Page 67 of The Bratva's Captive

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MAXIM

When Sloane caught her breath, I eased out of her and lay with her. On my side, I stared at her profile as she lay on her back. It was calmer now that we’d spent all that angry energy on each other, and I appreciated that the storm had passed.

I was no longer gripped with that intense, deep anger at seeing her with that cook. After making her come and feeling her pussy clench around my dick so snug inside her, it was as though the world were back on axis. All was right again, with this reminder of how she belonged to me.

Her submission was an equalizer, but I hated that this could mean I was dependent on her at all. That her giving in to me was a challenge I had to overcome. The idea of hernotbeing mine was unacceptable.

“Do you want to tell me that you’re not mine again?” I asked.

She didn’t reply for a long moment, but when she slowly rolled her head on the pillow to face me without moving her body, I sawhow stubborn she still was. “Are you that desperate for flattery that you need me to tell you that you made me come?”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Yes, Maxim.” She didn’t lose that sassy attitude, almost flippant and too indifferent for me to believe she wasn’t annoyed with me. “Yes, you made me come. Yes, it felt good. You owned me like that.”

I furrowed my brow, feeling like I was wading into a dilemma I didn’t want to face.

Owned herlike that?

I wasn’t ready for her to try to put me on the spot and make me admit that I wanted to possess her completely. Because if she wanted to ask me what I felt toward her…

Not fucking happening.

I was struggling with too much as it was, and I didn’t have the clarity of mind to analyze how she was coming to matter more than just as an available pussy, as a woman to breed for my heir.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not a thing. I’m a person. And when I see someone hurt, I react with the hope that I can help.”

Determined not to let my anger get the better of me, I drew a deep breath and stared at her, trying to find a clue that would signal she was fucking with me. That she was trying to manipulate me and lie.

“I’m supposed to just take your word for it?” I taunted. “That you were only with him?—”

“I wasn’twithhim,” she snapped.

“You were only there and touching him out of the goodness of your heart.”

She hesitated to answer, seeming to weigh her words. “Yes. I don’t know how to explain it to you, but yes. Idohave a good heart, and I don’t like to see others suffer.”

Interesting.“What about if they deserve it?”

She shrugged. “Fine. If someone fucked up and they deserve punishment, fine.”

“So if I were to tell you that I had all those loan sharks killed, that I tortured your landlord, and that I sent a man out to end your ex-boyfriend’s life, they deserved it?”

I hadn’t found a chance to explain to her how I’d taken care of her past issues. That in doing so, yes, I did own her now. I didn’t go around avenging just anyone.

This moment was a test I hadn’t realized she had to pass. Would she flinch and recoil in horror that I’d killed so many others for her? Or would she accept it?

A long moment of silence passed between us, and I worried when she seemed to take this much thought about what I told her. When she rolled her head and looked up at the ceiling, I chased after her, hovering over her so she’d have to look at me.

“You did that?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Just so…” She licked her lips. “Just so I would be indebted to stay here like this? Like a captive and stuck with no life?”

I scowled. “No.”

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