Page 146 of King of the Cage

“Keep me… you’d a need pretty strong cage to keep me in indefinitely,” I warned him, and he just laughed.

“I don’t know about indefinitely, but I definitely need a better cage for you, selkie, so you don’t go searching for your skinanytime soon. A castle fit for a queen,” he murmured and reached into his pocket.

He held his hand up, dangling keys.

I took the key and looked around. “Are you serious?”

He just nodded.

I stepped away from him and turned to the brownstones behind me.

“One of these?” I wondered, my heart leaping in my chest. I’d gotten used to our little studio above The Selkie’s Rest.

I gripped the key and took a step toward the smallest house on the block.

“This one?” I wondered.

Bran tutted and shook his head. “Think bigger.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. Sure, since becoming a De Sanctis family member, I hadn’t hurt for money. I’d been able to buy whatever I’d wanted for years, but a house, a brownstone near Midtown, at that, was another story entirely. Most of all, I didn’t let guys buy things for me.

“Buying a house without my input? I thought I told you that I don’t like bossy, domineering men,” I reminded my husband, unable to keep a smile from my face.

“No, I remember, and I remember that I’m your exception,” he tugged me back for a long, hot kiss and then turned in toward the biggest place on the street.

“Let’s go home, selkie.”

Bran slapped my ass as I bounded up the stairs to the house.

I turned the key in the lock and the door swung open. Before I could a step inside, Bran’s arms went around me from behind and he lifted me.

“This time, I’m starting things out on the right foot and carrying my bride across the threshold,”

“What does that tradition even mean?” I wondered as he walked into the dark hallway. A stained-glass window over the door turned the falling moonlight red and purple, shining down over us.

“No fucking clue, but I’ll take any excuse to hold my wife,” Bran muttered and flipped the light on.

He let me down to explore. It was beautiful. High corniced ceilings and sanded, perfectly polished floors mixed with modern appliances and furnishings.

My office was a marvel, with wall-to-wall screens and a new gaming chair that I couldn’t wait to break in.

“Ah, now onto to my favorite room,” Bran murmured in my ear as we went into the huge family bathroom.

“Your favorite? That’s a little too much information about your personal hygiene habits for me,” I tossed at him, and yelped as he pinched my behind.

The bathroom was huge, with a marble double vanity and a mirror that ran the entire wall.

“Take your panties off, wait in the bathroom, and bend over the sink for me,” Bran intoned. He’d shut the door and was leaning against it.

I stood in the middle of the large room, watching his eyes glitter darkly in the moonlight.

He looked me up and down with a lingering gaze that was scandalously full of intentions. Before this man, I’d never known what it was like to be truly wanted, mind, body, and soul. I was wild about this man, and I’d never recover.

Bran smirked. “Tonight, wee one, you’re mine.”

“You’re trying to tell me what to do, O’Connor?” I goaded him. I took a step back and then another. He watched my movements with his customary predatory grace.

Without giving him a chance to answer, I turned around and faced the mirror over the vanity and tossed my hair over my shoulder.

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