Page 26 of Echoes and Oaths (Guardian Security Dynasty #4)
S he couldn’t breathe. Mateo finally lifted away from the kiss.
No, she couldn’t breathe, and it was because of this man.
Because of the way his eyes fixed on her.
Like the only thing anchoring him to the earth was his connection to her.
Her fingers dug into his chest, feeling the wild thrum of his heart against her palms. He was trembling.
She was, too. Two broken pieces, rattling apart, desperate to be whole.
"You should hate me," he choked out, voice wrecked. "After everything?—"
"Don’t," she cut him off, her throat burning with the pain of unshed tears. "Don’t say it. Don’t put that between us."
His eyes shuttered, pain flashing through them sharp and intense. His hands fisted at her sides as if touching her was shattering the last of his control.
But she was already shattered.
And then suddenly, she wasn’t looking at him anymore. She was clawing at him, pulling on his shirt, hauling him down to her mouth. Kissing him like she could tear the hurt out of them with a simple kiss.
He kissed her back just as violently, his hands tangling in her hair, dragging her head back to devour her mouth. His body shook against hers as if he were barely holding himself together.
"I never stopped loving you," he growled against her lips. "Never. Not once. I'd die before I let you go again."
"Prove it," she gasped, her nails digging into his bare skin, leaving angry red streaks. "Prove you’re still mine."
A savage sound ripped from his throat. Was it a growl, perhaps a prayer, or maybe a curse?
They were pulling at their clothes, frantic and wild and clumsy.
His shirt slipped over his head. Hers hit the floor in a tangled mess.
His hands roamed her body like he couldn’t believe she was real, rough, and tender in turns.
His mouth chased hers, then moved down her neck, over the pulse hammering just beneath her skin.
Her body trembled uncontrollably. Mateo bit her neck, and her core heated in a tight grip of lust and need.
"You're mine," he breathed against her throat. "Mine, Eira. Always."
She arched against him, desperate to feel every inch of him, desperate to banish the fear clawing at the edges of her heart.
"Yours," she whispered, fierce and broken. "Always yours."
He lifted her and carried her toward the bed with a force that stole her breath. But when he laid her down, he wasn’t rough anymore. His hands and lips transformed into something like a prayer. Soft, honest, a voiceless conversation of his hope, and their future.
She realized this, tonight, was everything he couldn’t say in words. This night was all the love, guilt, need, and promises crashing into her as he covered her body with his own.
She spread her legs open for him, inviting him closer, needing him inside her. As close as two humans could become. Their mouths found each other again, slower now, the fury fading into something deeper, more powerful in its tenderness.
When he finally moved inside her, it wasn’t just their bodies that spoke.
It was as if their past, present, and future formed anew in that moment.
The past, their loneliness, and the pain of separation were gone.
The fear of tomorrow and the days they’d be separated was forgotten.
Their future as a family was a dream yet realized.
There was only them. There was only this moment.
She shattered under him. Her core clenching so tight she ached.
The spasms continued as he peaked inside her. She gasped as she shattered again.
When she managed to sense something besides the orgasm, she smiled.
The room smelled like him. Warm skin, sweat, something wild and fierce she couldn't name.
Eira buried her face against his chest, breathing him in, trying to memorize everything, like the way his heartbeat thudded strong and steady under her palm, the rough scratch of his beard against her body, or the way his fingers traced lazy, absent-minded circles against her spine.
She never wanted to leave this moment.
Mateo shifted slightly beneath her, pulling the blanket higher over their tangled bodies. His other hand slid up her back, threading into her hair and cradling her head like he couldn’t bear to let her go.
"You’re not sleeping," he whispered.
“Neither are you,” she hummed back .
He grunted, low in his chest. "I can’t waste a moment."
The words were so rough, so broken, she felt them crack something inside her.
She tilted her head up, and he was watching her in the dark, his eyes softer than she’d ever seen them. The enforcer he portrayed was gone. All that was left was Mateo. The man she knew before.
"I have to leave in the morning," she said quietly, the words like knives against her tongue.
His hand tightened slightly in her hair. Not enough to hurt. Just enough to say he hated it, too.
"Yes," he murmured.
"You …" She swallowed, her throat thick. "You’re going to kill Tomás and the other one you’re looking for." It wasn’t a question.
His jaw flexed, the muscle ticking hard enough she could feel it under her palm. "I have a job to do. I have to finish it, " he said, voice low and grim.
She blinked fast, trying to chase the tears back. She didn’t want him to see her fall apart. Not now. Not when there was so little time left.
"You’ll come to us," she whispered fiercely as if, through sheer willpower, she could make it true. “You’ll be careful? ”
He cupped her face, brushing his thumb under her eye.
"I swear to you, baby. I’ll come to you." He leaned in and kissed her forehead, her cheeks, the corners of her mouth, like sealing the words on her skin. It was reverent and intentional. He whispered between kisses, "Nothing’s keeping me from you again. Nothing."
A tiny sob slipped free, but he stopped it with his kisses, absorbing her pain with a slow, tender, heartbreaking connection.
They didn’t speak again. Words would only make it harder. Instead, he shifted them, tucking her fully against his side, his arm heavy around her waist, his hand splayed protectively over her hip. She curled into him, resting her ear over his heart, listening to the steady, grounding beat.
Mateo murmured something against her hair. It was something low and Spanish and too soft to understand. She let it wrap around her like his protection, warm and unending.
Tomorrow, she would take Teo and run.
Tomorrow, he would become the man everyone said he was, and he would start his hunt.
The sun was barely skimming the horizon when they left the farm, mist curling low over the fields like ghostly fingers trying to pull them back.
She held Mateo while he held Teo. The little boy was still asleep in his father’s arms. The plane scheduled to retrieve them was going to be earlier than expected, and Raven had arrived with the information, waking them and sending her into a rushed packing of Teo and her essentials.
“My mom can come to us after my aunt gets better.” She looked up at Mateo, silently begging him to let her mother come.
“Absolutely. We’ll make sure,” Raven said as she grabbed the small bundle Eira had made with their things. Both dogs were already in the Land Cruiser, and Raven was getting everything else settled.
Mateo looked down at her. “Your mom belongs with us. With Teo.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said. Give me the baby. I’ll get him settled in the truck.” Raven took Teo easily, proving she was more capable with children than she’d alluded to.
Eira turned back to Mateo. “I love you,” she whispered. The words were for his ears only.
He bent down. “Remember what I said last night. Believe in me, mi amore. ”
Her heart felt like a fist was squeezing the life out of her, but she whispered the truth, “I do.”
Mateo kissed her. Soft, reverent, and promising. She slipped out of his arms and walked to the truck hand in hand with him. He opened the door for her and shut it afterward. “Take care of my family, Raven.”
“With my life, dude, you know I will,” she said before she put the vehicle into gear and drove away.
Raven drove with one hand light on the wheel, the other resting casually on the gearshift, but Eira could feel the readiness and tension in her every movement and look.
Each move of the woman’s body was deliberate.
Each glance in the rearview mirror was sharp and assessing.
Eira felt the situation's intensity, and it was more than she’d believed it would be.
Would Tomás send someone to take her and Teo?
Would he bring the wrath of Mateo down on himself?
Well, Tomás had accomplished more than Eira had thought the man could do.
He was the head of the cartel in the area, and that …
well, she just couldn’t understand it. Tomás was many things, but he wasn’t a leader.
The road twisted through patches of tired farmland and dense jungle scrub.
Trees grew in close, casting shadows across the cracked asphalt.
Along the edges, makeshift homes made of crumbling cinderblock with rusted roofs clung to the landscape.
They lined the drive like battered survivors in a country on the brink of imploding.
They passed a few others on the road. Battered motorcycles overloaded with cargo, farmers herding skinny cattle, and the occasional truck coughing up dust in their wake. Most people kept their heads down and eyes low. Everyone knew how dangerous it was to be noticed these days.
As they neared the highway, the environment changed.
Traffic thickened with military transports and beat-up government trucks, not with families or traders.
Soldiers manned temporary roadblocks, standing beneath sun-bleached flags with rifles slung low and suspicious glares cutting through the windshields.