Page 62 of Savage Hearts

Perhaps we should have left her alone. But I didn’t want history to repeat itself. We couldn’t risk the chance that Mila could be a bigger, smarter,bettermonster than her father.

Looking at her now, I couldn’t really believe that was the case. She probably did have thoughts about hurting us, sure, but the Tiernan men tended to bring that out in the best of people. Mila coming back to seek revenge for her father was highly unlikely.

It didn’t matter at the end, though.

All it had taken was one look, and she was mine.

Our lives were now intertwined, and there was no way to get out of it. For her, or for me.

I couldn’t let her go.

She frowned. “My dad… did that?”

The tone of her voice was unreadable.

I nodded. “Anything could happen in this house. And should it happen, I will be between you and whoever is stupid enough to try to take me on.”

She pushed away from me. She was only able to put a few inches between us before I pulled her back.

“You say that as if you care,” she said meanly.

I stared at her, unable to answer.

That was a good point. Why did I fucking care?

I turned off the lamp on the bedside table, bathing the room in darkness, and lay down on the bed, taking her with me.

I got us into my favorite position, with my hands under her shirt, feeling the soft, vulnerable skin of her stomach. Keeping her close to me.

She squirmed against me, and I used my other and gently swatted her ass. She got the hint, though.

“Silas.”

I didn’t answer her, and after a moment, when I felt her relax against me, I lightened my hold.

She didn’t fight me off anymore.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, keeping my little angel by my side, protected?—

By the devil.

9

MAVERICK

The house wasquiet when I came home.

It was a little after four in the morning, and the sun hadn’t even risen yet.

Everyone was asleep, including my youngest brother, with his arms wrapped tightly around our current obsession.

I brought my hand up to my chest and rubbed at the small ache there.

The thing about this obsession was, I didn’t know if it had an expiration date.

After dealing with the headache that was logistics for the operation, I should crave sleep.

I should want to crawl into my own bed and shut the rest of the world out for the next three hours before I had to get back up again.

---