Sold To The Boss: A Narcos Romance

Chapter 18

Isabella couldn't stop pacing the living room, the large glass windows overlooking a gorgeous sunset that seemed entirely out of place considering all the death and violence that happened mere hours ago. The bullet-ridden SUV had driven them to a different hacienda, equally gorgeous in the middle of God-knows-where Mexico where no landmarker or road sign could give any clue to Isabella's latest whereabouts. But that wasn't her chief concern. Rafael was still with the Doc, some rogue doctor who was personally on call for Rafael and his cartel although it was rarely ever Rafael on the table. Rafael's clothes that he'd given her to wear were shredded and dirt kicked up from the bullet fire still streaked her arms. Lolita tried to get her to sit down, take a shower, or eat some dinner but she couldn't stop pacing. She didn't even know how the entire hacienda crew had seemingly been lifted and shifted to this new location. Lolita hardly batted a lash at the whole event except when she saw Rafael on the table. Only then did she show a shred of concern that this afternoon was anything out of the ordinary. Isabella kept retracing her steps, the adrenaline too much. She felt it coursing through her veins. She didn't know how to come down from the high.

She made her way into an attached bathroom off the side of a small bedroom, running her shaking hands under cold water for a few moments.

"Isabella." Rafael said her name like he was breathing her in. He slid a strong arm around her waist and pressed his chest to her back. She almost let out a yelp at the contact but immediately lost herself in his strength and warmth. She turned in his arms slowly, noticing the bandage wrapped around his lower waist.

"Are you okay?" Her voice was surprisingly tender, even to her own ears.

"Your cheek, why didn't anyone address this?" He picked her up by the waist and set her on the counter next to the sink like she weighed nothing. He bent down below the sink and found a pair of tweezers and some antiseptic.

Delicately, he wiped down her cheek and gave her a moment to adjust to the burning before pulling out the shard in her cheek that had been causing her pain.

"Rafael my cheek is fine, you were shot. You can't get hurt like this."

"Sleep with me again tonight." He ignored her comment and moved his hand slowly down her throat, reveling in the softness and smoothness of her skin. "Just sleep." He gave her a small smirk but the humor didn't meet his eyes. She could see he was in pain and exhausted, likely even more tired from whatever pain meds the Doc had given him.

"Yes."

"Take a shower, carina. Lolita will show you to my room." Rafael kissed her just below her ear, gently pulling her off the counter as he walked with his head hung in exhaustion down the hall. Lolita appeared and beckoned to Isabella who finally felt hot tears stream down her cheeks, part shock, part exhaustion, part fear. But primarily immense relief that Rafael was alive and walking and still being his bossy commanding self despite coming within inches of death. She still didn't know the full extent of Rafael's plan that had brought her into his life, but she knew he wanted to leave this world and it wasn't hard to understand why. Danger, greed, vice, and death. How could anyone ever find love and peace in a life like this?

As Isabella washed the dirt and mess from her hair, warm water washing over her skin, she begrudgingly remembered Alejandra. The woman from Rafael's past and perhaps the woman he saw in his future. Isabella hated the tight fist that formed in her stomach at the thought, knowing her only concern should be getting back to her home, to her family, to her life.

Isabella slipped under the silky sheets of the bed where Rafael's large form was propped up against the pillows, the blinds pulled fully shut. She inched closer to him, unable to keep her distance, wanting to feel his strength underneath her fingertips. Rafael let out a deep grunt as she slid her palm over his bicep resting her head on his shoulder. His body shifted, his hand coming to spread over her bare stomach.

"You're naked," Rafael grumbled, annoyance and pleasure combined.

"Do you feel okay? Will you heal fully?" Isabella's voice was barely a whisper and Rafeal shifted her closer to him, propping his arm up behind his head as he looked down at her.

"I purchase you, I bring you into the most dangerous world imaginable, and I fail to protect you from an enemy ambush, carina. Why are you concerned about me? You should be trying to escape for your life right now." Rafael's words vibrated from his chest, a note of regret in his voice that she'd never heard before. Running her fingers across his warm smooth skin, she stared out at the darkness of the room, tears welling in her eyes.

"I don't know. I don't know why I care, but I do." Rafael reached down and cupped her jaw with his hand, angling her face toward his.

"Isabella," Rafael's eyes moved rapidly over her face like he was desperate to memorize it, "a woman like you cannot care about a man like me in that way. You don't deserve it. I won't let you." Isabella sat up, her adrenaline returning, but this time from a different place within her. A place of fire and stubborn strength instead of a place of fear.

"Why not? Why not a woman like me?"

"Isabella–"

"No, I want to know. What is it about me that makes me unfit for you, but not Alejandra? Do you still love her, Rafael? Are you trying to lay whatever plans and leave all this behind to have a life with her?" Isabella's voice broke on her last words but she didn't relent in her stare.

"Fuck, Isabella," Rafael grabbed her throat gently, holding her close to him, "I am the one who is not worthy of you. Your innocence, your fire, I've already done enough damage. I'm taking you home."

"What!" Isabella tried to move away but he held her to him, bringing his lips closer.

"Carina, I can't do this. I can't have you help me leave this life if I'm unable to keep you out of harm's way. I told you, I promised you, that I wouldn't let you get hurt. Tonight was too close."

"And I get no say?" Isabella's voice rose, her lips an inch from his, "what if I don't want to go home, what if I don't even know what home means anymore?"

"Fuck," Rafael breathed the word before touching his lips to hers, starting out tender but quickly becoming more violent as he pulled Isabella to stradle him, her naked chest plastered against his, the softness of her skin under his fingers driving his body wild. He grabbed her ass, pulling her impossibly closer, his hand fisting into the back of her hair before letting out a guttural noise of pain.

"Shit, am I hurting you?" Isabella pulled back, her eyes scanning his torso where bandages were tightly wrapped around his torso and back.

"Don't care," Rafael grunted out as he pulled her mouth back to his but the sound of pain from the back of his throat returned and Isabella pulled up for air.

"You need sleep, Rafael."

"I need you."

"You have me."

"No, carina. I don't." Isabella traced the edge of his hair, running her fingers through it.

"Sleep," Isabella kissed his cheek and settled back down into the crook of his arm, not missing the hardness of his body, of his cock, as she tried to ignore the urge to ride him, something she'd never done before. Rafael grunted in response, his eyes finally closing as he held her tightly to his side and drifted off to sleep. But Isabella laid awake, reassured by the rhythmic sound of his breathing, the rising and falling of his chest. She wasn't ready to leave him. Not yet. Even if leaving him was the only route to safety.