Page 31 of Sinful Restraint

Asshole.

I lunged for him, aiming for his throat like he’d taught me. He deflected effortlessly, his grip closing around my throat instead as his body pressed mine into the nearest wall, my pulse pounding against his hand.

“You want to be stronger?” His gruff voice dropped to an intimate mutter. “Then stop being afraid to really fight me.”

My breath hitched at the truth of his accusation.He’s right. But fear could be a good thing, and right now, it wasn’t the only thing swarming in my stomach.

His rich brown eyes flicked down to my parted lips like he already owned me. The scary thing was, I didn’t hate that he might be right.

“Try again,” he whispered.

I grabbed his wrist, using his own weight to pivot and twist him off me. But the second I broke free, he retaliated, shoving me back until my spine collided with the mirror this time as it shook on the wall, but didn’t fall.

The air between us was thick with lust, my focus no longer on fighting and only on Cruz.

“Did you sign the consent form?” he asked, flicking his tongue over my earlobe, the silver of his tongue clanking with silver stubs in my ear.

“I read your terms,” I admitted, although he knew damn well I had since I asked him a few questions the next day after I got it. “But I wonder how bad you’ll punish me if I take too long to sign.” My tone was teasing, and the way he grunted in my ear let me know that he liked it.

“Eres peligrosa, mujer,” he said in Spanish, licking my neck as he did so. It was like he couldn’t get enough of dragging his tongue over my skin.

My brain short-circuited for a minute because it wasn’t often that he spoke to me in Spanish. But when he did, the floodgates opened.

“What does that mean?”

“You’re dangerous, woman.” Then he grabbed my throat, pulled me to him, and kissed any response from my lips.

It wasn’t soft.

Was far from sweet.

And hungrier than our last kiss.

But just as delicious as it always was with him when he took my mouth raw with unhinged passion that was full of the same brutal energy that he put into everything he did. His hands fisted in my hair, tilting my head back as our tongues collided, prompting me to claw at his shirt desperately.

I couldn’t wait for him to see that I had pushed my fears and anxiety aside and finally stopped overthinking when I signed the consent form and placed it on his dresser earlier today.

My right leg was already lifting for him to grab it when a loud, shattering crack caused us to look out into the hall, noticing that the mirror in the space across from the room we were in had exploded.

Cruz’s energy shifted instantly as he shoved me behind him when another sound echoed through the building, that one more noticeable than the first one.

A gunshot.

“Don’t let go of me,” he ordered. “We’re too out in the open.”

The room we were in faced the front of the street, so the shots coming through the back room were coming from the alley.

My breath hitched and my heart slammed against my ribs as panic coiled in my throat.

The gym doors burst open, and there was more gunfire when two masked men wearing dark green started opening fire, chaos erupting around us. It took a minute before I realized that Cruz had been joined by Mekhi, who still had his bookbag on his shoulders like he was headed out right when shit popped off.

In the cracked mirror, I watched as Cruz and Mekhi moved in unison taking out one man after the next, each shot a kill shot in the head. Bodies were falling all around us, but it was like Cruz and Mekhi were tag-teaming who would take out which target without even using their words, proof that they did shit like this all the time.

After eight men were eliminated, Mekhi and Cruz gathered the guns of those they took out for more ammo, then Mekhi commanded that Cruz and I follow him into the room where the nutrition workshops were held.

I still felt like we were out in the open since both entrance doors into the room had been destroyed, but Cruz motioned for me to hide in a corner as he flipped several metal rectangular tables onto their sides to create a barricade between us and the doorways.

“Three more to your left,” Cruz alerted, as Mekhi started shooting at three gunmen from one doorway, while Cruz shot at four others through the opposite door.

---