I’m so goddamn sore. 

Sitting on a chair is painful. Hell, I got chills at my reflection. I am covered with dark circles. Love bites from August.

They were worth it. 

A happy sigh blows from my mouth as I pause over the keys.

I hit send and bite my lip, anticipating Marcia’s reply. She’ll be hurt she didn’t get an invite. If I had a choice, she’d be the first name on my list. We lived together for a year. I know her more intimately than I should. Living in close quarters erases all privacy. We’ve helped each other through rough spots. I doubt she’ll understand. 

How could she? 

Yeah, that wouldn’t raise red flags.

I can’t risk anything reaching August’s father. I won’t let anything bad happen.

Closing the laptop, I shove thoughts of my California friends aside. I’m married. I should enjoy this. He is.

August bumps into the chair, demanding my attention. “We’re supposed to go to the garden. Or did you want to stay in bed all day?” August slips into my shirt, grabbing my breast. 

I seize his wrist, torn between a desire to stretch my legs and the ache throbbing at his touch. “Both sound tempting.”

“I know what I want.” His mouth grazes my neck. “You.”

There are no words to describe how that makes me feel. 

A grin splits my face. “Let’s take a walk.”

“Okay.” He shakes his head, bemused. “You make me unhinged.”

Crazy enough to forget using a condom. Four times. 

I still haven’t explained about the birth control. We’ll discuss it soon. Just not now.

I step around the tangle of sheets and jump in the shower. I watch him approach, rippling in the frosted glass, and then join me. August ducks under the spray, taking my hips. It doesn’t matter how often I see him naked. 

This will never get old.

“You’re so fucking beautiful.” August pins me to the wall, trembling with restraint. “Such a tight, sexy body.”

The steam wraps us, making my head pound. I palm his chest and run my fingers over arms. I can’t believe he’s all mine. 

My laughter bounces off the tiles. “God, if you told me six months ago this would be my life…I’d have probably blocked you.”

August grabs the soap, lathering my curves. “Speak for yourself. I knew what I wanted.”

I trace his collarbone. “What?”

“A partner in crime. A wife. Someday, a family.”

Shit. He brought it up. “Hmm.”

“Anyway. I have everything I want.” A delicious warmth seeps into my skin as he kisses me, smiling.

We finish showering and dress in silence. He opens the door, arm circling my waist as I walk through. He’s changed in the last twelve hours. 

I’ve caught him staring at my tits. It’s always a thrill. In the past, he might’ve averted his gaze. Now he doesn’t. I belong to him.

Case in point: he slaps my ass when I stride ahead.

I punch August’s shoulder. “Don’t do that!”

“Can’t help it. Sorry.”

“Careful, or I’ll give your guards a reason to gossip about us.” 

He chuckles. “Sounds exciting. What did you have in mind?”

“Hmm. Blowing you on the balcony?”

August makes a dissenting sound as he leads me down a hall, passing the locked room.

“What’s in there?” I pause, tugging on his hand. “Your porn collection?”

A grim line flattens his smile. “My mom’s bedroom.”

“Oh.” Now I feel like a jerk. “Sorry.”

I stare at the blank, white wall, wondering what violence it captured to make that shell-shocked expression on August’s face. “When did she pass?”

“I was fifteen. It was an accident.”

Fifteen. I had over two decades with my awful parents, but I can’t imagine losing a loved one so young. “So you keep her room preserved?”

“The staff knows not to disturb the inside, aside from the occasional vacuuming to remove the dust.”

I frown, suddenly bothered by the flatness in his tone and the obvious cues that he’s hiding something. 

August looks away. “Let’s go.”

Maybe he’s not ready. I sure as hell haven’t confessed every black secret just because we’re married, but it still bothers me that he can’t be honest about this.

All thoughts of family secrets fade when we burst into the sunshine. The warm rays brighten August’s face. He beams with a happy glow as we walk down a path. The jungle insulates us in cool mist. I stop to admire the intermittent pop of color among the greenery.

“You never told me how beautiful this place is.”

He squeezes my hand. “I’m glad you think so.”

“Come on. Don’t tell me years of living here have made you that jaded.”

“I guess it’s the world outside that’s ugly.”

I’ve avoided thinking about anything beyond these adobe walls.

We step through the kissing gate, kicking through fields before wandering into a hedge maze. I haven’t been here—his garden is too big for me to navigate. 

August takes a series of turns, stopping at a courtyard with a white marble fountain. “I need to show you something.”

I balk at the gravity in his tone. “What?”

August releases me and kneels at a patch near my feet. He brushes the sharp green blades, digging in to yank the flap of grass aside. He gestures toward the man-sized square. “This is the way out.”

I gape as he wipes dirt from a panel sitting on the earth and slides a handle from a groove in the middle. He twists it and pulls, revealing a dark hole. Seconds later, lights illuminate the short distance down into a very narrow passageway.

“This leads into the jungle. I had it built in case of an emergency.” He dusts his hands before taking mine. “Promise me you’ll talk to me before using this.”

I could’ve left anytime I wanted. “Why do you need a tunnel?”

A breeze makes the trees sigh. August sweeps hair from his eyes. “If the regime were ever overthrown, my father and his family would be high-profile targets.”

Rebels would be gunning for August, his brother, and the Espadas I met at the party.

I’m on that list. 

He shakes his head. “I know what you’re thinking, but it won’t happen.”

“How can you say that?” I turn from the hatch. “Dictators are deposed all the time. Once your people have had enough, they’ll rise against you.”

“First, I’m not him.” August rolls the grass over the trap. His shadow ripples over me as he stands. “I didn’t pick my parents.”

“Do you think they care? All they see is the wealth of this place. You have everything that’s been denied to them. Safety. Shelter. Food. Education—”

“I’d trade it all in a second.”

“You’d be crazy. Some work their whole lives to achieve this.”

“Now you have it all.” A humorless smile twists his face. “How does it feel?”

I twist the wedding band, heat rising to my cheeks. “It’s shitty.”

“Yes,” he sighs. “It is.”

I glare at the sparkling ring as though it duped me into flying here. Nothing changes the fact I married him because I had no choice. I’m on the fucking hit list if General Asshole ever falls from power.

I can’t stand this.

A roar builds in my throat until August kisses my cheek. “We’re meant to be together, Lily.” 

Like it or not, he’s right. I don’t want to be without him. Which means I have to stay here. 

He strokes my hair. “We don’t choose who we fall in love with.” 

August stills my shaking as I fall into his chest. He kisses me, growling. My shirt rises over my belly. He yanks, exposing a canvas of skin marred by bites.

He admires his handiwork, stroking the mark near my breast. August breathes into it. His tongue lashes at the sensitive spot.

I arch myself, dazzled by the spark of pleasure. 

He pushes me down. “You’re mine.”

Again with the possessiveness. “Saying that doesn’t make it true.”

“You need reminding.” His mouth closes over my nipple. He makes a circle before kissing me.

Another jolt draws a line between my legs to my breasts. “Damn you.”

August doesn’t hear me. He’s lost. With a rough jerk, he rips my shorts off. He watches me, enjoying the sight of me helpless. He spreads my thighs and lowers his head to my mound.

He’s halfway there before I realize what he’s doing. “August?”

He kisses my clit. I tighten over his face as I inhale a deep gasp. Is he going to—

His tongue reaches back. All the way. It slides with agonizing slowness, slipping in my wetness before he circles the finish. He stamps a hot, wet seal. Then he sucks.

It’s heaven on earth. My hips spasm as he works, each flick like liquid flames. The ache inside me builds, screaming to fill the void. I grab August’s hair and stifle a moan.

But he doesn’t make me wait long. August only has so much self-control. My gasps whittle away at it like a hammer chipping at stone. Eventually, the entire thing shatters.

“Please, August.”

He kisses my thigh and removes his pants. A wild, untamed fire consumes him. He seizes me and yanks. I slide across the grass. His waist dips. I wrap myself around him. I should ask for a condom, but why deny myself the pleasure?

I want there to be nothing between us.

His head pushes my walls apart. Then he thrusts.

I sigh into August’s neck, the breath knocked out of me. He bites the healing marks in between groans. He fucks me with brutal strength, the ground pushing against me.

His back moves like a rippling wave. He fists my mane and pins me, kissing me so hard I see stars. A moan develops in August’s chest. We join our bodies. Again and again. It’s desperate and violent, as though we’re two broken pieces trying to be whole. 

And when it’s over, I breathe again.