My sister has always been my best friend, just like Enrique and Luis have always been each other’s. All four of us are super close, and I could talk about anything with our brothers, but I’d prefer not to discuss our sex lives with them. Catalina and I know we prefer similar things because we’ve dated similar guys in the past and admittedly compared notes. When she told me next to nothing about Matáis, I knew he was different. She’s left enough clues for me to guess, but she never gives me specifics about him.

She and I suspect our brothers are like us—kinky as fuck. I can’t imagine either of them being submissive.Ever. But Catalina and I have been in fluid power exchange relationships before, and we’ve both been more submissive in others. We’ve also had strictly vanilla relationships, too.

It’s not like we’ve dated tons of men, but neither of us is by any means close to being virgins. Our parents just ignore that about all of us. All four of us were born from immaculate conception, and our children will be too, even if our parents are more affectionate than Catalina and Matáis. It’s obvious how much they love and desire each other.

Discussing my bordering on boring sex life doesn’t help after meeting Esteban. I loathe who he is because of who he works for, but I can’t ignore how attracted I am to him. It’s visceral. And ridiculous. And foolish. And fucking as stupid as it comes. But I can’t help it.

“We should get going, so we aren’t late.” I stand as I speak, and so does Catalina, which signals to our guards we’re ready to go.

That sixth sense tells me he’s still watching me, and I can’t help wishing I could see him again. He approached me for a reason. Said there are things I’d want to hear. What the fuck does that mean?

Chapter Two

Esteban

The woman makes me harder than a fucking steel pipe. I’d love to lay some pipe.

That’s a strange American expression I learned in college, but it fits. Fucking hell, I’d make my pipe fit.

I’m worse than a fucking thirteen-year-old boy who can’t help but laugh at anything sexual. I shouldn’t be making jokes about my boss’s niece. I also shouldn’t have approached her when all I was supposed to do was watch her. But I couldn’t stop myself when I realized I could speak to her without her guard seeing me. I stepped out of the front door as though I was taking a call and sneaked in the back. When I returned through the front door, she pretended not to see me walk past her table as her sister arrived, but I’m certain she did.

Luciana Diaz is the last woman in the world I should be attracted to. Any man in her family would kill me if they knew I’ve had a hard-on for her since the moment I spotted her. That I was way too tempted to back her into the bathroom and fuck her. I may have known who she was before meeting her today,but she was still a virtual stranger. I don’t fuck strange women. I don’t fuck women in restrooms. I don’t fuck women I’m assigned to watch. But I want to break all of those rules.

I’m fucking looking death in the face—much closer than I ever have before—if her brothers find out. Her father isn’t one to mess with either, but Enrique and Luis are even more creative than their father with torture. I know because I’ve seen what they can do on their own and when they’re together. In no way do I want that to be my fate.

It would piss Humberto off for an entirely different reason. He’s not paying me to daydream about his niece, which is what I’m doing right now. It’s a damn good thing I’m alone in the back of this town car. With the privacy glass up and a twenty-minute drive to Humberto’s place, it would be so easy to rub one off. I keep remembering how good she smelled and how she fought not to react to me calling herchiquita.

What the ever-loving fuck possessed me to say that?

I’ve called no woman that before. It’s never even crossed my mind. For starters, she’s smaller than me, but it’s way more than that. She’s a pawn in more games than she knows exists. The men in her life should protect her, not use her like a chess piece they wish to capture. She deserves protecting.

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