Page 70 of Savagely Yours
She bowed her head and left to serve another table.
I started on my lunch.
Once I was done, I would request that Larke be escorted to Juniper. Moments like today, when I was reminded of all I’d overcome to get where I was, I craved seeing her. I wanted to touch her skin, feel her arms wrapped around me, and suck on her lips.
I also wanted to fuck her through the mattress.
The bracelet around my wrist flashed with my credit balance, which was so large that it couldn’t fit on the screen. Then, it showed me a second account with a zero balance. I wasn’t aware of a second account, but it didn’t take long for me to figure out whose it was. Something also told me that I had full control of this account. Considering I’d had no idea, I was sure Larke didn’t either, and it was lunchtime.
I transferred more credits than she would need to buy an adequate lunch. If she wanted to treat coworkers, it was enough that she would be able to do so for the rest of the month.
A few minutes later, my radio chirped:
“Captain Harding, this is Wade Marshall, over.”
“Go for Harding,” I answered.
“Captain, I have Miss Tapley with me in the Woodhaven mess hall. She needs to speak with you. It’s an urgent matter.”
“Marshall, go to 9 and give the radio to Miss Tapley.” I left the table and returned to the empty conference room. “Good afternoon. I hear you have something you need to say to me, Counselor?”
“Yes, I do,” she spat. “I don’t want your blood money.”
Hearing her voice alone made me want to go downstairs, even if only to watch her fill her lunch tray while I lurked in a dark corner.
“You will take it, and you will eat.”
“I’d rather starve.”
“You’re no use to me dead, and you’ve proven very useful for my needs when you’re alive and warm. Now, I won’t repeat myself.”
The way we parted this morning didn’t explain this sudden argumentative approach,at all,so I knew she was trying to tell me or clue me in on something. Perhaps she missed me. Perhaps she wanted me and couldn’t wait any longer to see me again, the same way it had been a challenge to be away from her these last several hours.
“Marshall?” I called.
“Sir? Yes, sir?”
“Please escort Miss Tapley to the conference room.”
“Yes, sir?—”
“Oh, are we going to eat together or something?” she hissed. “Don’t take a bite without me, asshole. I’d hate to miss an opportunity to see you choke.”
“Over,” was the last thing I said, but by then, I was speaking to dead air.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LARKE
“We’re not judging,” Emilio said. “There’s just been…rumors, and those rumors mean you should be able to buy us lunch. I mean, it’s only me, you, Yvette, and Lyric. That’s like a hundred credits at most.”
“What rumors?” I asked.
I knew exactly what he was referring to.
I’d gone from being unknown and cast aside in Sanitation to the well-known “kept woman” of a high-ranking Totten officer.
One of thehighest-rankingTotten officers.
