Page 79 of Savage Hearts

His lips moved over my temple and down my cheek, and no matter how hard I tried to resist, I couldn’t help it when my eyes stuttered shut.

“Good girl,” he whispered against my skin. “You’re here because I know you won’t say anything. You’re here because I am confident in my power to control you.”

My eyes sprang open from his words, and I glared at him.

He smiled wickedly at me. “I own you. I own every single part of you, including that beautiful submission of yours. You might think you still have some power against me, but get that thought out of your head. You don’t. You’re mine. And I want you to see the kind of man I am. The kind that will have you, heart, mind, and”—his voice lowered, and my heart thudded heavily against my chest—“soul.”

He stepped back from me, and I almost fell flat on my face.

Maverick steadied me in front of him and pushed me through the doors.

All eyes turned on us, and I hated the look of the men’s eyes as they took me in from head to toe.

The only thing keeping me from passing out was Maverick’s words.

I had to believe he wouldn’t let anyone touch me.

Had to believe he had become so possessive of me that I was safe in this room filled with monsters.

“I wouldn’t look at her unless you want your eyeballs removed from your heads,” Maverick said calmly. There was no mistaking the dark promise in his voice.

All the men averted their gazes from me at once.

I sighed with relief, which was short-lived as Maverick took a seat at the head of the table and sat me on his lap.

I stiffened and tried to put as much space between our bodies as possible, but he just wrapped his arms around my middle.

“Start talking,” Maverick said.

No one turned our way.

Everyone looked down at the dark cherrywood table in front.

“Boss, the girl?—”

“Don’t worry about the girl,” Maverick said, cutting off the man to the right of us. “Feel free to speak. She’s my good little lapdog and won’t say anything.”

Did he just?—

He just called me his fuckinglapdog.

He cupped my chin and turned my head slightly to look at him.

I knew he could see the anger burning in my eyes.

He smiled at me.

Maverick seemed to get some sort of sick enjoyment out of pissing me off.

I tore away from his grasp and looked out the window that showcased the city.

I was going to fucking ignore him and this fucking meeting and those terrible men who obviously worked with him.

“We received communications from New York. It seems the Romano family is interested in working out a deal with us,” one of the men said.

I didn’t look to see who was talking.

I was still pissed.

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