Page 12 of Violent Attraction

But I don’t see anything but sincerity in his eyes.

He’s telling me the truth.

Santiago Reyes wants me to be his one day.

“Why one day? Why not right now?”

Why are you telling me this now?

I also want to ask how long he has felt this way, but I keep that question in. I guess I’m blind if I didn’t see that he might have felt the same way I did. Or he was more skilled at hiding what he was feeling that I am. I’m going for the latter.

He chuckles against my ear, before placing a kiss on my cheek and pulling away fully.

“Because if I were to make you mine at this moment, I would be dead before the day's end. Dead or your father will castrate me. I won't make you mine until you are older, and I can go to your father and ask him for permission.”

To some girls those words would cause them to roll their eyes. For me, it warms my heart that he cares about me so much that he is willing to go to my father and ask him permission. It's traditional and never did I think I would be all for it.

And he is right, I’m sixteen. Santiago is eighteen. If my father had seen what he just did right now and how he had my earlobe between his teeth, my father wouldn’t have hesitated in doing anything drastic. Death is the most logical possibility.

Even if a part of me is saying that my father won’t care.

I look at the boy in front of me. He’s not the same boy he was when he was consoling me about my mother’s death and telling me to share my clothing designs with him. This boy is different but still the same in some way.

As I continue to look at him, to find any indication that he’s pulling a prank on me, I realize something. In only a few minutes everything between us has changed. I don’t really know how to comprehend the truth that he just told me, but I do know one thing.

If I have to wait for him, I will.

No matter how many months or years that may be. That is one thing that I’m certain about.

“Okay, I will hold you to that promise.” I give him a smile that is small and timid and nothing like the smiles I’m used to plastering on my face.

One day I will belong to Santiago Reyes, and I will be counting the days until that day arrives.

5

18 years old

In a matter of minutes, I let my guard down. Maybe it was the way she was smiling at me or fluttering her eyelashes, but something made me throw the words that I’ve been holding in for months, out.

Yes, months.

I’m not stupid, I knew from an early age that Isabella Morales was going to be beautiful girl and eventually a gorgeous woman. Not only that she was going to be beautiful, but special in her own way. I just didn’t think that when that time came it would hit me like a ton of bricks.

I didn’t think that I would notice her beauty the way I did or that it would affect me so much.

But it did.

Even at sixteen, she’s the most beautiful girl I have ever laid eyes on, but I didn’t voice it.

I kept the thoughts of how beautiful this girl was to myself. That didn’t stop me from silently suffering every single time she was near me, because I noticed everything she was doing to get my attention. I noticed the way she would dress differently, how her makeup changed and how her school issued skirt was always rolled up just an inch higher when I was around.

Everything about Isabella Morales, I’ve noticed.

And if she were older, then I would be doing everything in my power to make her mine, but she’s not.

Hopefully I can keep my word and make her mine one day.

Because one day is better than never.