“Well, as you all know, my daughter and I were slightly estranged...” she explained, stumbling over her words.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Mateo’s eyes filled with fierce pride as I walked toward him.
“Leighton, can you explain why your daughter, Estella James, has been missing for over a week? According to our sources, no one has seen her. Has she become a victim of the cartel as well?”
Fuck. If anyone found out where she was, there would be a witch hunt, and everything would unravel. I turned around with fire in my eyes. “My daughter is in San Marcos visiting my grandparents. Get your fucking facts straight.”
“Leighton!” My mother called after me repeatedly, but Mateo wrapped an arm around my waist and led me around the side of the building and toward the Tahoe.
A few yards away, sharp nails dug into my arm and spun me around. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I waved my gold band in her face again. “I’m celebrating the sanctity of marriage. You shouldn’t frown, Mother. It causes wrinkles.”
She smacked my hand away. “These people killed your father, and now Finn is missing. If you’re trying to get back at me for being an overprotective mother, that’s fine, but ruining our family isn’t the way to do it.”
I took one look in her selfish face and laughed.
“I don’t see anything funny about this situation,” she hissed, grabbing my arm.
Stiffening, Mateo stepped forward, but I stopped him with a shake of my head. The last thing I wanted was to give her a reason to have him arrested again. Besides, I could handle her.
“I know, Mother,” I said, jerking out of her hold. “It’s because you honestly think everything is about you, but marrying Mateo has nothing to do with you.”
“Lower your voice.”
“Right.” Crossing my arms, I drew a tired breath. “Wouldn’t want the fact that I actually love my husband to make headlines, would we?”
Her shrill laugh echoed in the empty street. “If you think you know all his secrets, you’re a fool,” she warned. “He stole your innocence by staining your hands with blood.”
A radiating numbness spread through my body. “How do you know that?”
“Oh, please, Leighton. I know what you’ve done. I’m the mayor. I have access to all police reports.”
Which would be fine. If Alex had ever filed one.
Turning my back, I power walked the rest of the way to the Tahoe. Mateo kept up with me, wisely not speaking. I had no tears for what just happened. Tears made me feel weak, and I needed the strength of an army.
Just as I reached for the passenger’s side door, Mateo spun me around and held my face in his hands. “Did you mean what you said?”
“I said a lot of things.”
“What you said to your mother. You told her you loved me. Was that for the cameras?”
I trailed my hands down his chest, gripping his shirt in my hands. “There weren’t any cameras on us, Mateo. You’ve known how I felt ever since the first night you picked me up and carried me away.”
“We’re going to get through this,” he promised, brushing his thumb over my bottom lip.
“They know about Stella now. If anything happens to her, I might as well die too.”
“I swear to you,” he said, his voice rough, “I won’t rest until everyone has paid for the pain they’ve caused.”
Tightening my hands in his shirt, I pulled him against me and kissed him hard. He immediately responded, his fingers sliding into my hair, his lips just as hungry. But I needed more. Trailing my fingers down his chest, I brushed a hand over his already hardening erection.
However, the minute I cupped him, he pulled away, tilting my head up to stare into his black eyes. “What are you doing?”
I wanted to give him a seductive answer, but fear clawed its way out of me. “I don’t know,” I cried, my weight collapsing under his hold. “But I need to feel something other than this hole in my heart. Everything good inside me is dripping out, and I don’t know how to stop it. I lost you, and now, I feel like I’m losing her. I can’t see her or talk to her. Everything’s slipping away, and I’m numb. I’ve lost my soul, Matty.”
“Don’t ever say that.”
“It’s true. I feel like I’m walking on the fringe of a nightmare. I need you to fix me.”
The eyes that had just held so much compassion suddenly chilled. Releasing me, he turned away. “I’ve told you I’m the monster in your nightmares, not the hero who saves you from them.”
I grabbed his arm, turning him back around. I stepped off the ledge. I leaped, and I’d be damned if he wouldn’t be there to show me the way. “If you won’t walk with me into the light, then drag me into the dark.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re asking.”
“You’re my only connection to her!” I yelled. “Goddamn it, don’t you get it? I don’t want flowers and rainbows, Mateo. I want punishment. I want your anger.” Swinging my arm, I landed a fist right in the middle of his chest. “I need to feel something.” Pulling my arm back, I swung again. “I need to know you give a shit!”
The growl that tore from Mateo’s throat was nothing less than savage. I’d pushed him too far and I knew it. Grabbing me by the waist, he shoved me against the Tahoe. Pulling my wrists above my head, he held them tightly in one hand. I had no idea what was about to happen. I’d provoked a dark side of him that dragged me into uncharted waters and drowned me by the second.
Jerking up the hem of my flared dress, he bunched it around my waist and held it in place with his hips. His eyes never leaving mine, he wrapped his fingers around the thin string of my panties and ripped them off, the material disintegrating in his hand.
“Is this what you want?” he demanded, throwing the tattered lace on the pavement, his teeth grazing along my jawline. “Do you want everyone to see me fucking you?”
I gasped as he spread my legs, thrusting a thick finger inside me. “Yes.”
“You’re wet, Leighton. Does fucking a criminal get you off?”
“Mateo...”
Thrusting another finger inside, he lowered his mouth to my neck. “Answer me!”
“Yes! God, yes!”
The more he pumped, the more I panted. It was just past dusk, and I was half naked on a public street, but I didn’t care. I needed him to make it hurt, and I was so close.
Then he stopped.
Removing his hand, his smirk darkened. “You think I’m going to stand here and finger fuck you, so you can come on my hand? No, little lamb.” Reaching for the button on his jeans, he ripped it open and shoved them down his thighs while pushing me to my knees. “Suck.”
Any other time, I would’ve been offended, but I was drunk on his dominance. He was already so hard that pre-cum dribbled down the bottom of his shaft, so I licked its trail from base to tip. Mateo let out a howl, prompting me to open wide and take him all the way in until he hit the back of my throat. I tried for a cohesive rhythm, but he was too far gone. Gripping the back of my hair, he pumped his hips, fucking my mouth with wild abandon.
Cursing in Spanish, he threw his head back and sucked air in between gritted teeth. I braced myself for his explosion when he pulled back and hauled me to my feet. Before I knew it, my back was against the Tahoe again and my feet were off the ground. Instinctively, my legs wrapped around his waist just as his fingers dug into my ass cheeks. Tilting my hips, he drove his full length into me without mercy.