Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 124140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124140 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Oh. Talk about anticlimactic.
“You definitely want me to stay?”
“Try to leave and you’ll really face my wrath,” he warned her. “You’re staying right here where I can protect and take care of you.”
She sucked in a breath. “Alejandro?”
“Yes?”
“Do you love me?”
Crap. She was really laying it all out there. Making herself vulnerable.
“Yes, I love you. I don’t know exactly when I fell in love with you. To be honest, I never thought I would love again. Although, I’m starting to wonder if I ever did love Elena because what I feel for you . . . it’s deeper, harder, far more fierce. You’re the brightest part of my day. When I’m with you, the sun is always shining. We just have to feel our way, to make things work for both of us.”
“You could start by promising that from now on, you’ll only give me fun spankings.”
“Nice try, but I know the truth.”
“What?” she asked with a scowl.
“You need the punishment spankings as much as I need to give them. And soon, you’ll be feeling my belt on that ass of yours. So prepare yourself.”
She swallowed. Yikes.
“But I need to tell you about Elena and what happened.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I am. I need to learn to open up. There are always going to be things I can’t tell you. But this isn’t one of those things. I met her when I was twenty-one. I was so arrogant. So full of myself. I thought I could do anything.”
“And that’s different from how you are now because . . .”
“Watch your mouth, brat. You ever had it washed out with soap?”
“I’ll be quiet.”
“She was older than me. Quiet. Obedient. Sweet.”
“She sounds perfect.”
“She wasn’t. She was a liar. She wasn’t faithful. Or loyal. Although, I guess part of that was my fault.”
“What? How?”
“She was my first real relationship. I’d only recently figured out I was a Daddy Dom. She was my Little. Although now, I wonder if she was mostly pretending to keep my interest. I was selfish. I didn’t pay enough attention to her. Dante needed my help to keep his hold over the cartel and I was often away for days at a time. I guess she was lonely. She went looking for attention elsewhere.”
She sucked in a breath. “Seriously? Why didn’t she just leave you if she wasn’t happy?”
“I wouldn’t have made that easy for her.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t have listened to her if she’d tried to talk to me. She was my sub, my Little, and I thought that meant I had her complete loyalty and obedience.”
Shit. She could understand how this was messed up for both of them.
“What happened to her?”
“Dante warned me that there was something going on with her. That she was keeping things from me. But I didn’t want to listen. I grew angry with him, thinking that he wanted her for himself. So one day, I followed her when she went on a shopping trip. But that’s when I saw her . . . with him.”
“Who?”
“His name was Cisco Garcia. And he was one of Dante’s lieutenants. A trusted man. He was also plotting against him. He paid off Elena’s guards so that they looked the other way while she visited him. He was using her to get to Dante, so that she could help him kill Dante without anyone knowing that he was behind it.”
“She told you all that?”
“No, she told Dante. I went into a rage. I raced into the house where they were holed up and tried to kill the bastard. I was outnumbered and beaten to within an inch of my life. Only thing that saved me was that Dante had men following Elena as well, and they rescued me before Cisco could deliver a parting shot. Cisco disappeared, and I was taken to the hospital. They had to put me into an induced coma because of my head injuries.”
“Oh my God,” she gasped, looking horrified.
“Dante took Elena into custody to question her. By the time I gained consciousness, she was dead.”
“He killed her?” Her hand went to her mouth.
“No. There were more rats in his ranks than he’d realized. Someone poisoned her while she was in custody. But the thing is, I failed her.”
“Alejandro, no. You made mistakes, but she still made the choice to cheat on you. She could have told you she was unhappy. She could have made you let her go. I don’t believe that you wouldn’t have listened.”
Things made a lot more sense to her now.
“She lied to you like I did.”
“No, I thought that too, to begin with. But now I can see that it’s not the same. Your lies were because you were worried about someone else. You didn’t lie in order to harm me or mine but to find your Mama. I just have a trigger when it comes to lies and deception.”