“Well, at least you’d have something in common to talk about.”
I grin.
The truth is, there is a man on my brain. My mind drifts to last night, and I blush. No, not a man.
…A beast.
A demon. The single most beautiful devil I’ve ever laid eyes on. A monster of a man, towering a foot over the other guys in the ring. A man built of pure muscles and ink and sweat and blood.
He should terrify me. He should have haunted my dreams last night. But he didn’t haunt them, he commanded them.
I blush wildly as it all comes rushing back.
In my dreams, he came for me. He tore my clothes off, and just took me, like a man from one of Elena’s old romance novels. I woke up panting, shivering, and wet. So, so sinfully wet. But not as sinful as the thoughts I had while touching myself after, of him.
The monster.
Even now, my thoughts swirl back to watching him down in the ring last night—the way his huge body moved like lightning, or like a dancer. The way those insane muscles rippled and clenched savagely, the tattoo ink rolling sensually. I remember his fierce but absolutely gorgeous face—the chiseled jaw, the haunting dark eyes, the mop of dark hair.
I swallow quickly and turn to Elena.
“Is that…” I blush again. “The man from last night—the…the beast.” I rake my teeth over my bottom lip. “Is he fighting tonight? The beast, I mean.”
Elena arches a brow, and she shivers.
“Ay, the monster?” her eyes search mine, and I quickly look away, trying to play it nonchalantly.
He’s a monster, yes. I mean I saw what he did to those men last night. But any red-blooded woman on earth would look at him and feel desire.
“Hush Hush,” Elena whispers.
I frown. “That’s his name?”
“It’s what they call him. He doesn’t talk.”
I frown. “Like he can’t talk, or he doesn’t?”
Elena shrugs. “I have no idea, Catalina.”
“Is he like the others who fight?”
My father doesn’t punish people with forcing them to fight, contrary to popular rumor. The men in his ring are the worst kind of criminals—cold-blooded murderers, rapists, men who hurt children. They deserve no pity. And for a second, the idea of my monster being one of them, like them, makes my stomach churn.
“Oh, no,” Elena shakes her head. “No, Hush Hush is different, or so I hear. He owes your father money or did him wrong. I don’t know.” She shrugs. “He’s a bit of a mystery.”
She eyes me, and she starts to shake her head as she arches a brow.
“Oh no no no, mija,” she laughs. “I see that look in your eyes.”
I blush deeply, hoping to God my thoughts weren’t that obvious on my face.
“Keep it to your dreams, girl,” Elena grins before her face hardens. “Make no mistake, mija. Your father’s dog is a beast, not a man.” She wags a finger. “Remember that. Now come on, let’s go to this silly spectacle.”
We step out of my bedchamber, and two big men in black suits with automatic rifles fall into step behind us.
Elena rolls her eyes and turns to glare at them. “If we’re going to be kidnapped or hurt in here, you’ve already failed your jobs, no?”
The men say nothing, and she hisses and waves a hand.
“Ay, forget it,” she snaps, turning back to me. “Come on. “Let’s go see this blood sport and get it over with so we can have dinner.”
I can already hear the crowds cheering as we step into the huge, walled courtyard of my father’s fortress desert home. We move towards the old fort beside it, where the fighting pit is. Helicopters land on helipads on the other side of the fort, and there are fancy black armored cars pulling up as well.
Tonight must be a big fight.
We’re joined by more guards who escort us inside and up to the big glassed-in box seats high above the ring. The lights go dim as we take seats, and the crowd goes wild.
“Atención!” The announcer booms over the loudspeaker. “Se?ors et se?oritas!”
He goes on to hype up the fight, and to remind everyone that betting is about to close. He thanks the “esteemed guests of Se?or Del Campo,” and when he mentions “the beast” fighting tonight, my pulse quickens sinfully.
“Diez hombres!”
My private little heated smile fades in a second, and I whip my head around to stare at Elena.
“Did they just say he’s fighting ten men?”
Elena makes a face, nodding. I turn back, chewing on my lip