Fire is Corrupt
**ROMANY**
I stare blankly back at Ruiz knowing the very last thing that I would *ever* want to do at this point is go off alone with him. The slither of his smile is just a twitch too enticing and the absolute glow of excitement in his eyes cannot be ignored.
*He truly thinks I’m stupid.*
Jaime and Anna giggling behind me as the pair of them head for the kitchen is background noise as I consider Ruiz’s words from every angle. *He thinks I hate my cousin. I played it that way. He honestly thinks he’s offering me something.*
“You think I hate her because Santos is in love with her, don’t you?” I can’t help but ask. I’m curious about him, this man, this killer. Everything I’ve learned about him says that he should have let me leap from the docks, but… he didn’t. He saved me instead. And then covered me in his shirt as if he honestly didn’t want my bearing myself to the world. “Why did you keep me from jumping? Why did you stop me from giving you what you wanted? What you *said* that you intended to do to me that first night we were up on the roof?”
“There she is,” he whispers, taking a deep drink from the glass in his hand. His eyes sparkle. “You want honesty, Bonita? Or do you want a lie? But I warn you now… my truths do not come cheap. I barter them at a higher price than I do my own blood.”
Glaring at him, my eyes saunter down his muscular frame. He is hairy as hell, that’s no joke, and while I do *not* like my men as fuzzy as bear, nor as prickly as a porcupine, I cannot deny this sort of perverse attraction I have toward what’s underneath. He’s unapologetic and unreserved. Tainted and pure at the same time. There’s just something about the way he responds when I thwart him that tempers my clit. It’s disgusting… yet at the same time almost undeniable and inconquerable.
*God fear the woman that could ever steal this man’s heart.*
“Why would you think I need to escape my own cousin? She and I are nothing like you and yours,” I say matter-of-factly, avoiding his former question.
He leans close, and when he does I can see the hardness plumping behind his pants. He is a truly dark and despicable soul and it is as if he gets off on that alone. “Do you think I am stupid, Bonita? I know that Antonio does, but do you?”
Swallowing my apprehension, I meet the glint of violence in his gaze with the truth in my own. “No. I don’t. But I also don’t think that you are still here for the same reasons you were before. I think,” I whisper back, watching the barely imperceptible appreciation in his eyes, “the reasons for your being here have changed. You’ve known since the beginning that part of this was an act. You’ve known… and yet you played along.”
He chuckles, pupils narrowing to pinpricks as they’re suddenly swallowed by the gold of his irises. “No, I do not believe for one moment that you hate your cousin.” My eyes go wide and he nods. “You love her. She loves you. It is not ideal because I owe her a bullet to the head for murdering my older brother, years ago. But…” he coos softly, sliding a little closer to me and reaching forward to fondle the buttons of his shirt that I am wearing, “...that is a bullet based on principle alone. Not one born of any actual allegiance I might feel. Not inside. Not me,” he hisses. “I have nothing in my chest that beats for another. Not even for you,” he whispers on the edge of a dark chuckle and a sudden chill rides over the back of my neck to a near painful degree. “Revenge for him is a fire that burns in my father’s veins, not my own. And even *that* fire is corrupt. Despite what the outside eye has been trained to see.”
“So…” I murmur, turning in my seat so that I can fold my legs up to the side and face him. “What you are saying to me, Ruiz? In English, por favor!”
He laughs now, the kind of chortle that had his head thrown back against the couch and his gold tooth flashing in the sunlight from the windows along the deck. He swallows the rest of his drink then reaches across to the top of my bare thigh where he every so slowly begins to trail a finger down my flesh. “I wonder if that is the first time you have ever said my name to me. I have to say, it sounded… *muy caliente.* I almost felt something stir in me, I did.” He loses his smile, his finger once gentle, once tracing, now a full knuckled grip that is near painful along the back of my knee. He stares at his hand on my leg as he speaks, “I can help you, I think you know this. But I also know that you do not trust me.” He lifts his gaze, studying me. “Would you like my help?”
I snort. “Your help? Have you forgotten where we are? I’ve already told you, I do not hate my cousin. I have nothing to fear from *my cousin.”* My eyes flash. “Nor from yours.”
He finds his smile once again. “I am aware. I have known the entire time, that *you* are not his woman, despite his lies. He is in love with the Red Raider. I suspect far longer than even *you* realize. But as I said, I can help you.” His eyes grow serious. “You must know by now that *I am* not the only danger on this beach. And I do not speak of the sharks dancing in the water.”
I *did not* know that, but I definitely suspected. “Your father,” I hiss.
He nods, leaning back and releasing my leg which I’m almost certain is more than a little bruised. “Here is one secret I *am willing* to share with you, Bonita.” He tips his head forward, leaning into my ear. “I have been looking out for you from the moment you challenged me up on that deck. I have been waiting, wanting, and desperate for this moment right here ever since that time.”
*Oh shit. Oh shit.*
“Why is that?” I whisper, turning my face into his.
His pupils blow out, his gaze stumbling over my lips as he traces his mouth in the softest of kisses over my own, before reeling backward as if angry with himself. “I believe you already know the answer to that,” he says, standing up and granting me an eyeful of his prominent erection. “My ultimate goal has never changed. I find myself wanting power much more than I desire your cousin’s death.”
That’s when my eye catches on something moving toward the patio doors.
Wait… *not* something. *Someone.*
Suddenly my heart is in my throat as my eyes shoot to Ruiz’s as I whisper, “I accept.”
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