“Didn’t we cover this already?” Leaning over, I press my mouth against hers. Will she bite me or accept me? “There are no rules when it comes to you and me, Lola. Only the ones we make together.”
She rears back, her dark eyebrows drawing together.
Damn.
“Is it me you really want, Sam? Or my submission? When the sun comes up, will my heart just be another casualty of this war?”
“Like fuck it will!”
She wants me to hurt her with a lie. She needs to convince herself that she’s not a traitor to the family she loves. That way, she can absolve herself of the guilt she tastes when we kiss.
But absolution is for those without sin, and Lola Carrera and I have bathed in those bloody waters all our lives.
Sinking a hand into her hair, I twist the thick strands around my fingers and hold her so damn close we’re sharing the same breath. “If all I wanted from you was a fucking conquest, sweetheart, I would’ve spread your legs that night in my bedroom.”
“But—”
“I want everything,” I growl against her lips. “Every piece of you… Even the confused and broken ones you try to hide.”
Those wicked pale blue eyes flash. “Then kiss me again,” she whispers, “and maybe I’ll consider it.”
I swallow every moan of hers like it’s a Michelin star meal. When she strains to reach me, I feel like I just won the moon and stars on a game of chance.
“How can you be so certain about us?” She breaks away again, panting. “Up until tonight, we’ve never even spoken.”
“Because I know you, Lola Carrera.” I hold her face prisoner between my hands, forcing her to look at me. “I know the pain you feel when you wear those red heels. I know how much you hate smoking cigarettes, even when you pretend otherwise. I know your tiger spirit would have happily carved up Troy Davis’s knee yourself if I hadn’t beaten you to it. I fucking love that when you look to the horizon it’s the world you see, and not the borders of Mexico.” I go to kiss her again. I can’t help myself. “Stay awhile,” I urge. “You might find you don’t hate me as much as you think you do.”
“That’s a lot of hate to make right.” But there’s the ghost of a smile playing on her lips as I loosen her restraints.
“Give me this night, Lola. I’ll wrap it around us so fucking tight, you’ll never want to break free.”
“I’ll give you more than that,” she says, curling her arms around my neck. “But only if you swear it in blood.”
The motel room is sparse, functional, and drenched in brown. Fortunately, her colors are blinding as we stumble through the door. We keep the lights on this time because I’m not missing a thing.
Her skin is a roadmap to her universe, and two hours later, I’m so fucking lost. Her hair is a messy dark web across the white pillowcase, her cheeks are flushed, and her mouth is kissed raw, but I want even more from her. I want everything.
“If this is what dawn feels like, I never want the day to age.” I drag myself away from the sweetest pussy I’ve ever tasted, my chin glistening with the residue of her third orgasm as I settle between her legs. Holding her heavy-lidded gaze, I line my dick up for the ultimate prize. “You ready?”
“Yes,” she rasps, sinking her head back into the pillow, her small hands resting on my shoulders to brace herself.
I drive in so deep her nails leave crimson welts across my skin. It’s her first time, but we fit together perfectly—her slick warmth gripping me so tight I’m close to shooting my load right away.
“Harder,” she whispers as I shudder to a stop. “Faster.”
“Not if you want twenty-eight chapters and an epilogue,” I gasp out.
She giggles and pulls my mouth down to hers.
“How much do you hate me now?” I say a couple of minutes later.
“Make me come again, and I’ll tell you.” At this, she lifts her hips, making her body so full of me I can’t tell where she ends and I begin.
Turns out, she doesn’t hate me that much at all.
She hates me even less when, afterward, lying tangled up in sheets and exhaustion, I give her my knife and instruct her to carve an L into my chest: my oath in blood, like I promised.
Two letters.
Two lives.
Two hearts that refuse to beat for a war that tried so fucking hard to define them.
Chapter Nine
Six Months Later
Lola
“Hey, Daniela! Wait up!”
Adjusting the heavy backpack slipping down my arm, I smile at the bubbly blonde waving at me from across the quad. Vanessa, I think is her name. She’s a nice girl, a little too talkative at times, but harmless.
I should know. My father and brother personally vetted every student on Northgate’s campus. This place is nothing like Rutgers. With only two thousand students, it’s almost impossible to blend in, so my family keeps their finger on its pulse, allowing no margin for error.
No dark corners for Santiago masks to hide.
Or so they think.
“Everything okay?” I ask, forcing as much of my native accent from the words as possible. No need to raise suspicion and make pretty blonde girls dead.
She nods, her pale cheeks stained red from the biting winter wind. “A few of us are going out tonight. You should come. We can celebrate your birthday.”
“I’m not allowed to go to bars.”
“This is college, not high school!” She laughs. “You’re free to have fun, Daniela. Our parents have no control over us here.”
Maybe for her. Her white-picket-fenced suburban life doesn’t know a damn thing about control. About the dangers of bearing a name the world condemns as evil.
I grit my teeth as a looming shadow darts behind a lecture hall building.
Free is a four-letter word where I come from, nothing more. Especially now that I have twice the security. Santi wasted no
