fine ‘cause he’s right… I have been training you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Truth
Juliet
IT’S TRUE.
At his blunt confirmation, the air was pushed from my lungs like I’d been pummeled. My heart shattered into a million pieces as the tiny shred of hope I’d clung to was violently ripped apart.
Looking to the side, I fought to keep it together until I was alone. Only then would I let myself be violently ripped apart, too.
Maximo shifted, and I thought he was going to let me escape with my tail tucked between my legs. But he gripped my hair and forced my head back so my eyes met his blazing ones. “I’ve been training you to take my cock the way I like. To suck it down your throat and to keep going even when you’re gagging. To follow my rules, to listen to me, to finally fucking trust me. I’ve been training you to be mine. No one else’s.” He shook his head, scowling. “I want to kill every bastard who looks at you. You think I’d let someone else touch you? Touch what’s mine?” His tone was sharp, its edge lethal. “Do you want to know what happens to someone who touches you, Juliet?”
I shook my head, not knowing what he’d say but still certain my answer was no.
“Too bad. I’ve been holding back, careful not to scare you. That was clearly the wrong move because it allowed that motherfucker to get in your head. That’s Daddy’s mistake, and it won’t happen again. From now on, you get all of me because you’re damn sure going to give me all of you.”
If this has been him holding back, what’s unrestrained?
Maximo’s focus dropped to my side as he tugged my shirt up. Slowly, he ran a finger along the scar above my hip. A cruel smile curved his lips before he lifted his head to aim that smile at me. “Told you he’d be dead.”
My breath came in rough pants.
He had told me. I just hadn’t believed him.
By the time I’d known better than to underestimate Maximo, his threat, the Sullivans, and their goon were long forgotten.
“I didn’t let him off easy. I took my time. I made it hurt. And when I buried my blade for the last time,” he skimmed his knuckle along the scar, just as he’d done the first time he’d seen it, “it was right here.”
He studied me, waiting for my response.
If I was a good person, I’d have screamed.
Bolted from him.
Called the cops.
But I wasn’t a good person. Because rather than mourning a lost life or being horrified in the face of viciousness, warmth spread through me. Maximo had defended me when no one in my life ever had. He’d been willing to go to war for me. He’d taken care of me.
Which was why, rather than any of the sane things I should’ve done, I whispered, “Thank you.”
There was a flash of something in his dark gaze before he pushed. “Thank you who?”
But I didn’t give him what he wanted.
Maximo didn’t look pissed at my silence. No, he smiled again—menacing and wicked.
Taking hold of my hips, he shifted us across the room to his desk. He turned me in his hold, bending me over the desk and keeping me in place with a hand between my shoulders. Papers and his keyboard fell to the ground, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
He tugged my shorts and panties down to my thighs, kicking my feet apart so the fabric stayed taut, digging in.
My brain finally caught up, and I tried to stand, but his hold stayed firm. “Maximo—”
“I knew you didn’t trust me yet, Juliet. I knew you were holding back. But I didn’t think you trusted me so little that you’d believe Mugsy fucking Carmichael over me.” His palm landed with a stinging slap to my ass. “We’ll fix that.”
My yelp grew to a shout when two more landed on the same spot.
Stop.
One single word.
One single syllable.
I knew it was all I needed to say, and he would stop instantly.
Yet I didn’t say it. I didn’t even think about it.
“What did Carmichael say to you?” he asked, as though it were a normal conversation and he wasn’t spanking my ass crimson.
I opened my mouth to lie, but it was the truth that spilled out between my pained cries. “That you were training me to sell me to the highest bidder.”
“Don’t sell pussy like a damn auctioneer. What else?”
“Or make me one of your whores at your fights.”
“I don’t