I should’ve been embarrassed at my wantonness, but it wasn’t shame that flushed my entire body with delicious heat.
Keeping my wrists pinned above my head with one hand, the other roved over my breasts, squeezing hard before toying with my nipples. He stroked them through the barrier of my dress, drawing them to tight, needy buds beneath his cruelly teasing fingers.
He utterly controlled my body, and my mind floated away, blissfully ceding to his power over me. The heady rush of release drew a moan from my chest, and I writhed beneath him, shamelessly seeking more stimulation. I rotated my hips, desperate to rub my throbbing clit against his hard thigh.
Just as I found a rhythm that would drive my pleasure high enough to make me come undone, he wrenched himself away from me.
I cried out at the shocking loss of his heat, but before the wash of cool air could chill my skin, his huge hands bracketed my waist.
A squeal burst from my lips when he roughly flipped me over. One heavy palm pressed against my lower back, pinning me to the rough table like a butterfly to a board. His free hand shoved my dress over my ass, exposing my delicate, pink panties.
His low groan morphed into a hungry growl, and I shrieked as he spanked me hard enough to brand my flesh with the burning imprint of his hand. At the thought of his mark on me, the stinging pain fizzed into pleasure. Bubbly euphoria flooded my mind, and I softened in complete surrender.
His fingers curled into the lace that barely covered my pussy. A snarl matched the savagery of the panties ripping beneath his strong hands.
His touch left my flesh, and the soft jangle of his belt being unbuckled sounded like alarm bells in my mind.
I was quivering with my traitorous desire, bent over for his use; completely exposed.
Completely vulnerable. Weakened by my dangerous lust.
“Wait!” I gasped, squirming to get away rather than pushing my needy pussy toward him in invitation. My core gave a painful throb, protesting my refusal to submit.
Suddenly, Raúl shoved away from me. The cold air that closed over my heated body chilled me to my bones. His massive hands bracketed my waist, flipping me over with enough force to make true fear flutter low in my belly. But even that sensation heightened my arousal, and a thrill shuddered down my spine as my trepidation turned erotic.
I wanted him; I wanted his darkness, his danger.
Even as his chest pressed down on mine, pinning me beneath him, I shook my head to try to forcibly deny my most twisted urges.
His hands captured my wrists, slamming them into the wood at either side of my head; holding me in place like shackles. I stifled a low moan, resisting the delicious compulsion to submit, to let go and give myself to Raúl.
His white teeth flashed in a snarl, only inches from my face. “Why are you pushing me away?” he demanded.
“I…” My tongue darted out to wet my dry lips. “I’m scared.”
“Bullshit,” he seethed. “You’re not scared of me. You haven’t been for a long time. You know I won’t violate you. What more can I do to prove it to you?” His fingers flexed around my wrists. “Why are you doing this, Marisol? Why are you denying me?” His voice dropped deeper, rougher. “Why are you denying us?”
“I’m not scared of you.” The admission tumbled from my lips, high and thin. His aggression should’ve terrified me, but it was the pain that darkened his eyes that shredded me. “I’m scared of me.”
The lines around his eyes drew deeper, and his snarl retreated to a scowl. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t trust myself.” I stared up at him, beseeching. “I have this…dark force inside me. It makes me lose myself. When I give in to it, bad things happen.”
His heavy brows drew together. “Bad things. Are you talking about what happened with that fucker, Gehovany? What he did wasn’t your fault.”
My throat constricted. “But it was. My parents warned me that he was a bad man, but I didn’t listen. I was selfish and weak. My reckless desire clouded my mind, and my mother died because of it. I fell for a dangerous man, and my family paid for my sin in blood. I can’t trust myself when I feel like this, when I want like this.” I said the last on a pained whisper, confessing the ugliest parts of my soul.
Raúl’s face hardened to stone, and he recoiled from me as though I’d burned him. “Dangerous man.” Acid dripped from my echoed description, burning a hole through my heart.
Too late, I realized what I’d done. The hurtful words had lashed at him, and I couldn’t take them back.
“You think I’m like him? You think I’m like the bastard who killed your mother; the man who abused you and drove you away from the safety of your home and your family?”