Because there was no one here to stop her from going after him. To stop her from stripping off her nightgown and climbing on top of that hard, masculine body.
She shivered. She didn’t know where these thoughts were coming from. These feelings. She shouldn’t have them. No, not at all. She wasn’t experienced enough, first of all. And second of all... She should despise him.
She didn’t.
She was terrified of him. Of what he made her feel. She was fascinated by him. By this man who was essentially a marauding modern-day pirate.
“I’m alive,” she whispered into the silence of the room.
She was. She was alive and she was free.
What a strange thing, because she was also a captive. But it occurred to her then that in many ways she had never not been a captive. Captive to her father’s wishes. Captive to her own desire to do whatever it took to appease her father. Then she’d been given over to Matías. And now...
She might have made a bargain with the devil, but at least it was a bargain of her choosing.
“I’m free,” she said again.
And tomorrow, she would be Diego Navarro’s wife.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE DAY OF the wedding dawned bright and clear. Diego hadn’t slept. He had been waiting. The priest was due to show up at six to finish last-minute paperwork. Concerns regarding the church. Diego was no traditionalist, but he was a Catholic. And though he might be a bad one, there were still certain things that were nonnegotiable down deep in his soul. That everything be recognized by the church was one of them.
The divorce... He would concern himself with that later.
He imagined it would be fairly easy for Liliana to make an argument for annulment, considering coercion had been involved.
His mouth twisted into a wry smile. She had not been coerced last night when they had kissed.
He had known that there was heat between them. Heat and flame and all manner of dark desire. He had not realized it was quite so strong.
He was a man who had sampled many flavors of hedonism. A man with vast experience in the sensual pleasures of the flesh. But he had never in all his life felt anything like that kiss. A kiss.
Of all things.
It had made him shake like a green virgin.
It had also made him...jealous.
Had his brother been accessing all that passion? It made him want to kill Matías.
The world already thought him a murderer, so, he might as well have the pleasure of actually being one.
It didn’t matter. Though it galled him, it didn’t matter. When he was through with Liliana, he would be the only lover that she remembered, regardless of who had been there before him.
She had seemed surprised by the explosive attraction between them too. And that, at least, had been gratifying.
He wanted to own her desire.
As he would own her in only an hour.
He adjusted his cuffs and went out onto the grounds, making sure that everything was in place. It would not be a wedding ceremony anything like his first. Which had been, granted, formal at the behest of his wife, and in the confines of a church, his bride in a grand, dramatic veil and train that had taken up the entire aisle she’d walked down. No. This would be different. He had chosen a place for them that overlooked the sea, where the sun would be rising just as they spoke their vows.
And he would see all that golden light over her skin, tangled in her hair...
He closed his eyes, not bothering to question why this mattered to him at all. It was about winning. Nothing more. Winning and sexual desire. Both things he understood well enough. Anything else... He would pay it no mind.
The sooner this marriage was finalized the better. And then, Liliana was going to have to have a talk with Matías.
In the meantime, he owed his abuelo a phone call.
The old man answered on the first ring. “You have taken your brother’s fiancée!”
He sounded delighted. “I have,” Diego said. “Though I think she prefers me. Women do love a bad boy.”
Sadly for Liliana, he wasn’t a bad boy. He was a bad man. And the two were worlds apart.
“And I admire a man willing to stoop to such levels to win.”
Winning. Was that what he was doing?
Sometimes he didn’t know what drove him to do this. Except...
It wasn’t fair his brother should move on to some happy life at the rancho. With Liliana, most of all. The very idea was like acid in his stomach.
The rancho had been a torture chamber when they were growing up and Diego could hardly bear to set foot on it. He would have it destroyed. Leveled to make a housing development or just left to rot. Perhaps he’d salt the earth and let nothing grow.
As for the money...
He’d gamble it away.
Finishing destroying his father’s legacy while the old man rolled in his grave.
If Matías was the hero, trying to redeem all that had been dark and terrible, Diego was the villain. He just wanted it all to burn.
It was what he did. It was who he was.
A destroyer.
“I do not play to lose,” Diego said. That much was true. Whether it was in a casino or in the business world, Diego had never lost.
He had a sharp mind and no morals. The two went hand in hand to create some very nice fortune, he found.
“Indeed you don’t. But watch out for Matías. He may yet surprise you.”
“He won’t find me. And when he does? Liliana and I will be married.”
“He will still have the rest of the term to find a new bride. Then the inheritance will be split,” the old man reminded him.
“I have not forgotten the details of your devil’s bargain, abuelo. No need to remind me.”
“Play to win, Diego. I am rooting for you, if I’m honest.”
Diego hung up, feeling that same sour stomach he’d felt when his father had looked at him with recognition, rather than hatred.
The strange thing was...
He wanted to win. He wanted everything.
And yet, he had Liliana.
His brother might find a new bride but Liliana was his.
In the moment that seemed to matter most of all.
He waited. Standing down at the bottom of the stairs, keeping watch on the time. She was late.
He would think nothing of going upstairs and dragging her back down to him if need be.
But then, he heard footsteps, the swish of fabric. He looked up, and for a strange moment felt as if he was caught between that breath before the second hand on the clock moved. Because there she was, her pale blond hair spilling loosely over her shoulders, and that gown...
It was more than he had imagined it might be. There was a spray of glittering glass beads that seemed to cling to her skin, as the fabric they were sewn into was so sheer it was as if it wasn’t there. They started as a pale glisten, then built into a startling shimmer as they cascaded down. The neckline was a deep V edged in those rhinestones, and the bodice fell loose and nearly sheer, the entire gown somehow managing to conceal her body just enough, while also giving the idea that at any moment it might give way and reveal her full glory.
He had seen it and known he wanted to tear it off of her body later. And that was why he had selected it.
But just then, that was not what he wanted.
He did not want to tear it from her body. Didn’t want to lower her down to the floor.
He wanted to gaze at her in that piece of art forever. Wanted to place her upon a throne and call her his queen. He wanted to worship her.
For he had never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life. Not a woman, not a sunrise, not one single thing.
She was like a ray of light floating toward him, each step she took down the stairs ma
king the fabric swish around her legs, making it appear as if she were floating.
She was an angel.
He had brought an angel into the underworld.
If she had makeup on, it was as translucent as the gown. She looked pale, but there was a shimmer about her skin, her lips a natural pink like the first blush of a rose against the snow. She looked so young. So innocent.
He had not felt young or innocent when he had been young. Now, in his thirties, he felt nearly ancient, and as for innocence...
He had been raised by a murderer.
He had never trusted anything in the world. He had been born jaded. At least, that was how it had felt.