"Let go of me!" I screamed, shoving at Joaquin's grip. "That's your fucking brother!"
"Isa, it is better that you don't watch," Regina said, stepping out from the kitchen to speak softly. "This is part of life here. Rafael does what he must. But you do not need to see it," she said.
I shoved at Joaquin's arms one last time, dropping to the ground when he released me suddenly. Looking back toward the fire, Rafael stood watching us and holding up a hand for Joaquin. The order was clear.
I hurried to my feet, glancing around the fire as I approached. My eyes widened as I realized that the majority of the men standing there wore the same scars on their chest as Rafael. The same tally marks marred their skin. I stopped in the space between Rafael and Hugo, putting myself between them.
"Isa no," Hugo sputtered behind me. He didn't move to touch me, not when Rafael watched us both with a stubborn set to his jaw.
"Move, mi reina," Rafael said as my eyes dropped to the red hot brand in his hands. To the mark that would soon occupy space on Hugo's skin if I didn't intervene.
"I won't let you do this," I said, shaking my head from side to side as men around the fire looked at each other in surprise. "Why would you even want to?" I asked.
His jaw clenched as his free hand grabbed me by the arm, jerking me to the side and away from Hugo. "Do not ever choose another man over me, mi reina. If you seek to protect him from my wrath, choosing him over me is the wrong move. You will sign his death warrant instead.” He paused, willing me to see the truth blazing in his eyes that seemed to spark with madness as the fire cast shadows on his face. “Hugo came to the fire willingly. He accepted his penance because he knows he failed me. Will you do the same when it's your turn?" he asked, making me flinch back from him.
"When it's my turn?" I asked as tears stung my eyes. "You would do that to me?"
Silence hung in the air as his men waited for his response, my heart in my throat as I watched him swallow. "Yes. You earned a mark for your betrayal."
"What betrayal?" I asked, staring in the face of a monster. The conversation I'd had with Regina and Joaquin that morning seemed a world away from the reality of who he was.
He was not a man who could love. He was not a man at all.
He was nothing but a nightmare waiting to drag me to the pits of Hell.
"You left me!" he roared, the sound of his anger echoing off the house in the background. His men flinched back, their faces shocked by the extreme display as Rafael lifted the brand. I stepped back from him, shaking my head frantically as he shifted his grip from my arm to my chin, digging his thumb and fingers into my cheeks. He squeezed tightly, holding my gaze as he moved forward quickly and pressed the brand into Hugo's flesh.
It sizzled beneath the heat of the brand, crackling as it melted and the smell of burning flesh filled the fresh night air. Gagging against Rafael's grip on my face, I fought to step back when he tossed the iron to the ground at his feet once he finished with Hugo. Those burning eyes never left mine, his glare intense as he turned toward me and forced me to turn my face down to Hugo's pained expression. "He allowed you to be drugged. He let you be nearly raped. This is his penance for that failure."
"That wasn't his fault," I sputtered. "How could you do this to people..." I gasped as his grip tightened more, reaching up my hand to touch the marks on his chest and caressing the skin there despite the harshness of his grip on my face. "When someone did it to you?"
"It's our way," he said, covering my hand with his as he walked me backward toward the house.
"It's not my way," I argued. "This will never be my way."
Releasing me suddenly, he ducked low and pressed his shoulder to my stomach. Lifting me over his shoulder so my head dangled and blood rushed to my brain as he carried me back to the house. I didn't struggle, knowing it would be entirely futile. I had to hope the nightmare I'd seen at the fire had been a glimpse of El Diablo, of a man who wouldn't really brand me for leaving him. Regina stared on in horror as he strode past her and made for our bedroom, hurrying toward the doors as I watched her leave. The house was silent in her absence after she made herself scarce in the face of Rafael's anger.
He smacked my ass sharply as he walked. "Never question me in front of my men again," he growled, a tight warning in the words.
"Then you'd better hope you never fuck up in front of your men. I won't just sit quietly and look pretty while you torture people," I argued, wincing when another sharp swat burned my skin. The glove he wore dropped to the floor as he turned the corner to the bedroom, turning the knob and stepping inside the private space that must have been his oasis from prying eyes.
It was nothing even close to the sort for me.
He flipped me over his shoulder, dropping me to my feet as I fought to find my balance and my blood fled my head finally. "It isn't torture when they're willing, Princesa," he said. "I will give you leeway where I can in finding your place in my life, but I will not tolerate what happened tonight. Those men are my concern. They are mine to keep obedient so that I can keep you safe. If the consequences for betrayal are too lenient, that is when men come to my home and think they can get away with spying on me. That's when your life is in danger."
"You expect me to believe you give a shit if something happens to me? You said you would brand me!"
His face twisted, a moment of regret slipping into the fierce expression. "And I will when your time comes. Even the devil is a product of other people’s expectations, Princesa. I have to do to you what I would do to others."
“When?” I asked as tears stung my eyes. “When will you—”
He studied my face, watching my reaction with a gentle expression. “Tomorrow night.”
My jaw dropped as my breath caught, my eyes immediately drawn to the brands on his chest. To the marks that scarred his skin and the knowledge that he could do that to me settled over me. "No," I mumbled, shaking my head furiously as he wrapped his arms around me and clutched me to his chest. "You can't!" I screamed, shoving against his body as his face touched the top of my head.
He surrounded me. Overwhelming me with his presence as if he should be a comfort.
But he couldn't protect me, not when he was the one who would hurt me.
"You can't," I repeated, the words coming on a whisper.
He held me still, wrapping my hair around his fist and tilting my face up to meet his intense eyes. He searched my gaze, sighing into the void between us. "There are pains worse than the physical. Give me a different scar. Show me the ones on your soul," he murmured.
"What are you talking about?" I sputtered, reaching up to wipe away one of the tears that stained my cheeks.
He raised his hand to the space over my heart, the beating of it muffled against his palm. "Why does Odina hate you so much, Princesa?" he asked, watching as I drew in a ragged breath. Disbelief consumed me that he would ask such a thing of me in that moment.
I sniffled back my fear, pressing my lips together as I glared up at him. To use my terror against me, to pry to get inside my head in such a way was diabolical.
Given everything Hugo knew about my life, there wasn't much I had left that was safe from Rafael's invasion of my life. There was nothing left that was just mine.
But this one thing, the shame I felt for my actions as a child?
That was mine.
And I'd be fucking damned if I gave that up for anything. Even if I should have told him, because he'd never want to be with someone so fucking stupid.
I glared up at his hopeful face, at the confidence he felt that I would do what it took to avoid the branding, and I took joy in denying him something that he wanted. Something he couldn’t know without me giving it to him. He might be able to take everything else.
I’d be damned if I gave him the last piece of me.
"No."
15
Rafael
Her mouth formed the word. Her eyes glared up at me. But my brain struggled to wrap around the strength in h
er voice.
She defied me so beautifully, even knowing it would end in nothing but pain for her. I'd known men to promise me the lives of their children to avoid a brand if they hadn't been raised on the island and in the culture that dominated our community. For a moment I wondered if she thought I wouldn't do it.
If she suspected that my obsession with her would be enough to save her from the pyre. But the steel to her green eyes and the posture of her spine as she squared her shoulders left little doubt. She knew I would do it.
She believed me when I said I'd hurt her. She just didn't care.
Her secrets were more important to her than protecting her flesh.
It confirmed something I'd always known about Isa. She felt safe inside her mind. Whatever had happened in that river, she knew her body was just flesh. That the core of who she was lurked deeper within, and that the place where nothing else could touch her was her ultimate defense.
I knew with sudden clarity that it was where she went when nobody was watching. Why she was so silent in her room at night. The safety of her mind was a haven she couldn't resist when there were no distractions around her.
"No?" I asked, walking her backward. She didn't resist the fact that I steered her toward the bed. There wasn't the slightest attempt to diffuse the situation or deny me access to her body.
Her body was just a shell. That, I could have. Just not her mind. Not her soul or her heart.
I'd find a way to pry them open, but until that happened there was one part of her that I hadn't yet possessed.
"No," she repeated, holding her own despite the fury I felt on my face. My skin felt hot, as if I was the pyre myself and I could burn her with my touch. I'd cleanse her with the flames if I could, but I didn't know how to do it when I never wanted to hurt her.
Not like this.
I wanted her to bear my mark, not the mark of a failure. I wanted to not have to hurt her, but she couldn't give me that. She couldn't meet me halfway, so intent in her own damn stubbornness to cling to her secrets. As if her sins were horrible, when they could never compare to mine.
"You'd rather accept a brand than tell me why your sister hates you?" I asked, my voice a grumble in my frustration. I lifted her onto the edge of the bed, setting her on her knees so that she was closer to my height. Leaning forward, I touched my lips to hers and held her eyes. She held perfectly still for my kiss, not returning it or fighting back. Then she suddenly opened her mouth, grabbing my bottom lip between her teeth and sinking them into my flesh until the metallic taste of blood exploded over my senses.
I grabbed her by the hair, wrenching her head back so sharply that she had no choice but to release me. I trailed my blood stained lips down over the front of her throat, leaving a red stain on her delicate fawn skin as I nipped at her flesh sharply enough to mark her. Her gasps fueled me on, her attempt at denying the fact that she wanted it set to fall on deaf ears before she ever murmured a word of protest.
But mi reina was coming to terms with her sexual appetite, with her desire for the nightmare who haunted her from the dark. She reached up to grasp my hair, tugging firmly to pull me closer rather than push me away.
I dragged my tongue up over the cord of her neck, baring my teeth one last time when her nails drifted down to my shoulders to claw at me. I took her mouth with mine, catching her bottom lip between my teeth and biting down the same way she'd done to me. Her eyes held mine as the flavor of her blood burst over my lips, staining my teeth as I dragged back slowly. Her delicate pink tongue darted out to soothe the wound, wincing when I settled the palm of my hand over the scar on her thigh.
With my request for information so at the front of her mind, the physical reaction she had to being touched there was even more prevalent. I'd punish her for her refusal to give me what I wanted, for her rejection in not giving me the last pieces in understanding the shards of her history.
But the way she glared at me with her blood-stained lips brought out the other part of me. The Devil who wanted to worship his Queen, because even my hatred of the denial couldn't quiet the simple truth of what she'd done.
Nobody dared to deny me anything.
Nobody but mi reina.
I slid the fabric of her dress up her thighs, staring at the smooth expanse of skin as it revealed her body to my gaze. Once the fabric snagged around her hips, she lifted her arms for me with a tiny smirk. So confident that she could take whatever I would give her, she had a surprise in store when her punishment finally came.
Even before the brand, there was a part of her I hadn't claimed. A part of her that wasn't yet mine.
It would be before the night was over.
Raising the dress off and over her head, I lifted her off the bed as soon as she was in her bra and panties. Twisting and striding for the bathroom, I carried her into the room and quickly stripped her of the rest of her clothes before lifting her to set her on the counter. Her shoulders pressed into the cool glass of the mirror as I lowered myself to my knees on the tiled floor.
The same way she'd kneel at my feet the next day to receive her penance. I leaned in, licking her from her entrance to her clit and sealing my mouth over her pussy. She moaned, reaching down to pull at my hair as I worked her with slow strokes of my tongue. Tasting her, laving her with my mouth, I watched her through hooded eyes as her breasts heaved.
She held my gaze, watching me worship her on my knees. She couldn't understand the significance of the moment, but I'd made myself a promise as I watched my father burn alive.
I knelt for no one.
Except her.
Shoving my hands behind her knees, I pushed them high and spread her wide as I pulled my mouth away and stared down at her. Rising to my feet while she clung to me, I ignored her groan of frustration as I shoved my shorts out of the way and slid inside her. I worked her with slow pumps meant to tease her. Meant to drive her closer and closer to an orgasm that I'd only let her have when I spread her ass wide.
I licked the seam of her mouth playfully, smearing her essence all over her mouth and the wound I'd left with my teeth. Opening for me, she let me tangle my tongue with hers in a duel of willpower. Her hips rose on the counter to the best of her ability, pressing her tight pussy higher on my cock as she sought out her own orgasm.
I pulled out, abandoning her mouth to draw a nipple between my teeth and nip at her sensitive flesh sharply. She moaned as my fingers slid between her legs, stroking in and out of her and tormenting her g-spot. Getting them wet enough for what I'd need next. I slid them free, staring down at her swollen and needy pussy as my finger drifted lower.
Her eyes widened when I touched a wet finger to her puckered hole, pressing against it firmly and persistently until her flesh parted to let me in. She whimpered as it slid inside, meeting the resistance of her body as she tensed. Reaching over, I opened one of the drawers and pulled out the bottle of lube that waited for exactly this purpose.
I hadn't thought to do it when I was angry with her, when my frustration made my body tense with the need to fuck some sense into her. But Isa loved everything I did to her. She met me stroke for stroke even as pain crashed over her when I took her too roughly.
Once she got over the shock of the adjustment, she'd love taking my cock deep inside her tight heart-shaped ass.
I squirted the gel all over my second finger before gliding it in next to the first.
"Rafe," she whimpered. "I can't."
"You can and you will, mi reina. You think you can deny me and decide your own consequences? You'll take me in your ass tonight, and then tomorrow you'll kneel at my feet and let me brand you. It would have been so much simpler to give me the answer I wanted," I said, curling my fingers inside her ass and scissoring them apart. Stretching her as she tried to squirm away from my assault. I stilled her with my free hand at her throat, wrapping my grip around her jaw.
"It hurts," she whined, trying to lower her thighs to restrict my access. I pulled my fingers free, yanking her down fro
m the counter and turning her around. I lifted one of her legs up, resting it on the counter to spread her open for me as I slammed inside her pussy and moved my fingers back to her ass while I fucked her slowly. She grunted as I stretched her while feeling my cock move on the other side of the thin barrier inside her. I moved in and out with opposite strokes to the way my fingers worked her, gliding over tender tissue until the moment when her pained gasps changed to reluctant moans.
"Rafael wait!" she begged as I pulled my cock free from her tight sheathe and covered it in lube. I pumped it in my grip, pressing the head against her hole as she tried to climb up on the counter to escape. I grabbed a fistful of her hair with my other hand as I applied pressure to her while she clenched.
"Relax, mi reina," I ordered. "It will hurt less." She whimpered as my head popped inside her, her hands clawing at the surface of the counter. She gripped my cock like a vice as I fought my way inside her. Her back strained as she drew in deep breaths, unable to move as I pulsed in and out of her in shallow thrusts. Watching her body stretch to accommodate my invasion, I used my grip on her hair to lift her up until she had to stretch to support herself against the mirror. Watching her reflection, I shoved through her swollen tissue until my groin touched her ass and she screamed. "Touch yourself," I ordered, staring into her eyes in the reflection.
Her hand slid down off the mirror slowly, gliding to the space between her legs to touch her clit with firm fingers. She circled it fast as she whimpered, her breath catching when I pulled my hips back until only the head of my cock was inside her. Gliding back in with a smooth thrust, I watched her eyes drift half closed, watched the moment she tried to deny how much she liked the forbidden pleasure that built inside her.
"You like it when I fuck your ass, mi reina?" I asked, repeating the motion. She struggled as I took her relentlessly, squirming in my grip, but those determined fingers of hers never stopped working her clit for me.
"Yes," she whispered, the admission vibrating through my body and straight up my cock. I pounded into her harder, forcing her to take it even if I was being too rough. With her tight heat strangling me, I had no chance of lasting long.
Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance Page 11