Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance by Adelaide Forrest (free children's ebooks online TXT) 📕

pressing deeper into his flesh as he moved without a care. "If I live, you'll be my wife. You'll never be alone in the space inside your head again."

My lips trembled as he kissed away my tears. I stared at the knife in my hand as he watched my face, uncaring for the fact that his life could end with just a moment. "Aren't you afraid?" I whispered, glancing up at him.

"Why would I want to live if I don't have all of you?" He smiled sadly, dropping his second hand from the knife and lifting my empty one to wrap around it. I clenched my eyes closed, my palms squeezing around the hilt as I tried to force myself to end it all.

To take back the freedom he’d stolen from me.

"Meet me in the moonlight," he murmured softly, echoing the words that had started it all. The words I'd thought had brought me to him. Memories of our time in Ibiza fluttered through my mind. From our first meeting to walking on the beach after dinner.

And I knew I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill the only man I had ever loved, no matter what he’d done to me or would continue to do.

The knife clattered to the floor as I dropped it, landing inches from my foot as I stepped back hurriedly. His lungs heaved with relief as he watched me across the space between us.

"You made a mistake, mi reina," he said. "You fell in love with your nightmare."

I didn't deny the words as he closed the distance between us and crushed his lips against mine.

How could I, when I'd chosen him over my freedom?

20

Isa

Rafael spent the next day away from me, leaving me to ponder my choice and stress over the outcome relentlessly as Regina tried to get me to focus on anything but the void inside my head.

Freedom had been within my grasp. My family had nearly gotten the peace they deserved and me home with them where I belonged.

I stepped out onto the private terrace, my bare feet soaking in the warmth from the tiles even though the sun had set long ago. Rafael’s business had required him to work through dinner, and I hadn’t quite been able to convince myself that I would be welcome in his office. He might have thought my place in his life was clearly defined by the unrealistic expectations he had of what we would be, but I was less than convinced.

I couldn’t kill him, but that didn’t mean I should have stayed. That didn’t mean that I could let myself enjoy my life with him.

The sky faded into deep purples as the sun disappeared behind me, leaving me to consider the impossible choices I’d need to make. What the fuck would I tell my family?

Would he let me tell them at all?

The fact that he hadn’t been able to follow through with branding me meant there was something there, and I might not speak much Spanish, but I knew what amor meant. In some way, Rafael had admitted he loved me.

I hadn’t given him the words back, and I didn’t know that I would ever be able to.

His arms wrapped around my waist as he stepped up behind me suddenly, moving through the bedroom with the kind of stealth that would never cease to amaze me. Like he was one with the darkness and it was his to claim.

His mouth touched the mark on my shoulder where he’d drawn blood, the wound pulsing to new life under the gentle pressure. His tongue ran over the healing flesh, somehow erotic when it should have been nothing short of gross.

When he pulled away, he unbuttoned his dress shirt and held my eyes as he revealed the inches of his flawless skin. The moment my eyes landed on the red marks where he’d carved my name into his chest, I couldn’t help the surge of possessiveness that came over me. The satisfaction in knowing that it was my name on his skin.

He was a beautiful enigma, a devil that no one could control. And yet he’d willingly carved my name into his flesh for all to see, unconcerned with the fact that other women might see it.

Because he was mine. Just as I was his.

His hands went to his pants, unfastening them with an arrogant smirk as I watched. “Take off your dress,” he ordered.

I swallowed back my nerves, instinctively knowing that Rafael planned to take me into the pool. Even if I knew how to swim, I would never be free of the panic I felt at just the thought.

At the reminder of what the water could do.

“Will you be faithful?” I asked, slipping my dress off over my head as Rafael shoved his pants down his legs and stepped out of them and his socks and shoes. He stood naked, without care for the fact that we were outside. Entirely confident in the privacy of his little haven within his home.

He smiled as he stepped up to me, reaching behind my back to unclasp my bra and help me pull it down my arms. He was meticulous about the way he touched me, carefully controlled and making sure to only trail his fingers over my arms lightly enough that goosebumps rose on the flesh in his wake.

His body stayed a hair away from mine, the warmth from his body kissing my flesh as he raised my hand to touch my name. “I always have been,” he murmured, his dark smile hinting at the truth to what Joaquin and Regina had told me.

Rafael hadn’t been with anyone else since the first time he saw me. It was fucked up. It was baffling. It was far sweeter than I would have thought him capable of being. “I’ll put your name on me permanently if it will help convince you,” he said, dropping to his knees in front of me. He drew my panties down