With that, he grabbed Tessa’s hand, and didn’t wait as he pulled her out of the room. When she started to struggle, he did no more than put her over his shoulder and carry her down the long corridor, heading toward his own space.
“Put me down.” She slapped his ass, to which he did the same to hers. “Hey. That’s not fair.”
He slapped her ass again for good measure, and she let out a growl, which he found to be so cute.
Instead of slapping her ass again when she hit him, he started to caress each cheek.
“They are not yours to touch,” she said.
He smirked. “Of course they are. They are no one else’s, and last time I checked, I owned every single delicious curve on your body.”
“Put me down, Alonzo. Take me to my room. I want nothing to do with you.”
“No can do, I’m afraid. You’re stuck with me.”
“Why? I don’t want this. I don’t want to be with a man who can just stand by and let his sister get beaten.”
That made his jaw clench because he didn’t have a decent enough fight to defend himself. He hadn’t known it was that bad. Men were not supposed to interfere with marriages like that. If it wasn’t for Benedict’s current fuck-up with traffickers, he would be the one in trouble.
Marriage was private.
In their world a man could do what he wanted with a woman, consequences be damned. It wasn’t like they could go to the cops about it. No one was to know.
Once he got to his quarters, he put her down on the floor and stepped back, watching her.
She had no idea the kind of monsters he dealt with.
Where his world was flooded in darkness, hers was all light. He couldn’t let her go even though he knew it would make her happy. She’d find someone who was like her. Who loved. Who cared.
Letting her go wasn’t an option for him.
Chapter Eight
Alonzo kept staring at her. Tessa didn’t like being in his part of the house, nor did she like the way her body came alive under his touch, even after everything she knew about him. This wasn’t what she wanted.
Part of her still wanted to hate him.
To be disgusted by what he allowed to happen under his roof.
Just one look at Jessica, a real look, he’d have seen the damage that bastard was doing. But … she had ignored it herself, and it sickened her.
Her father wouldn’t have stood by.
“I’d like to leave,” she said.
Alonzo shook his head. “That’s not happening.”
“Why?”
“You don’t get to leave. You don’t get to do that.”
“I don’t have some fancy name. I’m not part of this. I can leave if I want.” She stared at him, and he put his hands in his pockets. He looked so damn attractive, so … Alonzo. Her body tightened. Her nipples puckered, and she felt an ache in her pussy.
This man had gotten under her skin.
He made her ache, made her want him even though every single part of her brain was screaming at her to get the hell out.
“I don’t want to be part of this. You weren’t going to do anything. You think I can stand around watching something like that?”
“We have rules we must follow.”
“Screw the rules. You’re saying if a wife was getting beaten and raped by her husband and you knew it, you’d not do anything? You’d not make it stop?”
“Tessa, you don’t know the way our world works.”
“You wouldn’t do anything!” She screamed each word.
“It can get us killed!” This time he yelled right back at her.
Tears filled her eyes, but she wasn’t backing down. “No. I don’t believe that. No man should be allowed to ever hurt a woman or to lay a hand on her.”
“You think your father was any different?” he asked, advancing toward her.
She gasped. “Don’t you dare bring him into this. He wouldn’t have stood by.”
“He did.” Alonzo stood right in front of her.
“I don’t believe you.”
“Like all good soldiers and all good men that serve us, when it comes to a man and a woman, no one steps in. No one threatens war. Not over a woman. Do you even realize how many people will die if that happens?”
“I don’t believe you.”
“This world is full of bad men, Tessa. Bad men that do bad things. We’re not good. I never claimed to be good, but I am not a coward. I will never back down from a fight or from a loved one. Your father, he was a good man, but he knew how the world works. You don’t interfere, ever.”
They were both panting, and she glared at him.
He held her arms, and she didn’t even fight him. His eyes were so dark they were almost black.
Alonzo tugged her to him, and she cried out as his lips landed on hers. He gripped the back of her head, his fingers digging into her. She pushed against his shirt even as she moaned into his mouth.