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A hand settled on her knee again, cupping it. Warm. Soothing.
She didn’t move away this time but kept her gaze straight ahead. She was too afraid to face him. Funny how things had changed so drastically in such a short time. Funny how this man had turned her into a coward. Funny how, when he tugged her into his arms, she went without putting up an ounce of resistance. And when his lips brushed her neck, she sighed and trembled, melting against his chest.
When he kissed her lips, she moaned and opened wider.
It was funny too, in the most fucked-up and devastating kind of way, how as she lost herself in his kisses, she realized she needed him there with her.
Fuck him for that.
For making her realize just how much she wanted to keep him.
18
There wasa heartbreak in Seraphina that Toro hadn’t noticed before. Not until they’d arrived at the unfamiliar house. She hid everything so well most times, but he still should have seen it. He’d thought was attuned to her, but that moment inside had shown him just how wrong he was.
Seraphina was broken by the loss of her son. Or was it by Israel’s rejection of her? Toro didn’t know and if he asked, she wouldn’t tell him.
Her methods of finding her son were not the way Toro would have gone about it, but it was not his place to tell her how to respond when she’d been hurt. She was hurt. She might deny it, but she was. She’d given only hints, so he didn’t have a true sense of the full scope of it, but he knew enough.
Hurt people hurt people.
Seraphina was a mother in agony.
It pained Toro that he could do nothing to ease her. Except show her he loved her even as she rejected him.
They’d made love once they’d returned from to Sera’s place and she’d been voracious, touching him with an intensity he wished was because of him. He knew better.
Now, it was the morning after and she’d crept out of the house while he remained in bed, pretending he didn’t see her sneak out. Clearly, she didn’t want him tagging along, but he already knew where she was headed: in search of answers from that couple. Normally, he would have gone with her, but he had something he wanted to do instead and it was best she wasn’t around for that part.
With a sigh, he got out of bed and went to the bathroom. He found himself resenting the fact that he had to shower; he didn’t want to wash away Sera’s scent or her marks on his body. His skin, all fucked up from her scratches to his throat and back, burned as he stood under the water’s spray.
Fucking her was magic and mayhem rolled into one and he couldn’t get enough. It was all one-sided of course, and while it hurt, he couldn’t even be mad about it. She’d warned him. He was just hardheaded.
Finished showering, he got dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and made his way downstairs, ignoring the armed guards. He hoped Sera left them behind to guard her expensive china and not him.
He didn’t need protection.
He walked past two of the bodyguards whispering with their heads together and they immediately stopped talking, one of them clearing his throat as they stood up straighter, chests puffed out. Toro chuckled to himself as he ducked through the back door and out to the pool. The guards weren’t worth his time, but he’d made sure to solidify his presence on the very first night he’d arrived, so they knew he was no one to fuck with.
He welcomed anyone to try, though.
It could liven things up.
Poolside, he repositioned one of the chairs so he could sit in full view of the house as he pulled out his phone and called his mother. She always imagined the worst if he took too long to call her and he didn’t like for her to worry.
“Son.”
“Ma.”
“How are you? Where are you? When are you coming home?”
He grinned as she tossed those questions at him one after the other without taking a breath. “Ma, you know I’ll be gone a month, I told you that. I’m fine.”
“Is this because of Daniel? I told him he needs to give you your freedom.”
“This isn’t because of tío, so let’s not do this.” His mother would like to think that Daniel was forcing Toro into the life he led, instead of believing that her son actually wanted to do what he did. That was their one and only point of contention. “Tell me, how are you? How do you feel?” She was a cancer survivor and he worried about her just as much as she worried about him.
She huffed in his ear. “I am fine. I just miss my son.”
