Page 28 of His to Bedevil

“Except for my freedom.”

I’m about to agree with her when my phone goes off. Seeing that it’s Berto, I reluctantly answer it. “Yeah.”

“We have a location, and we’re moving out. I’ll contact you as soon as we have him,” he rushes out.

“Just remember I want him alive. I’ll see you back in Cuba.” I hang up the phone.

“Who are you going after?” she asks curiously, and I think about not telling her, but there’s no reason to keep it from her. I do plan on using it to my advantage.

“We’ve located your friend, Matches.” I study her closely for her reaction.

She shoots up into a sitting position, eyes wild and frantic. “What! What are you going to do to him?” Her voice is high, and she’s shaking with fear.

Folding my arms, I place them behind my head, and I look at her, amused. “What do you think I’m going to do with him, my love?”

“Please, Alejandro. He had nothing to do with it,” she begs, and I’m getting the sense that she cares for this person, maybe too much.

“What does he mean to you?”

Her face hardens, and she tries her best to hide her emotions. “He’s… a friend.”

Suddenly it feels like something is crushing my chest in, and I can feel every thump my heart makes. She said a friend, but her tone said more. He’s her lover. Or hewasher lover, because now she’smine. “Well, thisfriendof yours will be in my custody by tomorrow.”

“What will you do with him?”

“What do you think?”

She swallows. “What you did with me,” she whispers.

Reaching up, I pinch a lock of her hair and rub it between my finger and thumb, transfixed by the softness of it. “Not exactly. I don’t have the same sort of attachment to him as I do you. His time in confinement won’t be as humane as yours was. And I’m afraid it won’t end the same for him as it did for you.”

Her eyes bug out. “You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?”

“It’s what I do to those who cross me,mi amor.”

“Except for me.”

“Except for you.”

“Because you want me as your little plaything.”

Sitting up, I thread my fingers into her hair and cup her face. With my free hand, I trace my fingers over her lips. “You will not be my plaything, my love. You will be myeverything.”

Her eyelids flutter for a moment as she succumbs to my caress. Her lips part, and her tongue runs over her bottom lip, grazing my finger. As soon as she tastes my finger, it’s as if a bucket of ice water has been dumped over her head. Her eyes pop open wide, and her mouth snaps shut. “Please don’t kill him. Please.”

Now, it’s as if ice water has been dumped over my head. Dropping my hand from her lips, I use the other one in her hair to grip it tightly, making her wince. Bringing her just an inch from my face, my eyes burn into hers. She begins to tremble, but I can still see a hint of excitement twinkling in her eyes. “I will do what I must do, Irma. Even if it will upset you.”

“It won’t just upset me. It will make mehateyou,” she snaps as her eyes are set ablaze.

I cock my head to the side. “You don’t already hate me,mi pequita? I did abduct you, imprison you, starve you, leave you in the darkness for weeks, and I amneverletting you go.” I know I’m pushing her, but I need to break her a little so I can be the one that gets to piece her back together.

“You’re right. I do hate you. But if you kill him, I’ll never let it go. I’ll never let you have me.”

“But you are already mine.”

“Physically, you have me. But that’s all you’ll ever get. And even that is not of my own free will.”

The fact that she’s trying to deny herself to me, that she could never love me, it infuriates me and drives me to possess her even more. Irma is mine, and one day everything she has to give will be mine. She’ll give it all to me, willingly.