“Oh yeah? What’s the word?”
“Mine.” Her core clenched at the way he growled the single syllable. Savage pulled her closer, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.
"Did you sleep well?" Savage asked.
Savannah nodded, her cheek resting against his chest. "I sleep incredibly well when we are together. It’s when we are apart that sleep is harder.”
Savage's chest rumbled with a low chuckle. "Good. I’m glad to be your safe place to come home to.” Those words, spoken with such conviction, cut right through her. She blinked rapidly, fighting back the sudden sting of tears. She’d fallen for this man. In a span of a month, she’d fallen completely in love with him. It might have happened in the first week, if she were to be honest. She loved him.
"What's going on in that pretty head of yours?" Savage asked, his tone light but his eyes searching.
Savannah hesitated, then decided on honesty. "Just thinking about how different things are now. A month ago, I was..." she trailed off, the memory of her fear and desperation still raw.
Savage's arms tightened around her. "All of that's in the past now, sweetheart. You're here, you're safe, and that's what matters. Zeb and his cronies are in jail, awaiting trial. No one is out to get you and even if they were, they’d have to come through me first. I’ll tell you as often as you need to hear it. You are safe."
“I know. I’m safe and I’m yours and I love you.”
“Say it again,” Savage demanded.
“What? That I’m safe?” She asked, confused.
“No. The last part.”
“That I’m yours and I love you.”
“You love me.”
“I do. I don’t know when I started loving you. I think maybe it started the day you spanked me and helped me release my guilt… but I realized it today.”
“I love you too, baby girl. You are my everything.” Savage's calloused hand trailed down Savannah's side, igniting a trail of goosebumps in its wake. His touch, both gentle and possessive, sent a shiver through her body. Savannah's breath hitched as Savage's eyes locked onto hers, filled with an intensity that made her heart race.
"You're so beautiful," he said, kissing a trail from her breastbone to her belly button.
Savannah's body responded to his touch with an eagerness that surprised her. She reached up, running her fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair, she tugged on it, not hard enough to hurt him but hard enough to get his attention.
“Did you just pull my hair?” The shock in his question made Savannah giggle.
“Maybe…”
Savage growled low in his throat before he lowered his head, lips pushing against hers. The kiss was brutal, claiming. When he broke the kiss, her lips were tingling. He moved over her and looked down.
“Do you know what I love most about being your Daddy?”
“What?”
“Being completely in charge of you. I get to spoil you rotten, spank your beautiful ass when you are naughty and fuck you whenever and however I want. I get to decide if I spank you forpulling my hair or fuck you until you can’t walk comfortably. Now, what do you think Daddy should do with a little girl who yanks on his hair?”
“I don’t know, Daddy,” she said with a smirk. “Didn’t you just say you get to decide?” She loved it. Loved every part of their power exchange relationship. Loved how he made the decisions, and she could just be. Be who she was without fear. And damn, if the man didn’t take the best care of her.
Savage reached down with one hand and grabbed her ankles, pulled them straight up in the air and brought his other hand across her bare ass cheeks several times. The swats hurt, he held nothing back, but the pain went straight to her clit. This was a delicious type of spanking. The kind that made her drench the sheets with her arousal.
“Such a naughty girl. First, you pull my hair and then you get sassy with me. I think I need to remind you exactly who is in charge.” He dropped her legs, and her lips found hers again, kissing her so deeply she forgot to breathe. She was panting by the time he broke the kiss. His hands roamed over her body. Twisting and pinching her nipples, gently stroking her side, exploring her curves. Pain and pleasure, pleasure and pain. No rhythm to it, no predictable pattern. He was driving her absolutely insane.
As one hand pinched and twisted her right nipple while the other gently rubbed the left, she gasped, "Daddy, please..."
"Please what, baby girl?” he purred in her ear.
"I need... I need...” words failed her.