The phantom, toxic heat of Daniel’s grasping hands singed my hips and breasts. A surge of revulsion made my flesh crawl, and the faces of other cruel men who’d used me flashed over his purple features. For a moment, I wished Raúl would kill him. I wished the ferocious beast would destroy every sadistic man who’d ever hurt me and make sure no one would ever violate me like that again.
Daniel’s lids began to droop over his bloodshot eyes, and the staccato beat of his heels against the wall slowed.
I snapped out of my moment of vindictive madness. Raúl was my jailor, and I had to get free.
I needed Daniel alive for that.
My fingers trembled slightly, but I reached out to touch Raúl’s corded arm. Despite his iron strength, a shudder rippled through his massive frame at the light contact.
“Please don’t kill him.” The strange, shocking tingle in my fingertips robbed my breath, and the words left me on a husky whisper. “I’m okay.”
Suddenly, his hand released Daniel’s neck, and the younger man dropped to the floor with a heavy thud. He gasped for air, his body writhing as the burn of essential oxygen seared his deprived lungs.
Raúl angled his huge body in front of mine, shielding me from the debilitated man as though he might still be a threat.
“Get out of my sight,” he barked. Now that I was no longer touching his arm, the animal inside him struggled back to the surface.
But Daniel wasn’t capable of moving anywhere on his own. He shook uncontrollably, and tears streamed down his red cheeks.
Raúl’s tenuous patience snapped. Before I could beg for Daniel’s life again, my captor grabbed his arm and dragged him down the hall.
Daniel managed a rough shout between his gasps for air, but he didn’t have the strength to struggle. Raúl hauled him several yards away from me, until he reached the elevator at the end of the hall. As soon as the silver doors opened, he threw Daniel inside. He slammed his hand against the interior panel, illuminating half the buttons. The elevator would take its time stopping on multiple floors. Daniel would be imprisoned far away from me while he recovered from nearly being choked to death.
Raúl stepped back into the hallway, and the doors closed behind him. Relief should’ve flooded my system when my accomplice was safely separated from my lethal captor, but it wasn’t relief that made my knees weak. Raúl’s jade eyes glinted, fixed on my face. His jaw turned to granite, taking on the hard, hungry set I’d glimpsed so many times during my captivity.
But this time, he didn’t cut his gaze to the floor and stalk away from me. His massive body seemed to swell to impossibly huge proportions, his bulky frame taking up all the space in the cramped hall. His chest expanded on a deep inhale, his nostrils flaring like a predator becoming mesmerized by the scent of his prey.
And like the most foolish prey, I froze rather than fleeing. The thrill of primal danger tingled down my spine, little warning sparks pinging through my veins. A shiver raced over my flesh; the air was suddenly, shockingly cool in contrast to the heat simmering just beneath my skin.
He prowled toward me, but I remained rooted in place. Although I’d seen this monster commit horrific acts of violence, my new knowledge of the strange power I held over him burned away the terror I should’ve felt at his predatory advance.
Flashes of small, intimate moments we’d shared flickered across my mind: on the day he’d noticed an ironing burn on my finger, he’d tended the tiny wound himself; when he’d caught me coveting an elaborate chocolate fountain at one of his boss’s fancy parties, he’d made sure to slip me a large box of chocolate covered marshmallows the following morning.
All along, I’d brushed off the evidence Raúl’s attentive nature. I’d pretended that I hadn’t noticed his savage, masculine appeal.
I’d drowned myself in fear and hatred, so I didn’t have to acknowledge my traitorous thoughts about my cruel captor.
But he’d never been cruel to me. Communicating mostly in clipped commands and unintelligible grunts, he hadn’t exactly been warm. He’d been careful with me, treating me like something fragile to be jealously guarded. During my time in his protective custody, his animal magnetism seemed to have slipped through my defenses, settling into the deepest, most instinctive part of my brain.
Because no matter how many times I told myself Raúl was my enemy, I’d just been faced with proof of the truth I’d known in my heart but willfully ignored: he wouldn’t hurt me, and he would destroy any man who tried to violate me.
The stalking beast closed the distance between us. Although I felt small and vulnerable in his enormous, encroaching shadow, my body was once again flooded with the sense of power that’d overtaken me when he’d stilled his attack on Daniel. The lightest brush of my frail fingertips had stopped his brutal impulses, harnessing his unfathomable strength.