Page 34 of Defending Mateo
“I can't, baby. I have to finish what I started here.”
Before his very eyes, he could see her pull herself together. Brushing away his hands from her shoulders, she stepped up to the vanity, quickly reapplied some makeup, and ran a brush through her long locks. Then she walked back into the main room, stepped into the heels, pulled the skimpy X-rated dress back over her head, and secured the tiara in her hair. After that, she spread her legs and waited.
Now he was the one who felt frozen in shock.
His girl was doing everything he needed her to do, including not making him have to ask her to spread her legs so he could apply the arousal gel that would ensure she was desperate for release by the time her buyer arrived. No doubt the man would take great pleasure in watching her squirm as he transported her to her new home. Or maybe he wanted her needy enough that she’d agree to let him touch her, possibly even have sex with her, just so she could get some relief.
Because there really wasn't any other choice, Mateo strode across the room to collect the gel. Wanting to make things a little easier on her, he squirted only a small amount onto his fingers, then slipped his hand between her legs and applied it, skimming his fingers over her bud, and around her entrance, nudging the tip of his finger inside her.
Once he’d wiped his hands and put the gel away, he faced his sweet girl, his little mouse, the only woman he’d ever loved, and the first person to make him feel anything other than anger in two decades. He wanted to say something, apologize again, offer more reassurances, but he couldn’t seem to make the words come out.
Instead, he just took her elbow and guided her across the room. By the time they were back in the main corridor, he felt her squirm as the gel began to work, flooding her system with arousal. Mateo walked her to the elevator, and they took it to the ground floor. There were a number of rooms here where they placed women who had been sold and were awaiting pickup, and now he led her down to one of them.
Inside the mostly bare room, there was a single chair, a mattress on a metal frame attached to the floor, and a toilet and sink. That was it. Some women spent a day or two in here, but Ally would be in here for less than an hour.
She didn't fight him on going into the room, not that he suspected she would have, and he couldn’t help but caress her skin before releasing his hold on her.
This was it.
The last time he’d get to touch her.
See her.
Talk to her.
While he’d ensure that Falcon had the intel needed to go in and rescue her, he wouldn't—couldn’t—be a part of that. He’d taken on this job, determined to do his part to bring Azuretoppling down, he couldn’t walk away from that for selfish reasons when Ally would be rescued either way.
Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, then turned to walk out of the room.
“Please, Mateo, please. Can't you get me out of here before he comes? I don’t want to do this. I understand all the reasons it has to happen this way, but I just want to go home. Please. Please don’t make me do this,” she begged, and he didn't have to look at her to know she was crying.
But it was too late to do anything now.
All he could do was step through the door and close it behind him, blocking out her pleas for him to help her.
For twenty years, he’d held a grudge over his family walking away, leaving him begging and pleading for help. Now he was the one walking away, leaving his girl terrified and alone to face an ordeal she may not survive.
He’d become everything he hated.
Chapter
Twelve
August 19th
12:50 P.M.
She barely even registered the arousal because she was so afraid.
When Mateo made it clear that not only were they going through with this, but that he was washing his hands of her as soon as he passed along intel to Prey, Ally decided she wasn't going to talk to him again. She was just going to grin and bear it and hope Prey really did get to her before anything more happened to her than she’d already endured in this place.
But then he brought her to this room.
This small, dimly lit room, and she lost it.
Not proud of how she’d begged and pleaded, or the fact that somehow Mateo still had the power to hurt her even though she’d shut down her feelings for him, now she was alone with her thoughts. Her fears.
Mateo had turned his back on her and walked out the door, ignoring her pleas for him to stop this from happening, to find another way. It mirrored what had happened to him as a kid, and it felt like things had come full circle for him, because nowhe was the one walking away, prioritizing himself, leaving fate to do with her whatever it chose.
