Page 49 of Chris

“Will you?” he called after her.

His tone was still dark with wicked promises that made her skin pebble, and her thighs clench. She couldn’t miss it, not that she wanted to.

“Not if I value my life.”

He probably didn’t hear her.

That was okay.

Even she didn’t believe it.

The week following Valeria’s encounter with Chris in the field could only be described as hell. Not because anyone had caught them, although it came close, or because anyone suspected something had happened. Rather, she couldn’t help the paranoia that seemed to creep up her spine whenever the memory of Chris kissing her against that wall, or him asking her if he could do it again as he leaned against the fence, would flood her mind.

It was made worse whenever she would be close enough for Jorge to be looking at her when the memories came rushing into her mind, intent on driving her crazy, making her hot, and scared for her life all at the same time.

Because that’s what her husband would do, she knew. Undoubtedly, he would kill her for even thinking about another man, let alone kissing one. Jorge was terribly jealous when a man was staring at Valeria for too long because he thought of her as a prize he had won. And not once, but twice, when he caught her after running. He was not giving her up, and instead of treating her like somethingprized, he behaved like she was shit under his shoe.

The more troubling part?

Valeria couldn’t stop thinking about it.

About Chris.

That moment replayed in her mind daily—on fucking repeat. It woke her up at night when Jorge was beside her, and she didn’t need to be thinking about it, all things considered. The taste of him seemed like it lingered on her lips whenever she sipped on a glass of water because it reminded her of him. Crisp, and fresh.

Like the way his kiss and simple touch had made her body light up with barely any effort on his part at all.

God.

She didn’t need that.

None of it.

Worse was the fact she thought a huge part of her might want to do it again, and that was terrifying. Valeria spent her days at the side of a man who raped and beat her simply for being his wife. And a random man shows up with strange words coming out of his mouth about being there for her, and she’s kissing him in a stable? Entertaining his flirting while she rode a horse?

Stupid.

That’s what she was.

A stupid little niña.

Because only a girl would behave the way she did, so recklessly and dumbly. It was the only excuse she could come up with to justify why she had done what she did, and why she wanted to do it again.

Or you are so starved for love and affection that a kind man with care in his eyes reminded you that you are both alive, and a woman.

Fuck her thoughts, too.

Valeria had done her best to avoid Chris over the last week. He had occasionally joined them at their table for a meal, but he made a careful effort not to talk to her in her husband’s presence, which she was sure Jorge appreciated, as he usually did for other men. And if there was a chance for her to speak with Chris, she was quick to take herself out of the situation so they couldn’t talk.

She didn’t need the trouble.

Right?

So, why did her body think differently?

“Don’t let the kitten get too far from you,” Valeria called to her daughter from the porch.

Sitting on the steps with her sister-in-law, she watched as Maria chased after a kitten she sneaked from a barn. It was normal for the cats to mate and have a batch of kittens on a ranch. Cats kept the vermin down with their hunting habits.