Violent Delights (White Monarch 1)

My father was smart in other ways.

Diego left the door open behind us. Since we’d spent so much time together growing up, it wouldn’t be unusual for a guard or even my dad to find us alone together. But with the door closed? That would raise red flags.

He spun me around and pressed his lips to mine for a hasty kiss. “Are you really here?”

“I am.” I put my hands to the chiseled, lean jaw and high cheekbones of a face worthy of being immortalized on a statue. “Every time I see you, you’re less the boy I knew and more the man I love.”

He took my wrists and kissed the inside of one palm. “I was a man back then, Tali. I had to be.”

“I know.” His bravery in a world of danger and a life of loss continued to awe me. “Are you happy to see me?”

“You have no idea.” He went to the long window overlooking the grounds, then turned and perched on the sill. His eyes lingered on me. “Every time I see you, you’re less the girl I knew and more an alluring creature with wiles that could possess the devil.”

“You’d call me a creature?” I asked, smiling as I formed claws with my hands and stalked toward him in my leopard-print flats.

He held up his hands to form a square, looking at me through it. “When you’re back at school, I’ll remember you this way—a lioness.”

“You won’t have to remember,” I said. “You’ll be able to look up and see me with your own eyes.”

“I want that more than you know.” When I neared, he put his hands on my hips and drew me to him. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

“He’ll understand once I tell him how much you mean to me. How much you’ve always meant to me,” I said, smoothing away dark, golden strands that fell right back over his forehead. “My father adores you.”

“Adores?” He arched an eyebrow. “He adores two things in this world—you, and the memory of your mother. The rest of us hope for his respect and his mercy.”

I wrinkled my nose. “You’re exaggerating. These days, he’s more forgiving than most. At least, more than my grandpa ever was. Papá is a fair man.”

“Fairest in all the land,” Diego agreed. “But nothing about the land is fair. Except for his daughter. She’s both her mother and her father, darkly beautiful with cunning eyes.”

My beloved was a poet—a side he only showed to me. I wanted to melt into him, but I could sense the tension in his forearms, the restraint in his touch. Diego followed my father’s example, though, and rarely volunteered when something was wrong. I would’ve happily ignored any problems, except that I didn’t want my time with Diego encumbered by the stresses of business. “What was your argument about?” I asked.

“Nothing, nothing, está bien.” He slid a hand under the hem of my top. I arched into the warmth of his skin on mine while acutely aware of the open door behind me. His green eyes danced as he looked up at me. “Tali?”

“Diego.”

“We have to talk about our future.”

I grinned. “That’s why I’m here.”

“I want nothing more than to be with you.” He sighed. “This town is a jail cell. A death sentence, even. I’m only alive today. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.”

When he talked like that, it hit too close to the truth. So many nights, I’d stared up at the ceiling of my dorm room waiting to hear from Diego, both craving and fearing news. Keeping in touch with someone whose life depended on staying under the radar hadn’t been easy. “It won’t be for much longer,” I said. “You’ll see.”

“But how can I leave?” He inched his fingertips a little higher. “I have responsibilities here.”

I bit my bottom lip as he approached the underwire of my bra. “You’ll get out of them.”

“This isn’t a job I can just quit. Your father took me in when he didn’t have to.” He removed his hand from my top to rest it on the outside of my thigh. “Costa brought me into this business and gave me a chance.”

I didn’t want him to stop touching me, but even though our self-control continued to hold, it was thin. “That doesn’t mean you’re indebted to him forever.”

“I’ll never be able to leave without his blessing, and he won’t give me that.”

“He brought you and your brother in at my mother’s urging, out of a sense a duty for what he did to your parents.” I slipped my hand in his and squeezed. “And yes, he could’ve left you behind, or worse, killed both of you. But he’s also the reason you’re an orphan in the first place.”

Diego’s eyebrows knitted. “I’ve never heard you put it like that. Are you suggesting I hold that against him?”