“You,” Nico mouthed, his face a breath away. “In my bed, riding my dick, and wearing my collar.” He flicked the lock at her throat.
A vise gripped her chest, squeezing her air. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think past the words burning through her heart.
“In return, we’ll pull out of the slave trade.” He sniffed. “We’ll stop capturing women in your hometown. We’ll stop enslaving humans altogether.”
Her muscles were so locked up she couldn’t move, but her head shifted, seeking out Matias on the other side of the lemon grove. His attention was on her, his ass still seated on that bench.
“Eyes on me.” Nico’s bark jerked her focus back.
His straight nose, even breaths, and dark gaze betrayed nothing. His features were so empty, in fact, she decided he was probably a very good liar. That sucked considering every answer she needed was concealed behind those eyes.
She lowered her head, trying to reason through his offer. “I become your willing slave and you end the slavery of all others. That’s what you’re proposing?”
“Yes.”
“If you wanted me, you could just take me, with or without a deal.”
“That’s not how this works.”
Because of Matias? Or something else? The proposal was irrational. He knew Matias had claimed her. Why would he destroy their friendship or risk Matias’ loyalty? Her mind whirled to decrypt the undercurrents. There was more to this. Something he wasn’t saying.
“I want Matias in this conversation.” She met his eyes.
“No.” He bent closer, hands dangling between his spread knees and lips inches away. “This is between you and me.”
“Does he know you’re making this offer?”
His head turned, and she followed his line of sight across the grove. Matias stared back at her for an endless moment and looked away.
Her heart sank. He knew. He knew, and he was letting this play out.
Because he chose his job over her.
“Decide, Camila.” Nico’s rhythmic accent grated across her skin. “The offer’s about to expire.”
She wanted to kill him. Strip his golden skin right off his face and smother him with it. But she couldn’t.
After two weeks of residence in the cartel’s headquarters, she’d watched and learned and come to a glaring realization that attempting to murder the capo would result in an epic failure for two reasons. One, he was never without guards. Even now, she knew Matias was armed and would protect his boss with his life. Two, Nico would be replaced, likely with Matias or someone else in the inner circle. Someone who would continue the slave trade.
Nico’s offer was her best choice. Not that she could trust him to follow through on his end of the deal, but it would put her in his bed and potentially in his heart. It would give her an advantage, the ability to persuade him, an in, that she didn’t have with Matias.
But there was one very muscular, dark, and deadly problem.
Fire trickled behind her eyes and burned through her sinuses. “What about Matias?”
“Disclaim him. Choose your crusade over the man who has caused you so much torment. Is the decision really that hard?”
The lump that was lodged in her throat burned hotter. “He’ll kill you.”
“Do you honestly believe he cares more about you than he does about me?” He arched a brow.
Logic and reasoning said no. Matias sat his fucking ass on the other side of the grove knowing what Nico would offer.
She’d put herself here with the very real possibility of death. To end slavery. Now she had what she’d come for—the cartel capo, the top fucking guy, telling her she could stop their human trafficking with her surrender. How could she not do this?
Something didn’t feel right. Deep in her gut was a discomfiting suspicion that she was being set up. And crowding that suspicion was her stupid sentimentality. Did she care more about saving slaves than she did about Matias? Than the boy she grew up with? Than the man who rebuilt her citrus grove?
Could she willingly have sex with another man?
“Time’s up.” Nico tilted his head, his fingers playing with the short black hair on his jaw. “I need an answer.”
“No.” The strength of her voice rose from a place of besotted resolve, but it was resolve nonetheless.
With her heart in her throat, she pushed away from the table, strode out of the gazebo, and took the path through the lemon grove, heading toward Matias. There would be a shitload of introspection in her near future, like was that decision ever really hers to make? But she knew with certainty, no matter what happened, she would never regret choosing Matias.
He lifted his head at the sound of her steady footfalls, and when he stood, the relief etching his expression sent her heart racing. And her feet.
Hands behind his back and stance wide, he stared at her without moving, forcing her to take every last step toward him, sealing her future with him. Her choice solidified as she ran, and when she reached him beneath the canopy of leaves, she looped her arms around his neck.
He stood still for a moment, his rigidness choking her heartbeats.
Slowly, confidently, his arms wrapped around her back, smothering her against him. His chest felt hard, burning up through the thin material of his Henley. A vein bulged in his brow, the sinews in his neck strung tight. She stroked his throat, making his breath catch.
“Gracias,” he said in a raspy rumble and touched their foreheads together.
Her entire body trembled as she slid her fingers along his softly shaved jawline and stabbed them through his hair. “I’m scared, Matias.” Scared of him. Scared Nico will take her away from him.
“I know, mi vida. I know.” He kissed her with a glide of lips and warm gasps. “Thank you for facing your fears with me.”
He kissed her again, this time with force and urgency, his tongue sliding against hers and his fingers digging along her spine. Then the kiss was no longer a kiss. It was his lips
