Chapter 8

8

JAVIER

“ W e still haven’t located Perez,” Lorenzo informs me as we walk to the elevator after dinner. It was the longest dinner of my life and I’m in no mood to hear bad news.

“Why the fuck not?” I demand, jabbing the button for the elevator.

“Maybe because he’s an asshole who’s fucking good at evading us.” The glare he shoots me matches the glares I receive from Emilia these days. “The fuck is wrong with you tonight? You’re being more of a motherfucker than usual.”

We step into the elevator and my sense of being caged in is stronger than ever. The restraint I’m practicing in all areas of my life is close to breaking point.

I need Perez found.

I need this wedding to take place.

I need Emilia to fucking submit to me.

“Just fucking find him,” I bark.

Lorenzo continues glaring at me as he turns silent. We ride up to his floor without another word and he exits with “I hope you wake up in a better fucking mood tomorrow.”

I reach my floor and stride into the suite, every muscle strained, every thought strained, every fucking sense strained.

Emilia tested every ounce of patience I have tonight.

She defied me at every possible turn.

Her shoes.

The conversations she had with people in which she talked about living in New York after our wedding rather than dividing her time between America and Colombia.

Her refusal to stay with me after dinner when I requested her presence during a conversation with our fathers.

She needs to learn that I will tolerate a lot from her, but that I won’t tolerate everything.

And she needs to learn that now.

I find her in the library on her laptop. When I enter the room, she looks up at me like a wild gusty storm blew in. Eyes wide, she swallows hard and has the good sense not to utter a word.

“Tonight did not go well,” I say, my tone harsh, my angry stare harsher. “In future, when I request something of you, you will give it to me, no questions asked. Am I understood?”

She puts her laptop aside and stands. “You have always been perfectly understood, Javier. That is not our problem here.” She takes a step toward me. “Our problem is that I’m a woman who likes compromise in a relationship and you have never been a man who can do that.”

“You need to move past what happened two years ago, Emilia.”

“I won’t ever move past that. I loved you. I gave you my all. I would have given you my life. And you threw it all away for reasons you never shared with me and turned up on the arm of another woman at a dinner hours after breaking my heart.” She takes the last few steps to stand in front of me. Jabbing her finger angrily into my chest, she continues, “Until you tell me why, and until you figure out how to compromise, our marriage is going to be nothing but a headache for you. I promise you that.”

I don’t fucking doubt her.

Her anger is as savage as mine, and if there’s one thing I know about women for damn sure, it’s that anger like this causes them to act in ways that make no sense.

I squeeze my hand around her wrist. “Headaches are my specialty. I make them go away when they don’t suit me. Don’t ever forget that.”

She tries to flick her wrist out of mine, but I grasp it tighter, keeping her where she is. “And I thought you said you didn’t want to put a bullet through my head.”

“I don’t, but there are other ways for me to achieve what I want. If you keep testing me, you will discover what they are.”

Her breaths come faster as she contemplates that, and I’m helpless but to take in her beauty. Fuck, Emilia simply breathing turns me on, let alone when she stands in front of me with her red hair surrounding her wildly, her flawless face, and eyes that burn with the very essence of her that I can’t get enough of.

“Let me go,” she finally says.

“Not until you indicate that you understand what I need from you going forward.”

“I’m not going to indicate any such thing.” She glowers at me. “Let me go.”

“Fucking hell,” I thunder, gathering her into my arms and carrying her into the bedroom, ignoring the way she struggles in my arms. Depositing her on the bed, I return her glare. “We can fight all night long if need be, but by the time you say ‘I do’ tomorrow, you will do so with the knowledge that I won’t indulge every rebellion of yours.”

Moving fast, she jerks up off the bed and comes at me with her hands, slapping my chest. “I fucking hate you and I already fucking hate this marriage. And we’re not even fucking married yet!”

Wrapping my arms tightly around her, I say, “You don’t fucking hate me, dulzura .” I bring my mouth to her ear. “That’s not possible when you love me like you do.”

The way she arches into me causes my gut to tighten, and her breathless tone shoots need straight to my dick when she says, “I don’t love you.”

My hand splays across her ass and I press her against my erection. “You do. It’s all over you. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t fight me so damn much.”

“Don’t touch me! You need to let me go. Now, Javier!”

I don’t let her go.

I bend my mouth to her neck and kiss her. All the way down to her breasts. While grinding my cock against her.

“Tell me you don’t like that,” I say, finding her eyes again.

“I don’t.”

“You’re lying. You’re barely even fighting for your release.”

Keeping one arm around her, I bring my other hand up to slide the strap of her dress off her shoulder. Kissing the bare skin there, I rasp, “Tell me you don’t want me to fuck you.”

Her whimper as I kiss another trail down from her shoulder to her breast is the only response I get.

I reach down to bunch her dress up and slip my hand under it and into her panties.

Another whimper escapes her lips as I push three fingers inside her.

“You can’t tell me you don’t want me, because you do fucking want me.”

When I reach deeper, she loses all self-control.

Her hands come to my face and she takes hold of it while bringing her mouth to mine. She kisses me with an urgency that tests my self-control.

Her tongue demands mine in ways that mess with my thoughts.

Her fingers dig into my skin in ways that I like.

And her moans fuck with me completely.

“Fuck,” I growl, dragging my lips from hers and my fingers from her pussy. “This is your last chance. Tell me you don’t want me to fuck you.”

She doesn’t tell me that, and instead of walking away, she crashes into me, her hands coming furiously to my hair, and her mouth coming back to mine, demanding the fucking world from me.

I take hold of her and walk her backwards. Forcing her against the wall, I shred her dress from her body in one swift movement. My dick is already hard as hell, but the sight of her dressed only in her underwear gets me harder.

Fucking hell.

This woman will be my wife tomorrow.

Mine.

I need to be inside her.

I need to fucking claim her.

Mark her.

Do every-fucking-thing to let her know she’s mine and mine only.

Wrapping my hand around her neck, I turn her to face the wall. Freeing my cock, I growl, “Take your underwear off.”

She does as ordered and I curve my hand over her ass, sliding my thumb between her cheeks.

“Oh, God,” she moans as I rub my thumb over the place where she loves it the most. Reaching for my cock, she begs, “Fuck me, Javier.”

The words I’ve been waiting for send me over the edge.

I grip her hips and slam my dick inside her.

She puts both hands to the wall and takes every thrust.

We’re a frantic explosion of lust and war.

Pleasure and pain.

Love and hate.

This isn’t a ceasefire, but it’s everything we both need.

And after we come, I sense the change in her.

She might still think she hates me, but her body is telling a whole other story.

One she’s started paying attention to.

I know this because there’s not one trace of conviction in her words when she meets my gaze and says, “For the record, I don’t love you.”

I kiss her. Roughly. Savagely. “It doesn’t matter if you do or don’t. Tomorrow you will be mine and that is all that matters.”

I pull out of her and zip myself up before turning and stalking out of the bedroom.

I need some distance between us after this encounter.

I need to get my thoughts together and figure out how the fuck I’m going to find Perez.

I’ll be fucking damned if I’ll let him come for my woman.