AS I CUT off the thoughts that’ve been attached to me like a leech for the past seven years, I grab Reina by the collar of her black sweater and yank her inside, slamming the door closed behind her. She doesn’t make a sound as I push her up against the wall, grab her by the throat, and point the barrel of my gun at her forehead.
Something in me expects her to show fear. I look at her as I press her against the wall with my left hand and hold the gun with my right, and I search her face for alarm or panic, but neither is there. Reina simply locks her blue eyes on mine and stares, unblinking, with the smallest smirk turning up one side of her mouth.
Her lack of fear pisses me off, and I squeeze her throat tighter, turning her perfect skin red beneath my fingers, but she still doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t lift a hand to try to stop me, she doesn’t attempt to scream. She just stares at me, unable to breathe as tears fill her eyes from the lack of oxygen. Not even the slightest hint of worry about what I might do to her. It’s like she knows I would never kill her. Her eyes start to bulge, and I feel a spike in my chest as my own emotions take over and I finally release my grip, but I keep my hand in place. She takes in a deep breath, but she doesn’t try to get away or even rub her throat. She just keeps staring and grinning.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I ask, my voice like gravel as suppressed rage starts to surge its way through me. I’ve waited for this moment for seven years, and there isn’t a hair on my body that can believe it’s finally happening. She’s finally here.
“I needed to see you,” she replies, her voice ragged from the pressure I put on her vocal chords. “I’ve missed you, Solomon.”
“You’ve missed me?” I shout, bringing my gun closer to her face. “It’s been seven years, Reina! Seven years have gone by, and you just now realized that you missed me? It took you that long? I should put a bullet in your skull right now, and rid myself of the agony your presence causes me. I was over you! I was done. I had moved on, and now you show up here at a sit-down on the arm of my enemy, wearing jewelry I bought you! No phone call, no text, nothing! I should kill you for making me feel what I felt for you and then destroying it all!”
I really should do it. I even think about pulling the trigger as I press the barrel against her forehead. She made me feel things I never thought I could, and just left without saying a word, forcing me to deal with all of that alone. I had to deal with Whitney’s overdose while still struggling to deal with Reina’s departure. She broke me without saying a word.
But looking at her now feels no different than it did the last time I saw her, when she was staring at me through the window of the train. After all these years, what I felt for her hasn’t changed, I just got better at suppressing it. But her return makes pushing those feelings down completely impossible. She’s back, and so is everything I ever felt for her.
“I know it must’ve hurt you,” Reina says. “It hurt me more than I could ever explain to you, but after all this time, I managed to make it back here. To you.”
Her words fill me with too many emotions to act on just one, and I feel like I’m losing my mind just listening to her.
“That’s bullshit!” I snap. “You think everything is forgotten because you were telling the truth about the hitmen? I don’t think so. I don’t trust you, not after what you did to me all those years ago, and definitely not since the last time I saw you, you were sitting next to Dante Rossi. You let him kiss you on the cheek in front of me! If you were any other person, it’d already be over for you. I’d be paying someone to come over here and clean up your blood and dispose of your dead body.”
“But you can’t do that,” she interjects, showing her first sign of emotion since she arrived. “You can’t pull the trigger because I’m not just any other person. It’s me, and you know it. You still feel for me, the exact same way I still feel for you, Solomon. I loved you then, and I still love you now, even after all the years, and all I’ve been through since I left Philadelphia. I still love you.”
My heart jolts with pain and fury like a bomb just went off in my chest. In my mind, I see the image of Reina sitting next to the window on the train as it hissed and began to pull out of the station. I stood on the platform and watched her go, as she looked out at me and mouthed the words I love you. I didn’t return the gesture. Not because I didn’t love her, but because that emotion was just something I couldn’t showcase. But she said it again, here and now, and I still don’t know what to do.
My heart pounds in my chest as I stare into her eyes, struggling to push the growing emotions down into the pit of my stomach. I won’t let her break me. I’m Solomon King!
“No,” I hear myself say. “I don’t believe you. I don’t believe that after how you left without a trace and then just reappeared out of the blue. I don’t believe it, and I don’t trust you. So, I suggest you tell me what the hell you’re doing here. Did Dante send you here?”
Reina frowns at the accusation and doesn’t answer, which sends me through the roof.
“Answer me!” I yell as I tighten my grip on her throat again. “Did your boyfriend send you here to trick me? I’m gonna tear his fucking heart out, and I should rip yours out too, for letting him use you against me!”
Reina’s eyes turn as cold as the ice they resemble as she squints at me, rage seeping through her pores.
“Are you kidding me?” she asks, her voice tight and aggressive now. “You think I’d let myself be used? You have no idea what has happened to me since I left Philly, so you have no clue what I’d do. Let me fill you in on something, Solomon. In the seven years I’ve been gone, I’ve been through more than you can imagine. In fact, I’m willing to bet that since I left, my life has been harder than yours! I’ve been through the absolute worst, and I’m telling you right now, nobody uses me! Ever! So if you think I’d let Dante Rossi use me to take you down, then go ahead and pull the trigger! Go ahead! Do it! If you think I don’t love you, that I didn’t spend every day and night thinking about you for seven straight years, if you think I didn’t cry myself to sleep every night for over half a decade missing you, if you think I didn’t overcome everything I went through just so I could get back here to you, then you go ahead and pull the fucking trigger!”
Tears fill Reina’s eyes as she glares at me, full of anger and completely void of fear. I’m shocked as she reaches up with both hands and wraps her fingers around the gun, pressing it tighter to her head.
“Do it!” she screams. “If you believe that leaving you didn’t completely break me into a million pieces, then you do it! If you really think I don’t still love you with every fiber of my being, then do it, Solomon. Get it over with.”
I stare into her eyes as my fingers tighten around the grip of the gun and my body heats up with adrenaline. Reina’s tears start to spill over as her breathing becomes labored by emotion. We glare at each other, unmoving, in complete silence as the temperature in the room seems to raise by fifty degrees.
I know what my mind is saying: kill her and rid yourself of the burden she brings. I can’t trust her since seeing her with Dante, and I know my ability to think clearly will be compromised if she’s here. But it’s Reina, and my heart says that I’m still in love with her. My heart tells me that no other woman has ever mattered to me, and now that she’s here in front of me, I couldn’t possibly be without her again, not even for a second. I couldn’t bear to watch her walk away. I’d die if I let her leave this loft and disappear from my life again. It tore me apart the first time she left, and I can’t let it happen again. It’s my mind versus my heart, and my heart wins.
Like a dam breaking, I let the flood of emotions overtake me. I yank the gun from Reina’s grip and toss onto the floor, just before aggressively pressing my mouth against her and kissing her for the first time in seven years. She responds by wrapping her arms around my neck and plunging into me, her mouth crashing into mine like a head-on collision.
There’s no more anger now. All I feel is the heat between us as we frantically try to make up for seven years apart by clawing at each other. Our clothes can’t come off fast enough. Our tongues can’t dance together quick enough. I can’t be inside of her fast enough, and she needs me just as much as I need her.
Our bodies overload with passion and I feel my back slam against the bar counter behind me as Reina pushes me backwards, her mouth working on mine like we can never be apart again. As we kiss, Reina lifts up my white tank top and pulls it over my head before tossing it behind her and letting it fall to the floor. She eyes my muscular, tattooed body and runs her fingers across my skin, awe etched in her facial expression as she realizes that I’m not the kid I was in Strawberry Mansion. I’m a man now, and I have the body of a man who has had to fight to become king of the criminal underworld. You don’t become a legend the way I have without doing the work yourself. I had to bleed, I had to eat, I had to grow to become unbeatable, and Reina’s eyes bulge at the sight of my arms and chest.
After letting her appreciate my body, I reignite the passion by kissing her again. This time it’s Reina who’s back slams against the wall behind her as I wrap my hands around her throat again, but this time for a completely different reason. I feel her mouth lift into a devilish smile as we kiss and I squeeze her neck. She moans and pushes herself away from the wall as the two of us go stumbling into the living room, bumping furniture as we go, still kissing, still licking, still biting.
As we shuffle past the couch, the urge to have Reina becomes so strong that I can’t wait any longer to see her flesh. I reach for her sweater and use both of my hands to tear it apart. It rips down the middle, stopping halfway before I use a jolt of strength to tear it completely apart. She’s braless and sporting a giant tattoo on the right side her body, between her back and stomach. It’s a large bird made of bright orange and yellow fire, lifting itself into a black and blue sky like it has just come back from the dead. It’s a rising phoenix, and it’s breathtaking on her flawless, pale skin. On the opposite side of her body, running vertically, are letters written in red and black, spelling words that put a smile on my face because I know they’re for me.
ONLY A BEAST CAN TAME A MONSTER.
I marvel at the words, knowing full-well that she is the monster, and I’m the only beast who can tame her. I lift my eyes to find Reina glaring at me, grinning from ear to ear, silently confirming my thoughts about the words inscribed in her skin.
I yank the rest of the sweater off of her and pull her close to me, pushing my hands under her arms and lifting her off the floor. Reina lets out a satisfied exhale as she wraps her legs around my waist and I spin around, pressing her back against the giant window overlooking the city. Our hot bodies cause the window to fog around us as I press my mouth into her neck and bite down—gently at first, then harder to cause the perfect combination of pain and pleasure. Reina moans into my ear, telling me how much she missed me, and I rub her body with my hands, from her stomach, to her perfect breasts, to her supple neck.
We breathe heavily together, our bodies starting to sweat from the intensity as kissing is no longer enough. Still holding Reina, I carry her to the stairs and climb every one of them with her body in my arms and her mouth attached to mine. She starts to suck my tongue as we ascend the last step and finally crash on top of the thick red comforter on my bed.
I yank Reina’s pants off and find that she’s not wearing panties, and the sight of her sends my desire into overdrive. Before I can stop myself, I dive forward and let my tongue taste her. My mouth covers her and sucks as my tongue slithers inside of her before sliding back out and dancing on her clit. Reina moans like a woman who knows exactly what she wants as she puts her hands on the back of my head, begging me to keep going, and I grant her wish, sucking and licking until she lets out a scream that bounces its way down the stairs and into the halls of my building.
As she recovers, I push off my own pants and position myself over Reina. Her skin is flushed red and sweat is beading on her face, but I swear it’s the most beautiful she has ever been.
As she looks up and finds me waiting for her to catch her breath, Reina reaches down and takes me in her hand. She massages me and strokes, pulling gasps from my lips before she speaks.
“Are you my beast, Solomon?” she asks, her eyes overflowing with lust.
“Damn right, I am. The only one that can tame you,” I reply.
“Show me,” she says, just before she slides my erection inside of her.
She lets out a gasp as every inch of me fills her up, forcing her to adjust to my size. She’s wetter than I could ever imagine or explain, and immediately begins grinding her body up and down, pleading with me to take her, to help her forget whatever it is that she’s been through for the past seven years. Tonight, she’ll only think of me and how I make her feel. I am her beast.
I pound into Reina over and over again like a man possessed, and her screams are fuel to the fire burning within me. I don’t hold back, I don’t take it easy, and I don’t stop. Sweat pours off of me and my breathing is ragged like I’m finishing a marathon, but I don’t dare stop. Tonight, I’m making up for seven years apart. I’m making up for never telling Reina how much I’ve always loved her. We switch positions from missionary, to doggy style, and my onslaught never wavers.
I take full control of Reina with the intention of letting her know that our bond will never be broken again, as I grip her hips and pound into her, our bodies smacking together repeatedly, and sending sweat flying into the air. I’m sealing our fate by taming the monster inside of her, and even after the two of us have come at the same time and collapsed onto the bed side by side, it only takes one touch of her skin and one thought of how much I’ve loved her all these years to get it all started again.
If I can help it, tonight will never end. Not an inch of her will go untouched, neither outside nor inside her body. Thoughts of Dante are nowhere to be found. Tonight, it’s just us. The monster and the beast, back together at last.
Behind me, the city of Philadelphia shines brightly in the night with the orange glow of the streetlights. It’s the city that Reina and I will run together now that she has come back to me. When it’s all said and done, I’ll be the king, and she’ll be the queen at my side. The two of us will reign supreme over everything we lay our eyes on, and we’ll bring fire and chaos to anyone who stands in our way.
I never thought it was possible, but Reina is back, and she’s not getting away this time. I don’t care how damaged she is. We’ll be damaged together—a madman and his insane woman. The perfect match made in hell.
Only a beast can tame a monster.