Page 3

Chapter Two

Esteban

The woman makes me harder than a fucking steel pipe. I’d love to lay some pipe.

That’s a strange American expression I learned in college, but it fits. Fucking hell, I’d make my pipe fit.

I’m worse than a fucking thirteen-year-old boy who can’t help but laugh at anything sexual.

I shouldn’t be making jokes about my boss’s niece.

I also shouldn’t have approached her when all I was supposed to do was watch her.

But I couldn’t stop myself when I realized I could speak to her without her guard seeing me.

I stepped out of the front door as though I was taking a call and sneaked in the back.

When I returned through the front door, she pretended not to see me walk past her table as her sister arrived, but I’m certain she did.

Luciana Diaz is the last woman in the world I should be attracted to.

Any man in her family would kill me if they knew I’ve had a hard-on for her since the moment I spotted her.

That I was way too tempted to back her into the bathroom and fuck her.

I may have known who she was before meeting her today, but she was still a virtual stranger.

I don’t fuck strange women. I don’t fuck women in restrooms. I don’t fuck women I’m assigned to watch. But I want to break all of those rules.

I’m fucking looking death in the face—much closer than I ever have before—if her brothers find out.

Her father isn’t one to mess with either, but Enrique and Luis are even more creative than their father with torture.

I know because I’ve seen what they can do on their own and when they’re together. In no way do I want that to be my fate.

It would piss Humberto off for an entirely different reason.

He’s not paying me to daydream about his niece, which is what I’m doing right now.

It’s a damn good thing I’m alone in the back of this town car.

With the privacy glass up and a twenty-minute drive to Humberto’s place, it would be so easy to rub one off.

I keep remembering how good she smelled and how she fought not to react to me calling her chiquita .

What the ever-loving fuck possessed me to say that?

I’ve called no woman that before. It’s never even crossed my mind.

For starters, she’s smaller than me, but it’s way more than that.

She’s a pawn in more games than she knows exists.

The men in her life should protect her, not use her like a chess piece they wish to capture. She deserves protecting.

I’ve never been into the idea of arranged marriages despite how my parents have hinted way too many times. I don’t want to marry a woman because she’s merely convenient for my family or me.

I think that’s part of what bothers me so much about Luciana’s situation.

Her father adores her, and he’s practically over the top protective—still shocks me she went to the restroom alone—but he’ll use her for the greater good.

I want to say that doesn’t sit well with me, but I’m about to do the same thing.

I sit back with my eyes closed, forcing my mind away from Luciana until the car stops and shifts into park. I’m alone, so I don’t stifle my aggrieved sigh.

Fucking hell. Here we go again.

I climb out of the backseat and head into the mansion.

The man’s taste is gaudier than Liberace.

My grandmother loved him. It’s the only reason I know who the dead singer was.

It certainly wasn’t for a fashion sense I’d want to copy.

Talk about over the top and gauche. I glance at Humberto’s gold-plated banister and want to laugh.

You can see where the veneer’s chipping if you look in the right spot.

The old pedazo de mierda loves his furs and jewelry as if he were a washed-up Vegas stripper.

“Esteban?”

“ Sí, capitan .”

He wishes he could go by jefe , but he knows that’d push people too far. But if he has his way, he’ll have that title before the summer’s over.

“What did you learn?”

Demanding fucker.

“She met with her fiancé then her sister. It didn’t look like love in paradise between Domingo and her.”

That fucker. Fuck him.

Caremonda . Penis face.

I’ve never liked Domingo Aguilar. The man was born with a silver spoon up his ass. Our families are not friends.

“What were they talking about?”

“They kept their voices down. Short of sitting at the table with them, there was no way to hear them. But I suspect it was about their wedding. She kept touching her engagement ring, twisting it like she wanted to take it off.”

I would’ve loved nothing more than to see her throw it in his face.

He’s so far beneath her, he’s on the other side of the world.

I don’t know her, but I know enough about him that I wouldn’t wish him on anyone.

He has a temper, and he’s already unfaithful.

He’ll treat her like shit the moment the honeymoon is over.

Probably before that since they’ll be away from her family.

“Did you speak to her?”

“No. There wasn’t a chance.”

“How the fuck are you supposed to seduce her if you don’t talk to her?”

“I never agreed to that.”

“You don’t have to agree. You do what the fuck you’re paid for.”

I straighten my shoulders and lift my chin.

Unlike Lucy—where the hell did that come from—I can look down my nose at the viejo .

I mean that insult far more than she did.

I’m way bigger than he was even in his prime.

I don’t need to take a menacing step toward him to make it clear I could snap his neck in half. Killing him won’t serve my purpose.

“You know I’m not here for the money.”

“No. You hate my brother more than I do. Seducing his daughter should be the icing on the cake.”

I shrug. “I may hate Josue because he shoved his daughter into bed with the heir to a family I loathe, but I’m not harming any Diaz woman. You may not have limits, but I do.”

That’s about the only one I have. No women and no children. I don’t wage war against them, and I don’t take them prisoner.

“Sure.” Humberto laughs and turns away, expecting me to follow him into his office alone.

“I’m serious, capitan . I’ll follow her and watch her, even scare her, but I won’t harm her. I still have to look my mother in the eye.”

She’d flay me alive. Any person who doesn’t fear their mother more than anyone else is an idiota .

Anyone who can survive the pains of giving birth is someone who understands how to inflict it.

They may never do it, but they know what the body can endure.

How far it can be pushed. And no one is more protective than a mother defending her kids.

If my mother thinks Humberto’s corrupted me enough to harm a woman or child, the man will die watching her slit his throat.

I don’t doubt for a moment that Lucy would be that kind of mother.

Why the fuck did I think that? What the fuck is wrong with me? I’ve wanted to fuck women before, but never have they distracted me this much.

Humberto stares at me, then nods. “If I didn’t know your mother, I might think you’re a pussy. She scares even me.”

That’s not saying much, considering how many guards he has at his house and how many who go everywhere with him. He fears the fucking wind. He wouldn’t have to if he’d leave his older brother alone, but he’s so fucking jealous of Josue that he can’t help himself.

“Dinner’s at seven-thirty, so I’ll get there around eight-fifteen. Did you find out who else will be there?” He assumes his family will wait for him, but they won’t. He’ll have a hissy fit the entire way home that I’ll have to listen to.

“Domingo and his parents, Matáis, and Josue’s family.” I almost wince since Humberto hates being reminded that Josue only considers his wife and children to be his family.

He gives me a disgusted look before sitting behind his desk.

He shuffles some papers as though he has shit I can’t see.

It doesn’t impress me, and my focus on the garden tells him how little I care.

Lucy might have heard of me as Humberto’s enforcer, but I don’t need to work for the man.

I don’t need to work for anyone. I have more than enough money I earned on my own, never mind what I’ll inherit.

Humberto knows that. He truly believes I want to fuck his brother over as much as he does.

I’ve worked past that. Barely.

“Sounds like wedding bells are already ringing. Josue must plan to announce the date regardless of whether Luciana’s ready.”

“I read her and her sister’s lips well enough to know they talked about him for a bit. She seemed no more excited when she talked about him than she did when she talked to him.”

Humberto and his minions don’t need to know I’m a fluent lipreader.

My cousin Alicia is two weeks older than me and was born deaf.

Our fathers feared for her since the day they discovered she can’t hear.

They worried someone would take advantage of her or abduct her if she didn’t hear them coming.

They appointed me her guardian after I’d already appointed myself.

She and I were best friends growing up until our interests went in different directions and so did our responsibilities.

But when she was learning to read lips, so was I.

We’d already learned sign language together.

We spent hours practicing together as she learned to talk.

People still expect me to be her interpreter, but I let her speak for herself.

I wouldn’t want to disappoint her any more than I do my mother, so I have double the reason to never hurt a woman.

I won’t tell Humberto or anyone else what I learned about Luciana’s sexual preferences.

Realizing she’s into kink didn’t make my cock calm down.

Just the opposite. Lurid images of tying her up and fucking her while she begged for more keep playing through my mind even as I talk to her tío , my boss.