María José's words still echoed in my head, rattling around my skull like a bad joke.
Because you don't exist.
Dios. It stung, and I wasn't the kind of man who got easily wounded. But this? This cut deep.
She stared at me now, her chest rising and falling with heavy And furious breaths while her hands clenched at her sides. A wild little thing ready to bolt or bite.
I should've been irritated, should've been planning a way to teach her a lesson about speaking to me like that.
But all I could think about was how much I liked seeing her like this.
So fiery. So untamed.
So mine.
I inhaled deeply, pushing down the part of me that wanted to grab her and force her to listen—really listen. I needed to fix this.
I forced my voice to be calm. Reasonable. "María José, I didn't lie to you."
Her eyes narrowed to slits. "Oh, really?"
