Page 72 of Guarded

“Manos frías, amor para un día, manos caliente, amor para siempre.”I whisper.

“Don’t be cheesy. It turns me on.” She laughs.

“That’s fine. We can wake the sleeping giant.” I pull her hand to my hardening erection, and her cheeks flush pink.

“My Abuela used to say that,” she says.

“You’re Abuelita said, ‘We can wake the sleeping giant’?”

“No manches.” She laughs playfully, hitting me with her pillow. “No, the hand thing.”

“My sister used to say that to me.” I reminisce, thinking of where she had heard the phrase. Thinking of how she had seen Evangeline at her best before Tatay left for his trips.

“Do you still talk to your sister?”

“No. I haven’t seen her since we were eight years old. She escaped my mom a long time ago. The plan was we would go together.” I explain.

“What happened?”

“The house caught on fire that night. She never came back, and my mom found me hiding in our clubhouse.” I give her the simple story, not another heart-wrenching one.

“Oh no. Nero, I’m sorry.” Ari pushes herself up onto her elbows, studying me intently. “Have you tried looking for her?”

“Axel gave me an address. That’s where I was the day you went to the dog groomer.” I say dog groomer sarcastically.

“Maybe I can ask Alfonso about the address?” she offers.

Fuck no.

“No. I don’t want you going back there. Promise me right now you won’t get involved with it, Ariella.”

“Okay, okay, calm down. I promise I won’t go back there.”

There’s a moment of silence, and I close my eyes, assuming she will do the same, but I should know better by now.

“Did you know gray wolves only have one mate for life?” Ari says.

I tug one eye open and look at her.

“Sometimes I remember random facts, and I just remembered that. I have to blurt things out, or they just kind of wind up everywhere.” She laughs nervously.

I roll to my side to look at her.

“What’s really bothering you, Ari?”

“I don’t know. Something about you just intimidates me.” She bites down on her bottom lip.

“Why would you be intimidated by me? I’m just a man.”

“I thought you were mad at me.” She whispers.

“Why would I be mad at you?” I say, my brows pinching together.

“Maybe it’s just my insecurities.” She admits.

“What do you have to be insecure about?”

“I don’t know how to do this, Nero. How to be vulnerable with you.”