The Slayer (Untamed Hearts #2)(25)

“Why’d you leave?”

“I just—” She paused as she thought about it. “I wanted something different for myself. I wanted an education and a career instead of a husband and kids.”

Chuito dried his hands on the towel as he considered that. “They don’t want you to get an education?”

She shook her head. “My father thought it was a waste of money. When Jules offered to pay, he got so mad I had to move out. He doesn’t like Jules.”

“What about your mother?”

“She passed away.”

Chuito hung the towel on the stove, clearly deep in thought. “How long you been in prison here, mami?”

“Over a year,” she whispered miserably. “Alone. In this place every night.”

“That’s a long time to be in solitary.” He lifted his head and looked at her. “What if I hurt you again while I’m having a nightmare? If that happens, I will have to take myself out.”

Alaine understood he was talking about the sleeping arrangements she suggested. “Well, this time you’ll know I’ll be there. You said you’ve slept with women before.”

“I don’t usually do much sleeping when I’m in bed with a woman,” he said with the arch of an eyebrow. “I guess if I know you’re there, we’ll be okay, but no sneaking up on me anymore.”

She nodded. “Okay.”



Chuito slept in his jeans but took off his shirt. Alaine brought a thicker blanket, because his apartment only had sheets without a comforter. She brought her pillow too and gave Chuito another one from her apartment, because the one he was using wasn’t any better than the scratchy sheets. They really should’ve slept in her bed.

It was past two in the morning. She was dead tired, but she snuggled under the blankets as she looked at Chuito in the near darkness of his room. Even with the bruises from fighting with Wyatt, his face was so handsome. His eyes were dark in the night but framed with long eyelashes that made them more expressive. She noticed he had dimples when he smiled, which changed his whole dynamic.

He was easily the most beautiful man she’d ever seen in her life. Everything about him seemed so much more interesting and complex than the men she knew, and she liked that about him. Very much.

“It’s like a sleepover,” she said with a wide smile. “Did ya ever have sleepovers when you were younger, Chu?”

“No.” He turned on his side and studied her pensively. “We didn’t have enough food to feed extra kids. My mother and Tía Camila could barely feed us.”

“You didn’t spend the night at someone else’s house?”

“No.”

“Why?” she asked curiously.

“’Cause I wanted to be home. I liked to be with my family. I liked to make sure they were safe.”

She frowned. “When you were a little kid?”

“I was never a little kid,” he said as he arched an eyebrow at her again. “Born a diablo. Always a thug, mami.”

“Why do you call me mami?”

“’Cause I do,” he said as if it made perfect sense to him. “’Cause you make me feel protective. It’s an endearment, I promise.”

“You make me feel protective too.” She smiled again and reached over and put her hands on his eyes. “Go to sleep. It’s good for you.”

He sounded like he wanted to argue, but the lack of sleep and no coffee obviously caught up with him. Chuito fell asleep almost instantly.





Chapter Eleven


Alaine lay awake, staring at him for a long time afterward.

It almost made her feel a little guilty.

His eyelashes were so long, so beautiful and dark, it seemed unfair they belonged to a man. They were a strange contrast to everything else about him that was hard and unyielding.

She reached out, tempted to run a finger over a long, jagged scar on his shoulder. He had warned her not to touch him while he was sleeping, so she just leaned in closer to study it, trying it imagine what would cause a wound like that. It didn’t look like it had been cared for properly either. It was a little too thick to have been stitched up, and she shuddered at the thought of allowing a wound that size to heal on its own.

Chuito had lots of markings like that, scars that had to have once been terrible injuries. It looked like he had been through a war, and it wasn’t just the scars that brought a warrior to mind. There was such a sharp edge to his demeanor. She noticed tonight that unexpected noises from outside made him jump, and he had a tendency to glance out the window as though expecting an attack.

It was like he was on autopilot, and just because his surroundings had changed didn’t mean the habits did. Alaine now understood how sheltered her existence had been. She thought of all those news reports about wars abroad and then realized there was evidence sleeping right next to her that there were wars here at home too.

And for some reason, they were largely discounted.

She was just pondering the unfairness of it when Chuito started speaking, though his eyes were still closed.

“Uno, dos, tres, cuatro…”

She knew he was counting in Spanish, but she couldn’t, for the life of her, imagine what he was dreaming about.



“Five, six, seven—”