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Chapter 7

Author: Aleatha Romig
last update Last Updated: 2025-06-28 00:18:53

Mia

Seeing our new home would wait for tomorrow. We would spend the first night of our married union here at the Ruiz home, as was another tradition. As Aléjandro walked me into the house and up the stairs, he explained that Mexican weddings were a two-day affair. Tomorrow, the family and guests would come back together for brunch where we would open our gifts.

“There won’t be sheets for your mother to see.”

Aléjandro lifted his chin. “That’s a barbaric tradition beneath our standards. We believe that a wife is precious, a jewel, and the matriarch of her family. Discussing her bleeding is degrading.”

It was the first thing Aléjandro had said that I agreed with.

As we ascended the staircase, my body moved beyond the festive celebration to an agitated feeling of terror. I wasn’t a frightened eighteen-year-old girl. No. I had experience, which made this worse.

With each step, I grew more confident that I wasn’t willing to give in to the man holding my hand, not without a fight. Common sense told me that fighting would only encourage a man like Aléjandro, but as we approached the primary suite, our destination for the night, I knew Dante wouldn’t save me as he had months ago.

I was running out of options.

The double doors were slightly ajar. Aléjandro opened one wider, bidding me entrance. By the time I crossed the threshold, my hands were trembling and the excessive amount of food I’d consumed was threatening to make a second appearance.

Aléjandro closed and locked the door. The French doors leading to a balcony were open. The sounds of the ocean as well as the continued celebration from below filled the room. With my feet still bare, I stepped out onto the cement balcony. Walking to the railing, I peered down at the pool, seeing the party progressing without us. Though I couldn’t see the ocean, the massive dark hole below the star-filled sky, as well as the swoosh of the waves, confirmed its presence.

Crossing my arms and covering my breasts, I turned back toward the bedroom.

Biting my lip, I watched as Aléjandro removed his suit coat. His tie from earlier was loose and hanging around his neck, and the first button of his shirt was opened. Removing the cuff links, he rolled the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows, revealing muscular forearms. Last, he removed the holster containing a gun from his chest.

He moved to the open doorway, his dark gaze on me. “I chose you, Mia. Don’t ever doubt that.”

“I’ve been honest with you. I didn’t want…don’t want this marriage.”

With his chiseled jaw clenched, he stepped outside. The look in his eyes made me want to run, but there was nowhere to go. With the cool banister against my lower back, I contemplated screaming. If I did, would the guests hear me above the continued sound of the band?

Refusing to submit, I lifted my chin, maintaining our stare-down.

He came closer, pinning me between his muscular body and a two-story fall. Wrapping his arms around my waist, he pulled my hips against him. Even at eighteen, I’d recognized the feeling of an erection against my body.

“Aléjandro.”

“You’re mine.” He cupped my cheeks as he had the night of our engagement. “You’re beautiful.” He nestled his lips near my neck. “You smell of sweet, wet arousal, even sweeter than the night in that hallway.” His warm breath sent chills over my flesh. “You can try to deny it, but your body is speaking louder than your words.”

My nipples beaded beneath my dress and my core grew damp, yet I refused to give in so easily. I moved my palms to his wide chest and with all my might, I pushed him away. “No.”

He lifted his gaze to mine with a look of confusion. “You were smiling during the celebration.”

“Because I had fun.” I hated to admit it, but it was the truth.

“Dancing?”

“You’re a good dancer.” I pushed my way around him and back into the bedroom. Aléjandro was merely a step behind me. I turned, facing him. “I don’t want to have sex with you.” When his orbs grew darker, I asked, “Are you not used to women telling you no?”

His lips twitched. “Women, no. Men, as I’m about to kill them, , they say it often.”

If that was meant to scare me, he chose a woman from the wrong famiglia. Men killed, it was what I was used to and despite a hope for better, it was what I would always know.

He reached for my shoulders and slowly walked me backward. I was unsure where I was trying to flee or where I would be safe, but I kept moving my feet until my shoulders collided with the wall.

“Kiss me.” His tone didn’t suggest a request.

My breasts heaved as I took a ragged breath. “If you force me, I’ll hate you forever, just as I hated Rocco.”

Aléjandro’s stare turned darker as his finger came to my lips. “I don’t want to hear that name when I’m about to fuck my wife. I’m not him. Don’t expect me to live in a shadow of his mistakes.”

He had said something similar the first time I mentioned my limits.

“You are him” —I threw his vulgar words back at him— “if you’re going to fuck me after I told you no.”

I gasped as Aléjandro snatched my wrists with one hand and lifted them over my head. He pulled me to my tiptoes with his iron grip as I struggled to get free.

“You can scream, Mia. I’m certain the band will be playing until dawn. My family likes to party. You’ll be hoarse by the time anyone could hear you, and I could have fucked each one of your holes until my heart is content.”

Despite my best attempts to stay strong, warm tears filled my eyes. I flinched as he lifted his other hand.

Instead of striking me, Aléjandro left a ghostly touch down the length of my raised arm from my wrist down to my shoulder, to my neck and behind my ear. With a satisfied grin, he looked down, scanning my body. “Your tears tell me one story. Your hard nipples and the way you shift your legs tell another.”

“Fuck you.” My curse held less zeal than it had before.

His lips came to the spot behind my ear, kissing and nipping the sensitive skin. I wanted to kick and push him away, but he was right about my hardened nipples. They were almost painful against the bodice of my dress. And as for my core, I couldn’t remember ever being wound this tight or so wet. None of that correlated with his horrible, vulgar threats.

My wrists ached, yet my body trembled with something between hatred and need. I couldn’t think fast enough to stop the moan from my lips.

Aléjandro leaned back, his erection still hard against my stomach. “Kisses. You told me earlier we could kiss.”

I quickly nodded. “Kisses. No more.”

“I won’t fuck you, Mia. Not tonight. When I do, you’ll be begging me for it.”

“When hell freezes over.”

He grinned. Releasing my wrists, he kept my body pinned between him and the wall. “The forecast is for ice.” He ran his finger over my cheek and down my neck to the V on the front of my neckline. “I was wrong.”

It was hard for me to follow his train of thought. “About?”

“The famiglia women being cold as ice.” Roughly capturing my chin, he brought his lips down hard and possessively on mine. I pushed back, not fighting but adding to the ongoing give-and-take. He stole my breath as he swallowed my complaints.

Kisses.

I’d said yes to kisses.

I didn’t back away, opening my mouth as his tongue made entrance. His hips rocked against me as our kiss deepened. Although I had the urge to lift my hands to his shirt, I kept them at my sides, trying to appear unaffected.

Aléjandro pulled back and ran his thumb over my swollen lips. “You’re the opposite of ice, Mia. You’re fire. I’m going to learn what you like and when I do, hell will be frozen over for eternity.”

Arrogant.

His eyes were black holes, sucking me into their void and the timbre of his accented deep voice ricocheted through my nervous system, warming my circulation while simultaneously scaring me that he could be right. “You will welcome my cock and writhe beneath the pleasure it brings you. I know you’re not a virgin, but that doesn’t mean you’re experienced. I don’t think you’ve ever enjoyed what a man can do to you. I’m not talking about a prick who’s weak enough to hurt a woman. I’m talking about a real man who knows how to use pleasure and pain to bring you ecstasy like you’ve never known.”

My tears broke through, streaming down my cheeks as I concentrated on the first part of his speech. He wasn’t going to fuck me.

I didn’t want to think about what else he’d said.

I couldn’t.

My mind couldn’t comprehend that I’d ever find pleasure with sex. Pain, yes, there could be pain but not any that brought me ecstasy.

I swallowed and stared into his eyes still simmering beneath his protruding brow. “I’m not right for you. You would be a lot happier if you chose someone else. You should have listened.”

Aléjandro shook his head. “You were made for me. My only regret is that you had to live with someone else first. Like I said, I won’t live in the shadow of his mistakes, but one by one, I’ll show you that he was wrong.” The tendons in his neck pulled tight. “No one will make me happier than you will, and one day, you’ll say the same about me.”

My thoughts went back to the ceremony.

Until death do us part.

Death saved me once; maybe it will save me again.

I looked beyond his broad shoulders at the luxurious bedroom around us. “There’s only one bed.”

“I’m sleeping beside my wife.” He tilted his head. “No fucking. You have my word. It won’t be easy.” His lips quirked to a grin. “Your brother warned me that you could be difficult. I told him that I’m up for the challenge.”

He took a step back and by the sight of the massive bulge in his pants, he was up for what wasn’t going to happen.

Aléjandro went on, “The maids should have your things in the bathroom. After you change, I’ll shower and come to bed. Maybe you should already be asleep.”

Taking his cue to walk away, I made my way to the bathroom and closed the door. I contemplated turning the lock in the handle but decided against it. I’d felt his strength as he captured my wrists. A simple handle lock wouldn’t keep Aléjandro out if he wanted in.

I didn’t know what to think of the woman in my reflection. Was I brave? Strong? Weak? A terrible person? A challenge and difficult—to quote Dario?

To Aléjandro’s credit, he had been nothing but kind during our wedding celebration, even trying to make me more comfortable with traditions I knew nothing about. Maybe he believed he could woo me into changing my mind.

Of course he did.

Aléjandro was an egotistical, arrogant male who thought every woman should fall prostrate at his feet. His words came back to me. ‘I won’t fuck you, Mia. Not tonight. When I do, you’ll be begging me for it.’

If this marriage was a contest of willpower, Aléjandro would learn I wouldn’t be easily dissuaded. If I’d learned anything over the last ten years, it was to stay strong in my resolve.

As I plucked hairpins from my hair, I recalled the way my new husband held me as we danced, as well as his ability to make me smile. He was right that I wasn’t frightened during our reception. I’d spent the lead-up to our wedding being scared. No, I’d spent the last ten years minus the months since Rocco’s death terrified.

Aléjandro wasn’t Rocco.

Intellectually, I knew that.

Apparently, it was more than my mind that knew it. The physical reaction my body had to Aléjandro was ten, twenty, no… one hundred times more than I’d had for Rocco in years or ever.

Shaking my head, I promised myself I wouldn’t back down.

Maybe one day.

First, Aléjandro needed to prove that he wasn’t like my first husband. It wasn’t fair. He wasn’t the one who hurt me. Life wasn’t fair. If it was, I wouldn’t be remarried. I’d warned him.

Wearing a white satin and lace nightgown and the lace panties from my wedding outfit, I opened the bathroom door.

Aléjandro was sitting out on the balcony. Slowly I moved closer. The music from below was still going strong. There was a glass with amber liquid in his grip and an open bottle of tequila on the table.

“I’m done,” I said, standing in the doorway.

He scanned me up and down. “You could have chosen something less sexy if you were planning on me keeping my word.”

I crossed my arms over my breasts. “Classic blame-the-victim.”

Aléjandro scoffed as he stood. “Don’t worry, Mia. I am a man of my word.”

The idea of reaching out and experiencing another kiss was on my mind as he entered the bedroom. I couldn’t deny that despite his arrogant attitude, I found him attractive. He brushed by me, leaving the scent of sandalwood and tequila in his wake.

Turning, I watched Aléjandro remove his shirt, pulling it over his wide shoulders. Beneath the shirt, his tanned skin was littered with scars, and yet his chest was solid, and his abdomen defined. Dark hair matching the color on his head filled a patch upon hard pecs. Another line of dark hair trailed from below his belly button to beneath his boxer briefs. Aléjandro removed a second holster from his back and a third from his ankle.

Now that his shoes, socks, and pants were missing, the erection I’d felt against my stomach was even more pronounced beneath the silk boxers. Wearing only those boxer shorts, he lifted the glass he’d taken from the balcony and drained the remaining tequila. His orbs met mine. “Don’t wait up.”

With that, he disappeared into the bathroom.

As I climbed into the bed, my thoughts went to the man behind the closed door.

What is he doing in the shower?

Why am I curious?

Switching off the light on my bedside stand, I turned away from the bathroom door, pulled my arms and legs to my stomach, and tried to calm my nerves. It had been a long day. Sleep didn’t come easily. I wanted to believe Aléjandro, but how many times had I been lied to? Each time Rocco hurt me, he swore it was the last.

I wasn’t sure how much time passed before I heard the bathroom door opening. The room around me went dark, yet I refused to move from the edge of the bed. The clean scent of bodywash filled my senses. When it seemed safe that Aléjandro wasn’t going to go back on his word, my tense muscles began to relax. Listening to the music from our celebration, I drifted off to sleep.

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