EVANGELINE touched the security screen with her finger, brushing a little caress over Alonzo’s face, trying to smooth those rough, frozen lines. He was back to being the Iceman. His eyes were as glacier blue as they could get. There was no sign of the passionate man who had lain with her, his body hot and hard inside hers. She could barely equate the two men as being one and the same.

She’d been smart enough to lock the door and run a bath in the small bathroom provided. She wanted the scent of cinnamon and spice to permeate the room so her man wouldn’t be suspicious. He was very used to intimidation and his icy dictatorship getting him whatever he wanted. He gave an order and it was carried out.

When he’d suggested so sweetly that she return to his room, take a bath and go to sleep and wait for him, she knew he wanted her out of the safe room, away from the security cameras. She had found the audio, turned it on and listened unashamedly to every word Elijah, Joshua and Alonzo had said. Most of it she didn’t fully understand. Only that there was far more to his criminal activity than she had at first understood. She knew Saria would never be involved with a criminal. Her husband, Drake Donovan, ran a security team, and more, those men rescued kidnap victims around the world. They were considered elite and they had the reputation of being incorruptible.

Why would Alonzo allow her to believe he was a crime lord if he was something altogether different? She knew just from the little he’d told her about his family that his background hadn’t been good, but the small snippets he’d told Elijah scared her. If his uncles found out where he was, they would definitely come after him. She wasn’t in the least worried for herself, but for him.

A slow flush spread over her body, heating her from the inside out. Her temperature soared and for a moment she had to hang her head and breathe deep to try to still the inferno that suddenly began to rage between her legs. “Stop it,” she told her female. “Seriously? Right now? I’m tryin’ to learn a few things.”

I’m burning for him. Burning up.

The moment she heard the distress in her female, Evangeline was ashamed of herself. “It’s okay, Bebe, we’ve got this. Do you need me to call him to us?” She hoped so. She wanted Alonzo with every breath she took. She needed him inside her, his mouth on her, his teeth. The itch was horrible, rising in waves under her skin until she thought she might scream. Her hands hurt, knuckles aching, fingers curling into claws so she couldn’t quite straighten them.

Not yet. Close though. It’s happening faster than I thought it would.