She went rigid against him, and he knew she was thinking about the slave trade, a conversation he didn’t want to have right now.
“My hunt resulted in more enemies than the cartel had ever faced.” He coiled a lock of her hair around his finger. “I couldn’t rationalize bringing you into it.”
“So you kept me in the dark, made me fear and distrust you, which kept me away.”
“Yeah.” His chest panged with regret, but hindsight changed nothing. It’d been the right thing to do.
“If you have so many enemies, why in the hell would Nico agree to be your decoy?”
“He owes me his life.” He huffed a laugh. “The past decade hasn’t been a total hardship for him. I shoulder all the stress and decisions while he struts around with more power and wealth than he would’ve ever had as a lieutenant. He’s been more than compensated for the risk.”
She rolled to her back and gazed up at sweeping arms of the trees. “Thank you for telling me. For protecting me from it all these years. I get it. I don’t like it, but I understand why you couldn’t tell me until now, when you could trust me with the information and protect me from those who want your secrets.”
He gripped her hand and held tight as a light breeze rippled over them, rustling the leaves and brushing his skin. Somewhere in the distance, a macaw squawked.
He was so close to winning her heart and yet so far. She seemed to be trying to look past the monster she thought he was, but she still hadn’t accepted the real reason she’d come here. Submission and bondage were such dirty, shameful concepts to her. She fought against the healthy, consensual aspects of it by focusing on only the ugly illegal kind of slavery.
She pulled her hand away and touched the collar at her throat. Her nostrils flared, her muscles tensed, and he knew she was preparing an argument.
She sat up and pivoted toward him with a stubborn set in her jaw. “You make the rules around here, which means you have the power to end the suffering of all those slaves. I know”—she hardened her husky voice—“I know that with the snap of that one command you would make me happy. So fucking happy, Matias, that I would give you my heart and soul and whatever else you desired.”
His stomach twisted and soured. “I don’t want your fucking negotiated affections, Camila.”
He lurched up and gripped her hips. She yelped as he dumped her on her back and fell on top of her.
With her chest rising and falling against his, she gave him her best glare. “Then what do you want? What can I do?”
He had been inside her pussy every day she’d been here, and other than his massive fuck up when he took her against the post, he’d only bound her with lightweight string. Most of the time, he hadn’t restrained her at all. He hadn’t spanked her, whipped her, or done anything to cause her physical pain since that first day.
He wanted her willing and begging for bondage. While she hadn’t once fought him during sex, her participation had been dubious, as if her body was submitting while her mind screamed hell no.
All of this was expected. He knew it would take a lot of time and patience, but it didn’t make it any easier.
“I’ve already told you.” He shackled her wrists with his hands and pinned her arms against the grass above her head. “Stop focusing on what you think you know and look at me, at us. What are you really after? What do you need?”
“The prize.” Her eyes flashed. “You without slavery.”
“Slave has more than one meaning. Open your mind.”
“You’re talking about what Nico said to me?” She yanked her arms against the grip of his hands. “My supposed search to be owned and dominated?” At his nod, her gaze widened. “Are those women…? Holy shit, are they here willingly?”
“No.” His heart pounded with frustration. “They definitely don’t want to be here.”
Flickering shadows spread over her face. “I don’t understand.”
“Try.”
She regarded him for a long moment then blinked. “You want me to trust you.”
“It’s a very good place to start.”
She breathed in, out, and again. Then muscle by muscle, she slackened beneath him. Her arms went limp in the grip of his hands. Her legs widened, knees falling open to accommodate his hips.
His nerve endings stirred everywhere their bodies touched—hands, chests, thighs, and…fuck, her cunt burned hot against his cock. Excitement surged through him, coiling like a fist around his shaft. He couldn’t stop himself from grinding, his breaths shortening and control unraveling.
Eyes damp and overly bright, she started to tremble, her voice reedy. “One hard, violent fuck away from surrender?”
The words he’d given Nico sounded so fucking erotic whispered from her quivering lips. Surrender didn’t come without fear, and she was there—the perspiration on her brow, the ashen coloring in her cheeks, the irregular pace of her breaths. He was going to fuck her and make it hurt, make her scream. But he knew that somewhere deep inside her, she was going to enjoy it, and that probably scared her the most.
“Remove your clothes.” He shifted to his knees and tackled his belt.
She hesitated, her gaze locked on the strap of leather he folded in his fist.
“Camila.”
She looked up at his cutting tone, and he gave the command again, not with his voice, but with the full force of his eyes.
Her inhale fluttered, fingers curling in the grass. Then, with a nod, she obeyed.
CHAPTER 22
Matias tightened his hand around the leather belt, unable to stifle the shaking in his fingers as Camila stood and reached for the hem of her shirt. He could no longer hear the drone of bees, feel the sunlight, or smell the citrus in the air, yet the atmosphere had never been more alive than it was
