Yours Page 5

  I shrugged.

  “I don’t know. He said he had to go.”

  “Bummer.”

  “Where’s April?”

  “Out back, puking up her third margarita. I swear, that girl is such a lightweight.”

  “She’s not alone out there, is she?” I asked quickly.

  “Nah, James is with her.”

  “Good.” I breathed out. I wasn’t a lightweight myself, but the bar here poured their drinks strong. The room was spinning whenever I turned around too quickly. I looked up again to see if the blond guy was still there up on the balcony, but there was nobody there.

  “Hello? Hello? Earth to Jessica?”

  “Sorry, what?”

  “Did you want to come out and smoke with us?”

  I frowned.

  “You don’t smoke, Mimi.”

  Mimi rolled her eyes and pinched two fingers to her lips, puffing her lips out.

  “Not cigarettes, dummy.”

  My jaw dropped.

  “You don’t mean… pot?” I whispered the last word.

  Mimi burst into drunken laughter.

  “Claro que si!” she said, dancing around in circles and shaking her gold sequined hips. “La marijuana… la ganja…”

  “Shh! Isn’t that illegal here?”

  “Nah. It’s like, the national plant.”

  “But—”

  “I’ll see you later, okay? Or I’ll meet you back at the hotel tomorrow, just go with April and James.”

  Before I could protest again, Mimi had skipped off toward the front entrance. She caught a guy around the waist and he laughed, pulling her close for a kiss. She squealed and slapped his ass. They left the club, falling all over each other.

  Shit. I looked out to the front entrance, then back across the dance floor. April was outside, she’d said? I should go make sure she was okay. James was a good boyfriend sometime, but he didn’t have nearly the experience I did at holding back hair when a friend was puking up her guts.

  As I looked around, it seemed like Miguel was nowhere to be found. My best chance at a hookup was gone, and I didn’t really care. I wasn’t about to lose my virginity to some random guy in Mexico, anyway. I felt bad about not thanking him again for the drink, and my mom’s voice rang in my head—Always be polite! Be grateful!

  Well, I was grateful she wasn’t here to see me now.

  I wandered back through the dance floor, pushing my way past writhing bodies to get to the back hallway. There, couples were pressed against the wall doing all kinds of things that I’d only read about in books. The bathroom door for the girls’ room was open, and I poked my head inside to see if April was there.

  Two women looked up from the bathroom sink. Their eyes were glazed over, and I saw a smudge of white powder under the nose of the nearest one. She lifted an arm and spoke rapidly in Spanish.

  “Sorry!” I said. I turned around and ran straight into a wall.

  No, it wasn’t a wall. It was a man’s chest. A dark suit, so expensive that I cringed at the smudge of lip gloss that had come off on his lapel. As I lifted my head and opened my mouth for yet another apology, I froze.

  It was the guy from upstairs. His eyes were icy blue, and his dark blond hair was slicked back. Every feature of his was drawn tight, but despite his cold expression, something in his face made my body respond instantly with warmth. I swallowed hard, my heart beating double time. There were words on my tongue, I just couldn’t find them. The way he was looking at me made my body clench with desire.

  “Ex—excuse me,” I said. I licked my lips. “I was looking for my friend—”

  “You’re beautiful,” he said. “Dance with me.”

  It was an order, not a question. The words went through my body with a shiver. He put an arm around my waist and drew me close to him as we moved back onto the dance floor.

  The pressure of his hand against the small of my back sent thrills through my core. We swayed to the music, our hips in synchrony. I felt dizzy with desire as the beat thudded through my chest. His palm was hot, even through the fabric of my dress. Was that the reason I felt so overheated?

  I looked up into ice blue eyes that bored into me like a drill. This guy—this guy wasn’t dancing with me, was he? His white shirt stretched out over a chiseled body that could have been a football quarterback’s. His arms were all muscle, and his features were dramatic and dark—dark eyebrows slanting over his light blue eyes, dark stubble on his jaw. He was beauty incarnate. As we moved to the music, I let him draw me closer.

  Our bodies pulsed against each other, and as the song ramped up to a thick, heavy beat, he ran his hand down my back. Every nerve inside of me was shot through with electricity. As the first song ended and the next began, he stepped back closer to the back hallway, pulling me along.

  “Um, thanks for dancing with me,” I said. Sheesh. Way to go, Jessica. Just what your mom would think to say. But he only smiled back at me.

  “The pleasure’s all mine,” he said.

  I felt like pumping my fists in the air and cheering for myself. Why had I been so unsure about coming to Mexico? This was… this was perfect.

  “What’s your name?” I asked, tilting my head flirtatiously. I tried to channel my inner Mimi. She would know exactly how to flirt with this kind of guy.

  He bent his head down as though he hadn’t heard me, although the music wasn’t nearly as loud in the back hallway.

  “What’s yours?”

  “Jessica.”

  “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.” He spun me around to the music and I turned, laughing. The lights above sparkled and the music filled my ears. This handsome man, this Greek god, was dancing with me—me! I couldn’t stop the swelling in my heart.

  At the end of the spin, my heel caught a bit on the floorboards and I stumbled. He caught me in his arms, pulling me into a tight embrace against his body.

  I gasped. He was hard—I could feel him bulging outward through his pants. His erection pressed into my inner thigh as he held me and brushed my hair off of my shoulder. I thought that he would be embarrassed, but there was no hint of shame in his face, only desire, a fierce, fierce desire. When he bent down and kissed my bare neck, I melted into his arms.

  “Jessica,” he murmured. Then his hands were in my hair and he was kissing me, kissing me like I’d never been kissed before.

  I was a virgin, sure, but I’d had my share of boyfriends. None of them, though, were any match for this. His kiss tore the air from my lungs, and his hands moved down over my body, cupping me, caressing me.

  I opened my mouth to let my lips part, and he seized my lips his in his, pressing kiss after kiss. My breath was gone by now, completely gone, but I didn’t care. I wanted this kiss to last forever. My hands came up and met with broad shoulders. As he kissed me, some part of me inside ripped free. Maybe it was the margaritas, maybe it was just that I was finally really attracted to a guy for the first time. But I found myself pulling him closer. My fingers tangled in his shirt and I pushed back against him, my lips hot and needy.

  He looked like an ice god, and his arms circled me completely. I lost myself in the heat of the kiss, letting him do whatever he wanted, letting him touch me. Whatever he did, I found myself aching for more.

  Finally. That was the word that went through my mind. Finally, I had found a man who set my body on fire with his touch. Finally, I had found a man who was strong and not weak, who could possess me wholly. Finally, all of my dark fantasies were coming true.

  I was the luckiest girl in the world.

  Chapter Eleven

  Vale

  Her kiss was so… urgent. I’d wanted to draw her in slowly, but I knew from the moment I touched her that it was impossible to wait.

  It was strange. She seemed utterly innocent. It was her innocence that had drawn her to me initially—the way she looked around nervously, biting her lip. Even as she danced in the middle of the floor, even as she flirted with another man, I could sense
that all of this was something that she wasn’t quite ready for. She was a young woman as I imagined a young woman should be. Curious. Testing out her sexuality. But unsure.

  I knew that El Alfa could sense it as well as I could. He knew that she would be an easy target. Easy to manipulate, easy to possess. She was a woman who would trust me up until the very last moment, too far, until it was too late to escape. Trusting, innocent. The perfect victim.

  But there was something else to her. When she looked up into my face, I saw something change inside her expression. A flash of dark ferocity across her eyes. Maybe… maybe she wasn’t so innocent after all.

  There was only one way to find out.

  As she moved in my arms, my cock throbbed. I wanted to pin her back against the wall and take her right then and there. Instead, I turned my hip and pressed myself into her. It was a bold move, and I wanted to see how she would react to me.

  She swallowed hard as I pressed my cock against her thigh. Startled, she moved back as though she was going to pull away… then stopped. Her lips parted, but she didn’t move away from me. She stayed there, her gorgeous curves teasing my cock with the slow friction of her hips swaying to the beat.

  Goddamn. I was going to come right then and there if she kept moving like that. She had to know what she was doing to me. Poor girl. Poor, sweet, perfect girl.

  “Jessica,” I murmured. Her chestnut hair swept across my hand and her hip tortured my aching cock with slow circles.

  Wait, I wanted to say, as I dove into the sweetest kiss. Her lips were hot and full and wanting, and I tore all the sweetness from them that I could. A soft needy noise escaped her lips, making me throb hard against her. Fuck, she was beautiful. So, so beautiful.

  Wait, I wanted to say, as I drew her even closer. My hands cradled her, moving down over her warm skin. The end was coming for her, all too soon. I could see the men waiting outside in the alley in my mind’s eye. They were waiting for me to bring her out, like a lamb to slaughter.

  Then something in her shifted, changed. She’d been so complacent before, so gentle. In the middle of our kiss, though, she began to press forward. Her hands pulled at the fabric of my shirt, and her eyes lit up with a fiery passion. Her breasts pressed against my chest and I could feel her nipples, hard through the fabric. God, I’d never wanted a woman so much before.

  Wait, I wanted to say. Wait, because the path I’m leading you down ends in a dungeon. Wait, because you only have a few minutes left as a free woman, and every kiss draws us closer to the exit.

  Wait, because I don’t want this to be over yet.

  When I pulled back from the kiss, her eyes were blurred with passionate need. My groin throbbed as she eased herself away from my body. For a single second, when she was looking up into my eyes, I thought she could see right down through my carefully crafted facade. She knew, she had to know. She would run away from me now, and I would let her go.

  But she didn’t leave, and I couldn’t postpone the inevitable any longer. I swallowed the lump in my throat, knowing that I had to lead her to the trap waiting for us outside.

  “Let’s go outside and get some fresh air,” I said.

  Forgive me.

  Chapter Twelve

  Jessica

  I was oblivious to anything but the fire between us until he pulled back out of the kiss. I felt him tense under me as we leaned against the wall.

  “Outside?” I repeated breathlessly.

  “Sure. You were looking for your friend?” he asked, a hint of a smile on his face.

  Oh, God. April must be puking really bad.

  “Yeah,” I said, blinking away my dizziness. “I, uh—”

  “The back entrance is down this way. We could use a breather anyway, huh?”

  He turned and pointed down the hall, past the bathrooms. I shuffled past him with a mumble of thanks, adjusting my dress. I was too tipsy to be wearing heels.

  There was another man in a suit standing in front of the back door. As I came closer, I saw him lift his eyes to look at something over my shoulder. Then he nodded and stepped aside, opening the door.

  I stepped forward to what looked like an alleyway, but then something made me pause. Some instinct. What was the man in the suit looking at? I turned my head quickly. Dizziness swept through me as I looked up into icy blue eyes.

  “You—”

  He shoved me back through the doorway so hard that I didn’t have any time to cry out. I tumbled out into the alley, catching myself on the rough asphalt with my hands. My palms scraped and a burning pain shot through my arm. I heard the alleyway door slam behind us.

  What the hell!?

  The blond man yanked me to my feet, pulling me up by the arm as though I weighed nothing. I opened my mouth to scream, but I only got out a yelp before his hand was over my mouth. I struggled, kicking hard, but he held me tight against his chest. One of the other guards came forward and clasped a collar around my neck. A collar?! I kicked out again and got the guard in the shin. But the black leather collar was still tight around my neck.

  “You didn’t drug her.”

  The voice came from behind us, and when the blond man turned with me in his arms, I saw who had spoken. The fat guy from upstairs, the one with the mustache.

  “I didn’t have time. She was heading out here anyway.”

  Then my eyes refocused, and I saw April and James. They were both on their knees, gags tied around their mouths, with two of the men in black standing behind them. The men—Oh God. The men had guns tucked into their belts. I hadn’t noticed before.

  Behind them, there were two black SUVs parked up against the curb, blocking the alleyway.

  April was sobbing silently. Her mascara ran down onto the cloth gag and there was a collar around her throat just like mine. James looked up at me with fear in his eyes. There was a huge bruise on the side of his face. My throat constricted.

  Jesus. They’re going to kidnap us. All of the stories I’d heard about Americans getting kidnapped and held for ransom came flooding back into my mind. Stories about fingers getting chopped off and sent back as a warning. All of a sudden, I was completely sober.

  The fat man stepped in front of me. I wriggled backwards, but the blond man holding me was way too strong for me to even think about getting loose. Then the fat man reached a hand out and stroked my chin. I gulped as his fingers ran down my throat, down past my collarbone.

  When he yanked the top of my dress down, I moaned into the hand that was gagging me and pushed away, but there was nowhere to go. He squeezed my tit so hard it hurt.

  “Good choice,” he said, nodding with a smile that made my bones turn to ice. “Gag her.”

  That was it. I wasn’t going to get taken that easily. I bit down hard on the blond man’s hand. My teeth sunk into his palm and he shouted, pulling his hand away. His grip loosened just enough for me to send one good kick to his knee. He dropped me. I jumped sideways, a scream halfway out of my throat, before he caught me again. This time one of the other men stuffed a handful of fabric into my mouth and tied a gag around the back of my head. I kicked, but the blond man only held me tighter.

  “What about those two?” the blond man asked, as he held me back from running. He was talking about April and James. April was still sobbing.

  “Take the girl.”

  The other men in black suits pulled April to her feet. She started screaming from behind her gag, hoarse muffled screams. How long had they been out here? I met her eyes for only a second. Then the men opened up the back of one of the black SUVs and shoved her inside, slamming the door behind her.

  James struggled, but his hands were tied behind his back and there were two men on either side of him holding him down by the shoulders. He couldn’t do anything. My heart pounded faster.

  “And this one?”

  The fat man with the mustache glanced down. James went white as the man stood over him with no trace of mercy.

  “Kill him.”

  Chapter Thirt
een

  Vale

  “Kill him.”

  One of El Alfa’s henchmen stepped forward, his hand already on his gun. Jessica wrenched back in my arms, trying desperately to twist out of my grasp. It wouldn’t do any good. I wasn’t about to let her go. But she didn’t have to see this. I pushed her toward the SUV that we’d come in. She screamed from behind the gag, her eyes wide as she craned her head to see the boy. I shut the door behind her quickly, but she pressed her face up against the window, still trying to make herself heard from behind the gag.

  I turned, standing in front of her view. The henchman had taken the gun from his holster and was stepping toward the boy.

  What shitty luck. He should have let his girlfriend go outside alone to puke. If he hadn’t been with her, he wouldn’t be dead. My mind kept cycling excuses, trying to keep calm. In control.

  I clasped my hands loosely in front of me. Any pity I felt for him was locked down so deeply that I couldn’t even feel it, not really. My face was smooth, I knew, smooth and controlled. If El Alfa wanted to see how I reacted to a murder, he would be sorely disappointed.

  But, as it turned out, he wanted to see more from me.

  “Wait.”

  All of the men looked up at El Alfa’s words. He reached out and took the gun from his henchman’s hand.

  “But—”

  “Hush,” El Alfa said to the man. The man looked up at him with a scowl on his face, like he was a child that had just been reprimanded, but that expression quickly disappeared. El Alfa hefted the gun in his hand.

  Then he held it out to me.

  My eyes flicked from the gun to his face. He didn’t mean—

  “You are new here,” El Alfa said, his voice rasping over my nerves. “Take it.”

  My jaw started to clench, but I forced myself to relax. I held out my hand and El Alfa set the gun down on my open palm. I wrapped my hand around the gun, my finger stroking the side of the trigger. As I hefted it, El Alfa gripped my wrist. His palm was hot and sweaty but the grip was an iron vise.

  “You have killed before?” he asked me.