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

my thighs as he stared up at me, tossing them to the side and then standing so he could take my hand and guide me into the water.

I hesitated slightly before walking down the steps, enjoying the cool water against my skin even if it made me feel a moment of panic at the first touch. But somehow, some way, the moment he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into his chest, it all faded back into my memories.

“I love you, mi reina,” he murmured softly, touching his lips to the top of my head as he moved us through the water beneath the stars. “All I could think of today was the fact that I never said it in English, and you might not have understood. There will be no other women for me. All that I am is yours, for better or worse.”

I looked up into his eyes, gliding my hands over his chest and the wound I half hoped would scar. “How do you know you won’t get tired of me?”

“Never, Isa. I’m yours,” he said sternly, lifting a hand to cup my cheek. “Until forever ends.”

21

Rafael

The tattoo gun buzzed as Elías worked. With my left arm extended and braced on the edge of the chair he'd dragged into the office, I didn't bother to glance down at what he inked onto my skin.

He'd hand-designed it with me at his shop the night before, setting everything into motion before I returned to Isa and put the knife in her hand. It might have seemed like it could have been an unnecessary waste of time, but I knew mi reina too well.

She loved me, and now even she couldn't deny it despite the fact that she hadn't given me the words. They would come in time. I'd left her in my bed in the very early hours of morning, making my way behind the closed doors of my office so Elías could get started on the tattoo that would take him hours to complete.

There needed to be time remaining for him to do Isa's on the same day. Before she could see my tattoo and ask questions.

I picked up the stencil for hers from where it rested on the desk, staring down at the intricate design that was a perfect match for mine. The black King chess piece, surrounded by flowers and flames that bled into shadows and darkness would wrap around her entire left forearm, fitting against mine like a puzzle piece. The words El Diablo would be etched into her skin in permanent ink, marking her as mine in a way a generic brand wouldn't have done.

Penance and a promise, all in one.

"You’re sure you want to do this?" Elías asked, raising an eyebrow to me as he put the finishing touches on the white Queen wrapped in barbed wire and surrounded by black waves that bled into the same shadows as Isa's tattoo. He moved to the position of the words Mi Reina beneath the Queen, pausing as he waited for my response. Undoubtedly, it seemed unusual for a man like me to mark his body with the ownership of a woman.

But Isa wasn't any other woman.

"I promise," I said with a sarcastic smile. He set the tattoo gun to my skin, inking her claim on me into me permanently.

Soon she'd wear my name in return, in more ways than one.

She just didn't know it yet.

22

Isa

Regina plied me with food to try to pull me out of the mood that had consumed me since I’d woken up alone that morning. Rafael and I hadn't spoken since we'd fallen into bed the night before, and I was left with the feeling that I'd made a grave mistake.

What could I do about a life I didn't want, but hadn't chosen to escape? What I shared with Rafael was too dark and twisted to explain, but I couldn't kill him either. My poor family was probably worried sick about me, and here I was eating lunch in a glamorous kitchen while they thought I was lying dead in a ditch somewhere. Even with a day to consider my choice, I was no closer to coming to any real decision. It didn’t help that I spent more time away from him than I did with him. Was that what my life with him would look like?

He'd offered me my freedom. I'd stayed, despite everything I had waiting for me back home. We’d had sex in the pool, pushing me past all my limits that I would have thought I had for myself. And despite all of that and his words that he would be faithful, at some point in the middle of the night, he'd slipped out of the bed we shared to go do God knows what in his office. Music played over the speakers, drowning out any sounds I might have heard when I'd been brave enough to go looking for him.

It only drove my suspicion higher, wondering what he could be so determined to hide from me.

"It's not a woman," Regina assured me, reading the expression on my face as I looked down the hall toward his office.

"What?" I forced myself to shovel another skewer of melon con jamon into my mouth. The salty serrano ham complemented the honeydew perfectly as Regina turned back to the stove to stir a soup while I ate. Joaquin lurked in the breakfast nook, a smirk forming on his face at Regina's words. "What's so funny?"

"Rafe with another woman," he laughed, shoveling a bite of food into his mouth. "Even if he was tempted, he's smart enough to know you'd cut him before you shared him."

"That's not true! I'm not violent," I argued.

"Mi reina, did you know that Rafael allows the men to use his personal gym in the basement?" Joaquin asked with a broad smile. "He regularly displays your claw and bite marks for all