LITMIR.BIZ

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      She grabbed at his clothes and he hurriedly undressed. He yanked away her panties and positioned himself between her legs.

      ‘Yes. Please...now,’ she cried hoarsely.

      Reyes surged inside her with a guttural roar. Sensation exploded all over his body at her wetness, her tight heat. She embraced him, rolled her hips in helpless abandon as pleasure overtook her.

      He established a passionate rhythm she matched with enthusiasm. Much too soon, he was following her into bliss, shouting his ecstasy as he emptied himself inside her.

      He watched her as they caught their breaths. Her face glowed with the flushed aftermath of sex. Reyes had never seen a more beautiful woman. His groin stirred. Her eyes slowly widened.

      Smiling, he pressed a kiss against her heated cheek. ‘You have that effect on me.’ He pulled out of her. They both groaned at the sizzle of electricity.

      Tucking her against his side, he caught her free hand in his, kissed her soft palm. Almost inevitably, his hand slid over her flat stomach. He heard her breath catch and searched her face.

      A look of wonder, much like what he was experiencing at that very moment at the thought of his child growing inside her, passed over her face. For several heartbeats, he held her gaze. Then she blinked.

      ‘Reyes?’

       ‘Sí?’

      ‘I know you’re a prince and all, but please tell me you’re as terrified as I am at the thought of getting it wrong with this baby.’

      ‘I will not discuss my silent mental breakdown with you, except to mention that it’s very acute. And very unsexy.’

      She laughed. The sound filled his chest with pleasure so strong, he forgot to breathe for a minute.

      When he had it under control he moved his hand, explored some more. When he grazed a scar, he glanced down at her.

      ‘Tell me what happened here.’

      She tensed and he pressed his mouth against her palm again. ‘Everything, Jasmine. I want to know everything. Before and after Stephen.’

      Indecision blazed in her eyes for several seconds before she exhaled.

      ‘Have you heard the saying that some people are just born bad?’

      She shook her head at his frown and continued. ‘For a long time I believed I was one of them. You know how my mother handled our situation. I just kept rebelling whenever I could. I think I wanted my mother to see me, deal with me. When she pretended like I didn’t exist, I turned truant at a young age. Fell in with the wrong crowd.’

      ‘What happened?’

      ‘I just...spiralled out of control for a long time.’

      ‘You were trying to get yourself heard the best way you could.’

      ‘That’s no excuse. I was a brat with a mother who didn’t care whether she lived or died and I lashed out.’

      ‘That’s not the end of your story though, obviously.’ He trailed his mouth over her palm again.

      ‘No.’ She shivered in his arms. He reached for a cashmere throw next to the fireplace and settled it over them. She snuggled into him and that alien feeling in his chest expanded wider. ‘You remember that turf war I told you about?’

      Reyes nodded.

      ‘I was the turf they were fighting over. It happened a few months after I came out of juvie. Each side wanted me to join their gang. I seriously considered it. But I knew I would be burying my pain with destruction. So I refused, and all hell broke loose.’

      He reared up and stared down at her. ‘Dios. How did you get out of that?’

      ‘I let myself be arrested again. I reckoned the police station was a safer place than the street. It was where I met Stephen. He was an MP then, touring the police station and I...’ She stopped and grimaced.

      ‘You what?’

      A dull flush crept up her cheeks. ‘I may have tripped him up when he walked past me.’

      He couldn’t help his smile. She answered with one of her own. Unable to resist, Reyes kissed her. When he lifted his head, she was breathless and her delicious mouth was swollen. ‘I presume that got his attention?’

      She nodded. ‘He could’ve filed charges against me for assault. Instead bailed me out and he took me out for a coffee. We talked for hours. He delivered me home and met my mother. Then he started visiting us every week. A few months later I started taking on the gangs myself. But instead of knives and guns, I used words. I managed to mediate a truce between them and even extracted a promise from the leaders not to recruit children to run drugs for them.’

      ‘That’s where you got your passion for mediation from?’ he asked.

      ‘Yes. I returned to school, made good grades and got my first job at twenty-one. Stephen married my mother, and I guess the rest is history.’ Her eyes met his and shifted away. ‘Until Rio, that is. I’m so sorry about that, Reyes.’

      Catching her chin with his finger, he tilted her face. ‘I know you are. I forgive you. I judged you harshly before I knew the truth behind your actions. You tried to protect your family the only way you knew how.’

      ‘But I ended up making things worse for you and your people.’

      ‘You’re here now, helping to fix it. That matters to me. With a new council in place, Mendez will no longer be able to play his games. The route may have been unfortunate, but perhaps it achieved something positive in the end. So from now on, we’ll consider Rio another lesson we’ll both learn from. Agreed?’

      ‘Agreed,’ she replied tremulously.

      He brushed away the tears forming in her eyes. His head swimming with sensations he could barely grapple with, Reyes slanted his mouth over hers. When he was kissing her like this, he didn’t have to think. Didn’t have to wonder why he craved her even more with each kiss, each heartbeat.

      He didn’t have to wonder why he wished they were already married and this were their honeymoon.

      A stomach growled. He raised his head. ‘I believe that was you.’

      She grimaced. ‘Jet lag kept me asleep through lunch, and I think we missed dinner.’

      Reyes reached for his discarded trousers and took out his phone. He sent his chef the appropriate instructions and hung up.

      ‘Dinner is coming to us?’ A smile that seemed to grow more breathtaking each time curved her lips.

      ‘Sí. The perks of being a prince. You will command equal power once you’re my princess.’

      A shadow passed over her face. He wanted to demand to know the reason behind it. Something stopped him.

      Her fingers drifted over his brow and down to his cheek. ‘What will we do after we eat?’

      ‘I will bathe you and you will let me explore the rest of your scars.’

      * * *

      Jasmine woke in the middle of night. Although the bedroom in the wedding-cake house where they’d relocated to boasted a fire, Reyes hadn’t lit it when he’d carried her in. They’d had more urgent things in mind.

      Now the room had cooled and she shivered. Glancing down, she realised why. The covers had slipped to the floor and the only things keeping her warm were Reyes’s muscular thigh and arm. Which left the rest of her body chilled.

      Carefully sliding away, she picked up the nearest sheet and walked into the bathroom.

      After using it, she came back to the bed.

      Reyes was snoring softly, his face even more relaxed in sleep than it’d been this evening. A lock of hair had

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