“Then the child is not for sale.” He pushes to his feet in one smooth motion.
“I’ll give you one million for her. You could buy women.”
He braces his palms on the table. “Ah, how frivolous your morality is. You won’t give me these women, but would allow me to buy others. Why? So your conscience can remain a little clearer?” He tilts his head in that animalistic way. “No. It’s her, isn’t it? Your precious Anna.” If he says her name again, I might have to kill him right here.
“How many?” I ask.
The smug grin that covers his face is like a shot of fire in my veins and I have to temper my rage. “I see you are coming to your senses.”
“No, I simply need all the facts.”
“Twenty should do it.”
I stand up, fastening the button of my jacket. “I’ll consider your offer and get back to you.”
“Tick tock.” Turning away, I walk out of the room to the sound of his laughter. He’s definitely crazier than Nicholai, and that’s saying something.
As soon as we’re in the lift, Samuel speaks. “You aren’t trading them.” I say nothing because I don’t know what to tell him. I can’t make a decision on this. Anna needs to. If I know her like I think I do, then Anna would never trade those women, not even for her own child.
By the time we land back in Juarez, it’s late, and it’s not until the early hours that we pull up in front of the house. Everything is quiet. Only the men on guard remain awake.
As I reach the top of the stairs, I hear a scream from the end of the hall. I stride down the corridor push my bedroom door open. Anna writhes on the bed as another scream slips from her lips.
“Avecita.” I move to the bed and stroke her hair away from her sweat-drenched face. She drags in a shuddering breath, her eyes flying open as her fingers grip onto my shirt. “Shh, it’s okay.”
Her chest rises and falls on panting breaths. “Rafe?”
“Another nightmare?”
She sits up and drags both hands through her hair. “What happened with Dimitri Petrov?”
“Let’s talk about it in the morning.”
She sits up straighter. “Rafael?”
“I need time to think on it before I talk to you, avecita.” I kiss her forehead. “Just have a little patience.”
Her eyes lock with mine, and I can see the frustration in them, but I also know the heartbreak that Dimitri’s deal will cause her. I want to put that off for as long as possible. At least until the morning.
Standing up, I strip out of my clothes and get into the bed with her. I tug her down against my chest. “Come on. Sleep.”
“Rafe…”
“Just a few hours, little warrior. Just give me a few hours where the world isn’t crashing down around us.”
She exhales a shaky breath and settles down against me. “Okay,” she whispers. And even though I know she wants to argue because she needs to know whether or not I managed to get her child for her, she falls into silence. She gives me these precious few hours to just hold her.
The minutes tick by, turning to hours, until the darkness starts to turn to gray, and the first rays of dawn break the peacefulness of the night.
“I can’t sleep,” she finally murmurs.
Placing my finger beneath her chin, I tilt her head back until I can place my lips to hers. “Try.”
Her eyes lock with mine before dropping to my lips. “No.” Shifting, she throws a leg over my hips and straddles me. “Distract me.”
“Avecita,” I groan as her heat presses over my cock.
“Make me feel something good, Rafe, before you take it all away.” She knows already.
I pull her to me and her lips land over mine. She tastes like honey and warm sunshine and everything that I crave so deeply. She’s my addiction, my weakness, the cause of my own personal torture, but I don’t care. I’d give anything for this, to keep her right here.
Her tongue skates over my lip, demanding and begging at the same time. She wants me to take her pain away, and it’s all I want for her. Her fingers slide beneath the waistband of my boxers, freeing me. And then she’s pushing her own underwear to the side and guiding me into her. She feels so good, like coming home after long months away. Her hands clamp around either side of my face, her forehead touching mine as she rolls her hips. The breath that leaves her lips is shaky and ragged—pain and pleasure blending in a perfect symphony.
She makes me lose my mind until nothing outside of her exists. The warmth of her body, the scent of her skin, the hot breaths rushing over my lips. I need it all. Sitting up, I grip her hips and force her over me hard and slow, scraping my teeth down the side of her throat. Her head falls back, and waves of golden hair tumble down her back, kissing the curve of her waist.