Claimed for the De Carrillo Twins

He pulled away and Trinity let out a sound of pain. Cruz reared back, staring at her, and then down at something on the bed between them.

‘What the hell—?’

She was starting to shiver in reaction and she looked down. The cover on the bed was cream, but even in the dim light she could see the spots of red—blood.

Her head started to whirl sickeningly as what had just happened sank in and she scrambled to move, almost falling off the bed in her bid to escape. She got to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her.

* * *

Cruz paced up and down after pulling on his trousers. There was nothing but ominous silence from the bathroom. His mind was fused with recrimination. He simply could not believe what her tight body and the evidence of blood told him. That she was innocent. That she was a virgin. It was like trying to compute the reality of seeing a unicorn, or a pig flying across the sky.

It simply wasn’t possible. But then his conscience blasted him... He’d never been so lost in a haze of lust—he’d thought she was there with him, as ready as he was.

He wanted to go after her, but the sick realisation hit him that he was probably the last person she wanted to see right now. Nevertheless, he went and knocked softly on the door. ‘Trinity?’

Silence.

Just when Cruz was about to try and open the door she said, ‘I’m fine. I just need a minute.’

Cruz’s hand clenched into a fist at the way her voice sounded so rough. He took a step back from the door and then he heard the sound of the shower being turned on. His guts curdled. Was she trying to wash him off her?

He’d never been in this situation before. He’d never slept with a virgin before...

And then his mind went on that disbelieving loop again—how was it even possible? She’d been his brother’s wife!

Cruz sat down on the end of the bed and a grim expression settled over his features as he waited for Trinity to come out of the bathroom and explain what the hell was going on.

* * *

Trinity sat on the floor of the shower stall, knees pulled into her chest, arms wrapped around them and her head resting on the wall behind her, eyes closed as the hot water sluiced down over her skin. She couldn’t stop shivering, and all she could see was the shock on Cruz’s face.

Between her legs it still stung slightly, but the red-hot pain had gone. And yet along with that pain Trinity had felt something else—something on the edges of the pain, promising more—but the shock of realising that Cruz was witnessing her ultimate exposure had eclipsed any desire to keep going.

She opened her eyes and saw nothing but steam. In the heated rush of more pleasure and sensations than she’d ever known, maybe she’d hoped that Cruz wouldn’t realise...

But he had. And what she’d experienced before when he’d rejected her was nothing compared to the prospect of how he would look at her now.

* * *

When Trinity emerged a short time later, wrapped in a thick towelling robe, Cruz stood up from where he’d been sitting on the end of the bed. He looked as pale as she felt, and something quivered inside her.

His chest was bare, and it was if she hadn’t really seen it the first time he’d bared it. She’d been so consumed with desire. It was wide, with defined musculature and dark golden hair covering his pectorals, leading down in a line between an impressive six-pack to arrow under his trousers. A glorious example of a masculine male in his prime.

‘Trinity...?’

She looked at his face and saw an expression she’d never seen before—something between contrition and bewilderment.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, her voice husky.

Now something more familiar crossed his face—irritation. ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me that you were still a virgin?’

She wanted to curl up in a corner, but she stood tall. ‘I didn’t think you’d notice.’

He frowned. ‘How could I not have noticed?’

He seemed to go even paler for a second, as if he was remembering what it had been like to breach that secret and intimate defence. And that only made Trinity remember it too—the pain and then that other tantalising promise of pleasure...hovering on the edges. How amazing it had felt up to that point. How lost she’d been, dizzy with need and lust. Forgetting everything. Forgetting that she needed to protect herself from this...

She went to move past him. ‘I don’t really want to talk about this now.’