“Not that kind of protection,Cereza.” A flicker of something I couldn’t put my finger on crossed his eyes. As I looked into them I knew they’d seen more destruction than entire cities combined. The cords in his neck tightened as he opened his hand, and a long chain dropped from his palm, the rounded base swinging above my nose. “This kind.”
I recognized it immediately.
“Oh, my God, that’s my…?”
“I can’t explain it, either. Every man near that stash house is dead. The building is gone, and my car is a pile of ash, but somehow, I walked away from it all. Moments before the blast, I pulled this out of my pocket by accident, and I remembered what you said about it protecting me.” The corners of his mouth turned down as he stared at the St. Michael medallion intently. “I’m not a religious man,Cereza, but stupid as it sounds, something told me to put it on. Now, whether that something was my own paranoia, you inside my head, or this fictitious God I keep hearing about…I don’t know. All Idoknow is I’m here with you, and those other men’s families are burying what’s left of them.”
His confession grounded me. I couldn’t speak as I stared at the medallion, swinging from his crooked finger. Was it a sign? Did I even believe in signs anymore? What the hell did I believe?
“You made it back because you’re indestructible, Val Carrera.”
One corner of his mouth lifted in a private thought, meant only for him. “I made it back because I had someone to come back for, Eden Lachey.”
His tenderness threw me. I wanted his anger as an escape and to prove to myself what we were doing was a temporary product of my confinement and grief. But as he whispered my name, I found my fingers sliding up the length of his arm, twining around the chain still dangling from his hand.
Val’s eyes shifted, watching with a strange fascination. In a surprise move, he entwined our fingers, as the medallion enclosed tightly in between our palms. Lowering his body, he stared at my mouth a moment or two before brushing his lips against one corner, then to the other. With his chest against mine, I felt his heart pound with either anticipation or fear.
I understood both.
With an unhurried calmness I’d never seen from Val, he cradled my cheek in his palm and delivered a slow, powerful kiss, exploring as he tasted, caressing as he licked.
No frenzy. No blinding need.
As his lips traced the shell of my outer ear, my mind raced, confused at this ruthless killer who held me as if I were the most breakable piece of priceless china in the world.
“What did you say before?”
Pausing, a hot wave of his breath filled my ear. “Before?”
I nodded. “In the bathroom…when I, uh…well, you said it in Spanish.” I had no idea what the hell I was saying. Random words short-circuited from my brain to my mouth, attempting to reconcile the shift in his behavior.
His fingers tightened around mine. “Quiero hacerte el amor lentamente. It means I want to make love to you slowly.”
With five words in a language I didn’t understand, I let go. “Then do it.”
I’d never been touched as gently and reverently in my life. Val took his time, kissing any and everything, making sure nothing felt rushed or impatient. He did exactly as he wanted. He made love to me slowly. Purposely. Passionately. Intensely.
He held me through our combined cries, his arms woven around me long after sleep claimed him. But sleep hadn’t come for me and wouldn’t for a long time. As we lay wrapped around each other, I realized with stark clarity, at that moment, Val Carrera was the most vulnerable he’d been since the moment I awoke, cuffed to a metal bed.
There couldn’t have been a more perfect opportunity to escape to my long-desired freedom. I wasn’t restrained. The door wasn’t chained. Get dressed and leave—it was that simple.
But it wasn’t that simple. Because for all that had broken me in the since walking into Caliente, I didn’t want to.
Staring up at the ceiling, I silently cursed myself for becoming entangled with a man I had no intention of leaving.
Chapter Twenty
VAL
The whole morningEden and I kept our distance as we packed up what little we’d brought with us. A few stolen glances were all we allowed ourselves as my men cleared out any trace of our presence the past few days.
As a residence, the place was a piece of shit, but I’d be lying if I said leaving it didn’t give me mixed feelings. It was the place I’d brought Eden to as a prisoner and was leaving as a willing companion.
I still had a hard time processing the thought or even beginning to rationalize it.
She had every opportunity to leave in the middle of the night. I awoke this morning, half-expecting to find the bed empty beside me. It didn’t take but a moment to feel her warm skin still pressed against me, resting peacefully. Well, as peaceful as one could be after all I’d put her through.
“Is that everything?” Tucking his gun into the waistband of his jeans, Mateo glanced from me to Eden, his eyes questioning but silent.
