“Took you long enough.” Victor’s voice crept through the darkness toward Valentina as she closed the bedroom door. His silhouette was barely visible from where he sat in his favorite wingchair next to the fireplace. A glass half-filled with an amber liquid dangled between his thumb and forefinger as he gazed into the low, crackling flames.

“Well, good evening to you too.” She set her purse and the half empty sleeve of crackers down on the occasional table next to the door and hesitated, not sure if she would be better off walking over to him or just making a beeline for the bathroom.

“Don’t you mean ‘Good Morning’? Now where the fuck have you been? I didn’t expect you to be out half the night.”

“With your crazy ass mother and aunt, as you well know.”

He stood and moved over to the bed, glancing over at the items on the table as he lowered himself onto the mattress. When his gaze immediately zeroed in on the crackers, his lips curved into a particularly sinister smile. “Well, that doesn’t give you free rein to stay out all night. Get over here.”

She kicked off her shoes and walked over to the bed but didn’t sit down. He took her arm and pulled her down beside him. “Have you been drinking?” he asked, going completely still as he awaited her response.

“If ginger ale constitutes drinking, then yeah.”

He rubbed his hand over her silky long hair, pulling her head down onto his chest. He let his hands roam freely as he grappled with the conflicting emotions coursing through him. “I want you all the time—when I’m with you, when I’m not with you. I can’t get enough of you. I feel like I’m going crazy when you aren’t around and the thought of losing you makes me want to kill someone.”

He rolled over on top of her, bracing his weight on his forearms. “I want to put a baby in you more than anything I’ve ever wanted in my life. I’ll do anything to keep you here—be it good or evil, I’ll do any-fucking-thing.”

“How can you be so hard and yet so tender when it comes to me?” Her fingers trailed over his muscular chest. His cock hardened and strained toward her touch.

“I’ve been trying to figure that out myself, my little vixen. Now tell me your secrets. Something happened tonight, I can tell.” He fisted her hair hard enough to make her grimace as she glared up at him. “Don’t lie to me, mi amor, or I’ll be forced to interrogate a pregnant woman.”

“What makes everyone think I’m pregnant?” she huffed, exasperated.

“Because you’re eating crackers and your period’s a week late.”

“Oh my God, you really are obsessed! You’ve been tracking my periods?! What, are you crossing off the days on a calendar somewhere?”

“I might have an app on my phone,” he said sheepishly, clearing his throat.

“Oh. My. God. Well, it’s only been a few days, not a week. It could be anything.”

“Well, all will be revealed in due time whether you acknowledge the truth tonight or not. Now, I want to know what happened tonight and don’t fucking lie to me. I see everything, you know.”

“You had us followed? Unbelievable,” she scoffed, shaking her head.

“From a discreet distance, of course. Believe it.” He tugged on the fistful of hair he still clasped in his hand. “Now, I want to hear it from you.”

He was so damn sexy, Valentina almost forgot to be mad at him. He had that effect on her all too often lately. She couldn’t help but be enthralled by this dangerous man who was working his way deeper under her skin and into her heart with each passing day.

Sure, she’d had fans in the past that declared their love for her but they were only star struck. But Victor certainly seemed to be the real deal. It was refreshing. So, she decided to be straight with him. All she could do was hope Victor didn’t go bat shit crazy on her.

“You want me to be honest and I will, but you have to control all that Latin machismo or I’m going to feel like I need to hide things from you. Can you do that?” she asked when she saw his skeptical expression. “Look, we need to get something straight right now,” she declared, finding with some relief that her backbone was still in fine form, despite all the crazy in her life. “I’m not beneath you, Victor. I don’t need you or anyone else to rescue me. I need you to see me as an equal; anything else is unacceptable.”

“If anything, Valentina, I put you above me.” Victor could be patient if need be, and if he needed to discreetly deal with a situation, he would do so without causing trouble with his woman. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill for her, though. Keeping Valentina was the most important thing. This was the woman he was going to marry. He’d drag her ass down the aisle if he had to. But for now, first things first.

She took a deep breath then got right to the point. “Alright…you promised. So…the first problem was we pulled into a convenience store parking lot and some gangbangers tried to break into the car while we were inside--”

“Why did you stop?”

“Because your mother drives like a crazy person and I needed crackers to settle my stomach.”

“I see.”

“You see nothing, okay? Anyway, the guy working in the store told us that if we’d been in the car, they would have carjacked us. They didn’t get anywhere near us, though, just tried to break into the car while we were in the store. The cashier said gangbangers do it as initiation to gangs—kidnap women and take them back to their gang. Since we weren’t nearby, they were going to try to steal the car.”

She stopped to study his expression before she continued. “The thing is, I think I saw my old agent, Luis. I swear I saw a guy who looked just like him. It was after we left when we were on the way home. I saw another SUV that looked a lot like ours—like the one we saw that was following us before. This time the driver’s window was rolled down and I saw Luis—I saw him, Victor, I know I did. The look he had on his face was the same look you have for me sometimes.”

His pleasure at her use of the word ‘home’ was quickly replaced by fury, as adrenalin flooded his veins like an all-consuming rush of lava, blinding him to all reason. He could feel and hear his heart thundering in his ears. He was certain Luis was as much of a stalker as he was but it was for a different reason—Luis had lost his cash cow. Victor couldn’t imagine what the asshole thought he would accomplish by following her, but there was no way Victor would ever allow another man to bother his woman or give her a moment’s unease.

“I don’t know, baby… The more I think about it, it makes sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“It makes sense that someone that close to you would be obsessed with you. Due to the close nature of your professional dealings with him, it wouldn’t have been immediately noticeable to you. Just business as usual. I may have underestimated him, but after he pissed his pants when King and Lola confronted him, I figured he was done.”

“Who’s Lola?” she asked with a frown.

“Oh, you’ll meet Lola soon enough. She’s a real beauty. That is one lethal creature.” At her pinched look, his chest relaxed and grew warm with pleasure. “Now, now,” he said slyly, “no need to worry about Lola. She’s quite devoted to King. But back to the matter at hand. If Luis is here, the man is willing to be tortured and killed for your sake. Perhaps he’s more dangerous than I originally gave him credit for.”

“All Luis cares about is the money he could make off me.” Valentina was a smart enough businesswoman to not allow ego to get in the way of common sense.

“I was so angry about him taking advantage of you that I just wanted to kill him. Instead, I thought it best to let King and Lola pay him a visit. Maybe I have a good reason to end him now,” he teased. “Everyone you’ve had in your life has wanted to use you, but I just want you. I’m obsessed but for all the right reasons.”

He wasn’t going to tell her, but he would have no trouble killing Luis and anyone else who caused trouble for her. But not before he chained them from the ceiling and toyed with them. By the time he was finished with them, they would be begging him to kill them.

Victor had learned the art of torture and revenge at his uncle’s knee. Antonio Wayne had even mentored him on how to wield a whip. Of course, he didn’t pretend to be as good at it as his uncle, but nobody was. He hadn’t used his newfound talent yet. Perhaps he would save that for Luis, after all. You always remember your first.

Victor knew Valentina had no idea of the depth of his feelings when it came to her wellbeing. That was probably as it should be, for now. She was the love of his life and he knew the flame would burn even in death. He would live, he would kill, and he would die…all for her. How ironic that her fiery nature captivated him so completely even as it held him at bay.

He knew firsthand how fierce her fighting spirit was. She was as defiant as she was beautiful and she wouldn’t surrender without a fight. But ultimately, they both knew the truth: he was a Ramirez, so there was nothing she could do to stop the inevitable.

He wrapped his arms around her and teased her lips with the tip of his tongue. “Come here and let me fuck you, girl,” he said against her lips.

“Come here and let me fuck you up, boy.”

“Mmm, you are such a bad-ass.”

“You have no idea.”