Illicit Desire Blog Tour

I take a step closer, and see the papers.

For a moment, there’s the complete lack of comprehension. It doesn’t make sense. Raphael is kissing a girl, lovely and pale and wearing my dress.

It takes a long breathless moment before I realize he’s kissing me. The photo is us, last night, when he kissed me just as we enter the ballroom.

The caption says it all.

Notorious bad boy bachelor’s newest heartbreak.

I gag, white spots spinning in my vision, and I spin away. I feel sick. A sudden grip of panic claws at me and I jerk back around. “My name. Do they use my name, Raphael?”

He blinks, and I see the understanding cascade across his face. “Fuck.”

My legs buckle, and it isn’t Raphael who catches me, but Benito, who has moved while I’m having a private meltdown. His arms clamp down around me and support me as I crumple, the only thing that keeps me from hitting the ground. All of my instincts are rioting, and at the feel of his unfamiliar grip, I lose what little control I have left.

“Let me go!” I scream, clawing at him. Benito’s grip tightens and he barks something to Raphael in Spanish, a harsh question I don’t understand. Then he sweeps me up and dumps me on the couch next to his grandson.

I bounce up and scramble away from them. “I have to go. I have to get the fuck out of Miami.”

“Cora, calm down. There is no danger yet,” Raphael says, following me as I dart toward the door. “You’re in a fucking robe—you can’t leave in that.”

I glance down, and the lack of clothing penetrates the fog of fear. “Raphael,” I whisper, “I have to go.”

“You don’t. Let me fix this.”

I laugh, a desperate, broken noise. “You can’t. This isn’t fixable, Raphael. This is my life, and it’s not going to go away just because you snap your fingers.”

His eyes go dark and Benni laughs. “You have not told her.”

“Shut up, old man,” Raphael snaps. Anger flares in Benni’s eyes before they go blank and flat, and I shudder.

“Please. I’m not disappearing without telling you. But this—I can’t do this. I can’t stay here.”

“You can’t leave, either,” Benni says, and my eyes dart to him, furious and terrified. He smiles, and I forget that I’m supposed to be afraid of Graham. That he’s the threat. Because staring into Benni’s lifeless eyes, I can’t believe there is anything more terrifying.

“Rojas are coming, mijo. And they are demanding to see her.”