With a nod at Tomas, he followed his friend out the door.
“Your hair is the sexiest shade of red I’ve ever seen.” Vera inched closer on the couch, bending over Luke’s sprawled leg.
“Mm.” His tongue took a stroll through his mouth, casting off the sour taste of her flattery.
She’d openly watched him across the table all through dinner. After dessert, it hadn’t taken her long to seek him out in Alejandro’s den.
Ten minutes into their private conversation, he knew he would have her beneath him by night’s end.
Would…
Definitely should.
He should fuck her into delirium, drug her with orgasms, and win her over once and for all.
With a sharp pang in his gut, his gaze gravitated to the dark-haired beauty sitting alone on the far side of the den. He’d kept Gina in his periphery from the moment they’d arrived but hadn’t spoken a word to her.
Her eyes shone with alertness, her posture cautiously still. The purple markings that splotched her face lent a tough edge to her feminine appearance. But it wasn’t just the bruises that made her unapproachable. Her entire aura screamed, Fuck off.
She and Tomas had that in common.
Luke didn’t want her here, for her own protection and his peace of mind. But Alejandro had instructed otherwise, and the reason for that wouldn’t make itself known until the entertainment began.
Given the tautness in her shoulders, she knew what was coming.
“She belongs to my brothers.” Vera slid a fingernail beneath Luke’s jaw, attempting to turn his attention back to her.
“Not this week, she doesn’t.” He gave Vera his eyes. “Tell me why you hate her.”
“Tell me why you want her.”
“She’s available, and that availability allows me to do anything I desire to her tight little body.”
As she mulled that over, her eyes dilated, and the rise and fall of her chest slowly sped up.
“If I were available…” She trailed her nail down his neck and hooked it beneath the tie. “What would you do to me?”
“Your answer first.” He captured her wrist, holding it immobile. “Why do you hate her?”
“She makes my brothers stupid.”
“Explain.”
“The whore is a distraction.” At the clench of his fingers around her arm, she narrowed her eyes. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You all turn into cavemen the way they fight over her.”
“I’m not fighting.”
“Semantics. I can’t help but wonder if she can cast spells with her pussy. Every man who falls in doesn’t come out with his brain intact.”
“That’s a pretty powerful trick.” He smiled, unable to deny the claim.
“It’s sorcery. My brothers need to get the fuck over her.”
Jealousy. That was the real answer to his question. Vera was insanely, viciously jealous of the attention that Hector’s sons gave to Gina. If he had to guess, Vera was in love with at least one of them.
“You know…” He released her wrist. “The best way to get over a woman is to send her home with another man.”
“You mean, send her home with you?” Her spine went ramrod straight. “You actually want to keep her?”
“Perhaps.” He stretched his arms along the back of the couch, reclining with his legs spread and his gaze locked on Gina. “There’s something quite enchanting about her.”
There was something, all right. She made him feel restless and possessive, like an alien predator trapped in his skin.
Tomas stood like a sentinel behind her, allowing Luke the opportunity to work on Vera. But his focus was shit. Every brain cell seemed to be on a single track, one that had nothing to do with the operation and everything to do with protecting his fighter.
Marco and Alejandro were the only other two men present tonight. Evidently, Omar didn’t attend family dinners, and Miguel was still out of town on business. A few scantily dressed cantina girls milled about the room, collecting empty glasses and taking orders.
The brothers didn’t give the girls the time of day. Nor did they seem the least bit concerned with him cozying up on the couch with Vera.
No, they only had eyes for Gina.
If either man touched her, the night would be over. He’d made that announcement the moment they arrived for dinner.
“They’ll never let you keep her.” Vera sniffed. “They’ll kill her before they let her leave the property.”
“They call her a whore, but you and I both know that’s bullshit. Who is she?”
“Don’t know.” She shrugged.
“Don’t know or won’t say?”
“Poor pathetic man.” Vera shook her head. “You’re bewitched by a woman who despises you.”
“Is that right? Have you watched us together on the cameras? Sleeping? Working out? Fucking?” He wrapped the last word in gravel and heat, marking the raising goosebumps along her arms. “Ask your question again.”
Her lashes fluttered, and two pink blooms rose to her cheeks. “If I was available, what would you do?”
“Let’s go for a drive tomorrow.”
“A drive? How would—?”
“I’ll borrow one of Marco’s hypercars.”
“He would never—”
“I can be very persuasive.” Not that persuasive. But he had another plan. Angling toward her, he gave her the full force of his gaze—the look that always got him laid. “I want to get out of here for a few hours. Just you and me. We’ll drive somewhere nearby.” He drifted closer, letting her feel his breath against her neck. “Then I’ll show you what I can do to you.”
“We don’t need to leave.” She was leaning, floating into him, caught in his snare. “I have my own room.”
“So do I.” He parted his lips around her earlobe, barely touching, but it was enough to melt her next breath.
“Mine doesn’t have cameras.”
His rush of victory was instantly strangled by a fist of guilt. He felt Gina’s eyes on him before he looked in her direction.
Their gazes clashed and tangled, yelling soundlessly and swinging invisible punches. Disgust steamed from the cracks in her expression, her hands flexing into white-knuckled weapons on her lap.
Did she not like seeing him with another woman? Or just this woman?
If only he could tell her this was a job, that he was serving a greater cause.
But that was the problem. He wasn’t here to pursue romantic interests. Gina was collateral. A means to an end. He didn’t owe her an explanation. She’d put herself in the cartel’s grasp, and not once had he promised to get her out.
This wasn’t about her.
Returning his attention to Vera, he embraced the vow he’d made to his team and their newest member, Tula Gomez.
He was holding Tula’s sister in his arms. She was alive and growing pliable by the second. Bedding her was the quickest and surest way to get inside her—in her head, in her trust—to locate the key to finishing this mission.
Molding his lips around her earlobe, he suckled it like a clit. The technique lay in the pressure of his tongue, the precise amount of suction and friction, and the low, vibrating hum in the back of his throat. He did it exactly as he’d been taught by Van and Liv, the mechanics executed with an unrivaled skill that was so effective her head fell back, and her breathing careened out of control.