Shaking my head, I grabbed the handle on the car, determined to wait in there until he had his fun or gave up on his stupid idea. A lifetime of fear wouldn't just be overcome because he felt like going for a swim.
A pool was one thing. They had edges and people to help if something went wrong.
They weren't questionable in depth, but a defined depth for safety. Never again would I step foot in a natural body of water.
Rafe sighed, closing the small distance between us quicker than should have been possible and taking my wrist in his grip. His thumb stroked over the joint gently despite the suddenness with which he'd grabbed me. "I'll be with you the entire time."
"That doesn't mean I can just jump into a fucking lake with you! Are you kidding me right now?" I pulled back, feeling like the day had served as a convenient reminder of everything I needed to remember.
He didn't know me, and I didn't know him.
"Take me back to Ibiza, please."
He quirked a brow, that intense gaze of his turning unsettling as he stared down at me. "No," he said, his lip twisting with the words. My pulse quickened, sensing that small hint of something that lurked beneath the surface. With a glance at the man standing next to the walkway to go up and around the falls, I looked back to Rafe with a flare of my nostrils and purse of my lips.
I huffed in disbelief as I shook my head and fought back the surge of emotions within me. I'd been so fucking stupid to think he understood that my fear came from a place of trauma. From something not so easily overcome. Leaning into his space, I laid down the challenge I knew probably wasn't my smartest move.
But something in the cruel set of his eyes made me want to defy him.
Something in the excited parting of his lips told me he wanted that too.
"Fuck this," I snarled, turning on my heel and yanking my wrist out of his grip. Hiking my purse up on my shoulder, I strode down the road we'd entered in on and made for the main street. Once I had enough distance and found a safe place to settle, I'd call Hugo to come and get me.
But I'd be damned if I would get in that water with him.
"You don't want to walk away from me, Princesa," Rafe murmured at my back. The words crawled up my spine, insidious and menacing enough to halt me in my tracks and turned back to glare at him.
I swallowed my nerves, pushing down the budding fear that he brought with his carefully crafted words. Rafe could be terrifying when he wanted to be.
I just wasn't sure if the frightening face was the mask, or if it was what really waited beneath the charming demeanor he gave me in all the other moments.
"And why is that?" I asked, pressing my lips together and turning back around to hide the slight tremble in them. He was the kind of man my grandmother warned me about with her stories. The temptation and lure of evil spirits. as they resided in people who looked just like us.
But evil couldn't look like beauty carved in stone, could it? Even if it did explain why I burned when he touched me.
He stepped closer, until I felt the heat of his body at my back. His hand reached around me to grab my face and tilt it, so that I stared him in the eye with one of mine. "Because I'll chase you," he murmured, leaning down to touch his lips to my cheek in a slow brush of heat against my skin. His mouth slid up until his nose touched my hair, breathing me in deeply. He hummed just above my ear. "I think the real question is, what will I do when I catch you?"
I swallowed down the saliva in my mouth, clenching my eyes shut as I tried to think of an appropriate response to words like that.
What did one say, when the man she was falling head over heels in love with showed signs of being a monster?
"That isn't funny, Rafe," I whispered, stumbling over my own feet as he turned my body to face him. His hand gripped my hair harshly, tipping my head back until I met his unyielding gaze.
"Am I laughing, Princesa?" I shook my head slightly, wincing when his grip didn't relent. "I promise you, I am far scarier than whatever you think lurks in the fucking water."
He released me as suddenly as he'd grabbed me, taking a few steps away before he paused and looked back at where I stood, rooted to my spot and staring at him in horror. I looked to the road, watching as the man who stood guard puffed up his chest and stood a little taller.
It felt like I'd walked into a trap, and still didn't understand even the basics of what it would mean for me.
A cage without walls. A pressing force on my chest.
"Don't do it," Rafael warned me, drawing my attention back to him. He held out a hand, waiting for me to take it. It was a test, I realized, as he forced me to make a decision then and there. "I like it when you tell me no," he murmured, making my breath hitch in my lungs as he tilted his head to the side and studied me. "I think I'll like it when you fight me too, and so will you," he growled.
I swallowed, wishing I could deny the perverse part of me that craved everything he talked about. I wanted him to chase me.
I wanted him to catch me, and I wanted him to show me everything that I dreamt of in my most forbidden desires. But it couldn't happen. I could never give voice to
