Page 62 of Sweet Surrender
But what Savannah needed to realize was that if she gave in to me, ifshe surrendered to me, her life would be everything she ever wanted it to be.
So long as she followed my orders, of course.
I grabbed her chin and made her look at me. “I didn’t hear youcomplaining when you were begging me to make you come after the party. And as for preventing you from doing what you want, you can have your sketchbooks as soon as you learn to behave.”
She yanked her chin out of my grasp, her mouth forming into a snarl.“How many times do I have to tell you, I am not a dog that you can teach tricks to,” she said, her tone dripping with venom.
“And how many times do I have to remind you that you agreed to bemine? You knew the terms of the deal, I made them very clear to you, sweetheart.” I took a step closer, pinning her to the counter with my arms on either side of her.
Her eyes widened, but not in fear, in defiance. Even now, she wasstill resisting. It was time I reminded her of what she agreed to. “To save Liam’s life, you agreed to be mine. To be owned and possessed by me. That includes me telling you what you can and can’t do. It includes me deciding what you can and can’t wear, or when you get to draw. It includes telling you when you get to come.” Her eyes filled with hatred aimed solely at me. She opened her mouth to reply, but I put a finger across her lips, shutting her up. I wasn’t finished. “I told you that you would have a life of luxury, and all you needed to do was surrender. You knew the terms, and you agreed. So the sooner you accept the consequences of your decision, and give me your surrender, the happier we’ll both be.”
She didn’t reply for a few seconds, and I could see it was taking all ofher willpower to not retort. She glowered at me with murder in her eyes, and for a second, I was glad the knife block was on the other side of the kitchen out of her reach.
“You know what, Nash?” she eventually said, doing her best to keepher voice level. “You’re right. I did agree to your terms, it’s just taking me time to get used to this new life.”
Suspicion coursed through me at her sudden change in attitude, and Iwas about to challenge her when I thought better of it. I wanted to see how this was going to play out. She had something up her sleeve, and the more she resisted, the more it went my way.
I dropped my arms and took a step back. “Good. I’m glad you canaccept it, and I’m willing to give you a bit of time. But you need to get used to how things are, and fast.” She nodded once before bowing her head. “Well, now that’s sorted, I’ve got to go to work. You may go shopping today if you wish. Aaron will be available to drive you, and I assume you still have your credit card?”
Her jaw clenched in anger. “Yes, I have. Thank you,” shesaid through gritted teeth.
“You’re welcome,” I replied, beaming at her, and knowing it wouldirritate her all the more.
What can I say? I liked pushing my sweet Savannah’s buttons.
Leaning forward, I gave her a kiss on the head before grabbing thedisgusting mixture from behind her and pouring it down the sink on my way out of the kitchen.
As soon as I was out of her view, I paused, and sure enough, noteven five seconds later, her whispered curse of‘motherfucker’reached my ears, and I couldn’t stop the evil smile from taking over my face.
I was quite enjoying messing with my wife.
Now to see what she had in store next.
I only hoped my bowels wouldn’t fall victim again.
The rest of the day passed smoothly. Aside from the opening ofOnyx, Fox and I had five other casinos and hotels across the US to run, along with three in other countries.
We had an army of staff to take care of the majority of the work, butFox and I were both active CEOs, and had regular meetings with our teams to ensure the resorts were running as they should be.
Fox dialed into most of the meetings as he’d flown out of state to dealwith a problem at The Liberty Casino, our resort in New York. After one of the meetings, we stayed on the phone to catch up.
He filled me in on what had been going on. Several staffmembers had been caught letting their friends stay for free at the hotel for several nights at a time. When Fox added up how much money we’d lost thanks to their freebies, it came in at a loss of several thousand dollars.
Needless to say, the staff members were promptly sacked, and Foxpromised to ensure they’d never work in the hotel industry again.
We caught up on the small tweaks being made to Onyx, ready for themain launch before Fox asked me how Savannah was settling into her new home.
Against my better judgment, I told him what Savannah had done tomy dinner, and regretted it after he spent a solid five minutes howling down the phone with laughter.
When he composed himself, only to then burst out laughing again, Ihung up on the fucker, silently wishing that he was struck with the worst case of the shits.
As for my troublesome wife, I hadn’t been able to keep tabs on whatshe’d been doing, thanks to all the meetings, but when Brian drove me to work this morning, I asked him to keep an eye on her.
Like I did, Brian had access to Savannah’s phone records and textmessages. Not that she would know we could see every call she made or every text she sent. I had full faith in Brian that if Savannah was up to no good, he would know about it.
Sure enough, my wife didn’t disappoint.
“Dare I ask what you’re smirking at,” I said to Brian, who was leaningagainst the car with his phone in his hand, and a smirk playing on his lips.
