As I pushed back the tears burning my throat and stinging my eyes.
"I know what Chloe told you," he said as his second knee touched the mattress. He put a palm to either side of my feet, leaning forward like he prowled toward his dinner as he came closer and closer in my peripheral vision.
"Are Chloe and Hugo okay?" I asked, daring a look at him. If me knowing even the barest of details about the things he'd done had led to my abduction when he'd spent days with me, what would happen to the virtual strangers who actually spoke of his crimes?
"They're fine. For now," he said, drawing a distressed gasp from my lips. “Whether they remain that way depends entirely upon you.” I didn't dare to ask what I'd have to do to keep them safe. What would he expect of me in return for sparing my friends’ lives?
“Is it true?" I asked instead. “What Chloe said?” Darkness swirled in his bright gaze, like a monster from the depths coming to claim the victim who'd gotten away.
"You asked me a question," he murmured, his cruel smirk tipping his lips up at the edge as he stared back at me in challenge. "Are you finally ready for the answer?"
I drew in a pained gasp, knowing that I would never be ready. But waking up naked in his bed after being kidnapped off the streets of Ibiza meant that I was out of time. I couldn't bury my head in the sand when the reality of the kind of man he was stared me right in the face.
"Yes," I answered, ignoring the pit in my stomach that warned me to pull the covers over my head. The part of me that wanted nothing more than to pretend my nightmare wasn't happening.
That I hadn't fallen in love with an irredeemable monster.
"She told you I'm a murderer," he said, stretching out one of those hands to tuck a stray lock of bed head behind my ear. The callous of his thumb touched my face, trailing from my ear down to my lips to tug the flesh of it to the side as he stared at my mouth. "It isn't untrue," he said. The odd wording made a moment of hope bloom in my chest—foolishly, because whether it was true or not, the way he'd terrified me and abducted me would never be acceptable. "But your friend has no idea what I've done. Murderer only scratches the surface of the man I am, Princesa. I've lost count of the number of lives I've claimed." If there'd been food in my stomach, I might have been sick.
"I let you inside me," I whimpered.
He smiled at me. "You did. You even let me inside you when I came back last night after killing a man at Lotus," he said, his voice dropping lower as he spoke the words. Even in the horrifying circumstances, the cadence of his voice was like the sweetest torment, drawing me deeper into his web.
I wanted to run away. I should have tried. But something in him kept me rooted to the spot and desperate to keep his eyes on mine. Like a deer stuck in the headlights, I couldn't look away from the devastating beauty that was Rafael Ibarra.
He was the worst of me, the worst of humanity, and he called to the demons hiding within my soul. But I couldn't let him have me, no matter how much I wanted to love the monster like I loved the man.
He stood in the way of me going home, of me getting back to the family that needed me and doing what was expected of me. He'd be the reason they worried about me, and potentially, never knew what happened to me.
He'd terrified me, hurt me, and stolen me off the streets.
All I wanted was to go home.
He dropped his hand from my mouth, waiting for me to make a move or say something in response to his dark confession. He'd touched me with the blood of a murder on his hands, even if it hadn't been there literally. He'd sullied me with his touch, tormented me with his darkness.
I didn't move for a moment, staring back at him. Then, with the sudden ferocity of a woman fighting for her life, I kicked my legs out at him. One caught him in the thigh, the other in the stomach, and I propelled myself across the bed as I twisted my limbs and fought to get away. He grunted and rocked back, nearly faltering off the side of the bed with the force of my kick.
He moved faster than should have been possible, recovering quickly as a hand came down in a hard slap to my ass while I dove for the edge of the bed. I didn't care that I'd tumble off it face first, only that the other side of the bed was farther away from him.
Away from the arms that wanted to lure me back into his possession and trap me there forever. I screamed, the shrill sound echoing through the bedroom as he grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled me back with it.
My scalp exploded in pain, his grip threatening to rip it from my head as I brought both hands up to try to pry his fingers off. He focused on dragging my body back across the bed, laying his weight across mine to trap me while I whimpered in pain. Only when he had me pinned did he loosen his grip, letting me breathe as the burning in my scalp began to fade.
"That—" He paused, using the more relaxed grip on my hair to turn my head to the
