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  Chapter Sixteen

  That was the funny thing about stalking someone, it produced a kind of tunnel vision, much like a horse with blinders on. Eventually thoughts of anything else became a nuisance, little more than white noise. And that’s usually when things got messy.

  By now, they had probably discovered the body of that Estrella bitch and understood that he was serious about his love for the telenovela star. He didn’t expect Victor to ever give Valentina up willingly. For a man like that, it would be a blow to the ego to give up that easily. He welcomed Victor’s competitive spirit; it was an added bonus, really, because he was competitive himself.

  Victor and his cartel goons didn’t scare him. The only thing that did was the possibility of never having her. One way or another, he would rescue Valentina from that worthless gangster who didn’t deserve her.

  Ramirez had taken what rightfully belonged to him, imposing his will on her, giving her no choice but to go along with his heinous demands. God only knew what depravities Ramirez had already forced her to endure. Her misery and shame probably knew no bounds. Once he got her away from Ramirez, he would obliterate all vestiges of her time with the cartel. He would claim her in every way. There wouldn’t be an inch of her body left unexplored, inside and out. Yes, her purification would be his first priority.

  “Have you done it?” Ricardo asked without looking up from the papers on his desk. His features might as well have been hewn from granite. The chiseled contours of his face were the perfect complement to his cold, black eyes. His enemies had been known to compare his eyes to those of a shark, showing no remorse for the lives that had been snuffed out and the blood that had been shed by his hands. Remorse and regret had no place in his life. He would do whatever it took to ensure that the Ramirez legacy endured.

  “Yes. She wasn’t happy about it but I persuaded her that it was in her best interests.”

  “That’s true enough. It will indeed ensure her safety, but more than that it will give you the upper hand. Women like Valentina aren’t given over to submission easily; they’re free spirits with strong opinions. She couldn’t be more perfect for you. You need to start planning a wedding soon. I’d like to see my grandchildren before I leave this earth. Have you gone through her possessions and ensured she isn’t on birth control?”

  “She didn’t exactly pack a bag for the trip here. But you’re right; I hadn’t thought about it until you just said that.”

  “The last thing you need is your woman opposing your plans for a family.”

  Victor cleared his throat. “She doesn’t love me.”

  His father rolled his eyes and leaned back in his chair, regarding his son through narrowed, speculative eyes. “A minor detail.”

  Victor continued, “That’s okay, I can deal with it. She’s been thrown into a forced arrangement with a complete stranger, given no choice to decide if she wants to be here. I don’t know if she will ever truly love me. I’m worried that you’re asking me to build my family on a foundation made of sand.”

  “Arranged marriages have been going on for thousands of years. It’s simple; you must make her love you,” Ricardo said with a dismissive shrug. “Give her no choice. There is no shame in fucking first and loving later, son. Be gentle when you need to be gentle, and demand respect when appropriate. Love will come later.” His father leaned in, a wicked smile teasing his lips. “The best love stories are born of obsession. Just ask your mother.”

  Victor stormed down the hall to the bedroom, his thoughts racing as he approached the door. How was this woman able to evoke such strong emotion within him? Until Valentina, women had been mere playthings to him, but she was a force to be reckoned with. And yet she seemed blissfully unaware of the power she held over him.

  His hand on the doorknob, he paused as a frown knit his brow. Better that she not know the extent of her influence. God help him if she decided to use it against him.

  Valentina was curled up in bed, once again going over lines on her laptop. As he prowled over to stand by the bed, she set the laptop aside and watched him approach. He lowered himself down on the edge of the bed and rested a hand next to her leg, his face mere inches from hers.

  He knew his next words would sound like something from a particularly melodramatic telenovela but it just couldn’t be helped. His words rang with pain, hope, even desperation. “Tell me, Valentina, tell me I can have you. That I can have all of you.”

  She shook her head, bewildered, until she saw the desperation in his eyes, the raw need.

  “What is going on with you?” she asked softly.

  “The subject of you being on birth control came up. Are you? I know there are ways other than just taking a pill.”

  “Ah, now I see,” she said on a frustrated sigh. “Your father wants a grandchild. Where is this coming from, Victor? Are you sure you aren’t just using me to solidify your father’s latest business venture and ensure his legacy?”

  She waited for him to answer, unable to deny how very much she hoped he would deny it, and how much she hoped she could believe him if he did. If so, then it would be the first time a man hadn’t wanted her for her money or for the money he could make off her.

  He leaned in closer, his face hovering near hers as his warm breath puffed against her ear. He cupped her breast, caressing her masterfully before sliding his hand down over her flat stomach, lingering there briefly before cupping her sex. He bit down on her earlobe, hard enough to make her jump. “How can you ask such a thing? I think I’ve made my intentions quite clear. I want it all.”

  He straightened and tightened his grip on her mound. “This is mine. You’ll find that I’m quite possessive of what’s mine. I won’t share this, Valentina – well, only for you to give birth to our children.”

  At her wide-eyed stare, he cocked his head to the side inquisitively even as his hand began to move in easy circles over her sensitive flesh. “This can’t come as a surprise to you. If it is, then I haven’t done a good job communicating with you. Perhaps words are not what’s called for here, hmm?”

  Valentina barely managed to suppress a groan as he began working his magic on her body. However, she couldn’t contain the way her hips rocked against his hand. When his lips took hers, her body became boneless and desperate for him. He had a way with her in the bedroom that she never could have anticipated. He had awakened a lascivious part of her nature that had lain dormant until now. She just knew she wanted him to do dirty things to her—wanted him to know a darker side of her that no one else had ever been privy to.

  In a hoarse whisper he uttered promises of everything he wanted to do to her, told her he would destroy anything or anyone who got in his way, told her he would never let her go.

  She knew she should be terrified of his intentions and the things he had already done to accomplish them, but she wasn’t. But she knew she should fight, knew that he wanted her to give in, but she couldn’t. If she gave him what he wanted and surrendered at the deepest levels, she worried that she would lose herself along the way. Now, that terrified her.

  Victor took his time undressing her, stroking and exploring every inch of her body, every toned muscle and each luscious, soft curve.

  “Just let go, Valentina. I can love enough for both of us until you are ready to be honest with yourself.”

  “What did you say?!” she fumed, trying and failing to shove him away. He was ready for her, moving efficiently to clasp her wrists above her head as he blanketed her body with his own. “Someday you will give me your heart, but until then, your body will do nicely. Even if all we ever have between us is hotter-than-hell, mind-blowing fucking, we’ll have more than most people do.”

  With harsh look of warning, he released her wrists and rose to his knees. He peeled his clothes off with the confidence of a man who knew how to make good on his word. He took her panties off and clasped her beneath her knees, bending her legs back as far as they would go.

  Usually he would take more time to prepar
e her, but the urge to be inside her was clawing at the base of his spine, driving him on. He thrust deep and stilled, closing his eyes as he took in the delicious sensation of being in her – a woman other men could only fantasize about. He pulled out and slammed back inside to the hilt, muttering, “You make me crazy, woman.”

  He slipped his hand between them, stroking her clit as his thrusts quickly became more urgent. He made no effort to stave off the orgasm that was barreling down on him, giving in to the insatiable demands of her pussy as she milked him, pulling his seed from him with quivering, greedy pulses that made him lose his mind.

  Her body quaked with pleasure as they climaxed together. After, instead of collapsing on top of her or pulling her in next to him, he lifted her hips and tucked a pillow beneath them.

  “Victor! What are you—Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

  He grinned as he looked down at his handiwork. Valentina’s pussy glistened with his cum and he couldn’t resist reaching down to gather streams of his cream from her thighs and push it back inside where it belonged. Sliding down onto his side next to her, he faced her and rested on his elbow with his chin cupped in his hand.

  Sliding his bottom lip between his teeth, he regarded her through hooded eyes. “Do I look like I’m playing? Fuck no, and I’m going to stay here to make sure you stay right where you are.”

  “You really are crazy.”

  “Guilty as charged.”

  Her tone was grave as she asked her next question. “Victor, how dangerous is this man who’s following me?”

  “I’m not going to lie to you, baby. When stalkers are rejected, that’s when they are the most dangerous. He may see my…intervention…as a rejection of some kind. I have no way of knowing if this guy intends to do you harm or if he’s just an overly excited fan. What I do know is that of the two of us, I’m more dangerous than he could ever be. If you think I would ever let this son of a bitch hurt the mother of my children then you’re the one who’s crazy. I protect what’s mine. Don’t get in my way, Valentina. You may feel confused by recent events in your life, totally understandable. And I know I have something to do with that, but it troubles me to know you don’t feel safe. So, I’m going to make him regret putting you in that position.”

  The best that a Ramirez enemy could hope for was a quick death, but Valentina doubted Victor would oblige her stalker with such an easy end. One look into his cold, black eyes and she knew there would be no mercy.

  Chapter Seventeen

  He was beginning to second guess his decision to kill Estrella. Following Valentina was already just about impossible and now he may have made her skittish about going to work at the studio. His grand gesture may have ruined all his plans. The studio was the only place he could get to her and now she might be too scared to show up.

  Even at the studio he would have to conceal his identity. Murder had a way of taking a nondescript wallflower no one noticed and turning him into a stranger who was viewed with suspicion. Any newcomers would be seen as a possible threat.

  He had fucked up his own plans and, worst of all, he missed her. He missed seeing her every day. He missed the bright blue of her eyes and the way the lights hit her long, dark hair. He missed her laughter. And he fucking hated Victor Ramirez for stealing her away from him. But what he hated the most was the fact that he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

  Maybe he needed to change his focus and strike closer to home. They were all looking for him to come after her but maybe, just maybe, if he went after someone else, he could catch them off guard.

  The Ramirez crew thought they were invincible. Someone needed to prove them wrong. If he could rattle their cage, he’d be able to get inside their heads and figure out their vulnerabilities. Then he could go after her.

  Why hadn’t he thought of this earlier? He needed to look at this as a game—a particularly brutal mind fuck. If you couldn’t get to a man through the new woman in his life then go for the next best thing—the first woman in his life: his mother.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I refuse to ask permission from my son just to take you shopping, Valentina. We need a girl’s day out. I want to get better acquainted. A little retail therapy is the perfect opportunity for us to get to know each other.”

  Juanita stood in the doorway smiling, but wore a steely expression that dared Valentina to refuse her invitation to get their shop on. She was a stunningly beautiful woman, her mane of pale blonde hair something of a novelty in the Ramirez household.

  “Great minds really do think alike then, because I refuse to ask permission from any man, for any damn thing,” Valentina replied with a grin.

  “Ahh, spoken like true Colombian cartel chica. I like.”

  Valentina hurried to her closet and put on athletic shoes to go with her jeans and simple white t-shirt. “I dress up every day for work, but if I’m going to be walking through a mall I plan on doing it in comfortable shoes.” She stepped back into the bedroom and struck a pose like a model on a fashion runway.

  “Like you said, great minds think alike. You see how I’m dressed,” Juanita gestured down to her own athletic shoes.

  Giggling like teenagers, they rushed out to the waiting SUV. Good fortune smiled down on them because they didn’t run into one of the overly possessive Ramirez men who were sure to stop them from going on their shopping spree.

  Juanita put her sunglasses on as she drove down the long, tree-lined driveway that would take them off the property and out into freedom, for a couple of hours anyway. She enjoyed the privacy of living out in the country. The woods gave her a sense of serenity she had never found in the city. But no matter how much she liked living in the boondocks, there were times she got cabin fever and needed to get the hell away from the compound.

  Part of her reasoning was a little on the selfish side: she liked Valentina and didn’t want her going stir crazy and going out on her own. Living the cartel life had a lot to recommend it if you learned to strike the right balance. All the cartel women learned over time how to ditch their bodyguards; it was practically a rite of passage. As flattering as it was to have a bodyguard it still got old being under constant supervision. Time spent truly alone was rare and, therefore, precious.

  Though the women had mastered the art of eluding their bodyguards, the Ramirez men were never easy to trick. They seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to their women. They all shared one fear: life without the woman they loved. They were fearless when it came to staining their hands with the blood of their enemies, but matters of the heart left them weak in the knees – and overprotective as hell. Their enemies wouldn’t hesitate to use their family ties against them.

  Juanita could sense Valentina had a question on the tip of her tongue. She looked over at her passenger and chuckled. “Just ask, already.”

  “Is it true? You know, the rumors about you and Roxanne.”

  “If you’re asking if we were taken against our will and forced into marriage, yes, it’s true.”

  “Must run in the family,” Valentina muttered, her voice sullen.

  “Well, I think my son likes to make it sound better by saying it’s a business arrangement—one you agreed to.” Juanita’s tone came out sharper than intended. In an attempt to soften the remark, she placed a hand on Valentina’s arm. “If it’s any consolation, I know my son and he would never take no for an answer. Consider yourself owned. You could have said ‘hell no, I don’t to be on your spinoff telenovela’ and he would have caged you in the dungeon until you saw things his way.”

  “What?! Dungeon?! Some kind of solitary confinement? That’s barbaric.”

  Juanita laughed some more. “Oh, no, it would be far from solitary. Victor would be a regular visitor. Conjugal visits, you know. But if he’s anything like his father, and he is, then yes, it would be plenty barbaric.” Her eyes became soft as she remembered learning that lesson many, many times. “That’s how the Ramirez men roll.”

  “There’s one thing
I don’t understand. Your son could have any woman he wanted and he wants me.”

  “Intoxicating, isn’t it? It’s okay, you can say it.”

  “Well, on some level, yes. I mean, any woman would find that kind of attention from a man like Victor flattering. But that just sounds so fucked up when I say it like that. I don’t know, just the fact that he respects my career and isn’t threatened by it is something I like about him too—it’s like he wants me to soar with the eagles. Most men can’t handle a woman having a career, but Victor wants to see me be successful. That kind of confidence is rare.”

  “I can still remember the first time he saw you; he watched you every day after that, I could set my watch by it. And he didn’t care about the plot, either. It was all you. He was mesmerized. Then he traveled with his father to Guatemala on business and they were shown around the studio.”

  “I remember that,” Valentina said. “I felt pathetic that I’d only met him briefly but would think of him from time to time. I knew his first name but didn’t realize exactly who he was. I sure never thought I’d see him again.”

  “Sometimes we don’t recognize life’s defining moments until later. Victor recognized it, though. I knew he’d never stop until he made you his. It’s the Ramirez way. You know, there was no one else after that. Not even one. A mother knows these things. I knew it would only be a matter of time before he brought you back here to Louisville.” She turned to Valentina, her eyebrow arched knowingly as a smile teased her lips. “He won’t stop until he puts a ring on it.”

  “You don’t say.” Valentina couldn’t help but roll her eyes—the man was relentless.

  “Have you talked about having children yet?”

  “Talked about it? If that’s what you want to call it. It was a decidedly one-sided conversation. He’s turned my life upside down already, Juanita. It’s a lot to take in, a lot to think about. My career’s important to me. I don’t know what I want to do, and I sure don’t know when the time would be right for a pregnancy. They’d have to write it into the script or have me perpetually hiding behind an enormous purse on camera! He needs to understand, I have no intention of being stuck at home behind the proverbial white picket fence. I plan on working right through the pregnancy, taking some time off and getting right back to work.”