Page 109 of Savage Cravings

I watched him.

When the bartender came back to refill my drink, I shook my head and slapped down two one-hundred-dollar bills.

I didn’t see Jones as a threat, but his presence here just confirmed what I knew.

We needed to head home. I didn’t even give a fuck that they wanted to take Mila with them.

21

MILA

There wassomething different about me.

I looked…happy.

I expected to feel degraded. Used.

I didn’t feel either of those things.

What I’d done with the brothers was out of the norm.

But they never looked down on me for agreeing to this… fling. I still couldn’t believe this was my life right now.

I had always dreamed about escaping my father’s grasp and being able to live like a normal person.

Live a life in which I could date and fall in love.

In which I could find theoneand have a happily ever after.

Silas and Maverick were the furthest thing from a fairy tale. My fantasy was nothing more than that. A fantasy conjured up by a girl who’d never had the chance to really live.

Now that I was out of my father’s grasp, I hoped it would stay that way. And I would get more new experiences.

I shook my head, wiping away the sappy thought. I needed to be careful. If I got any sappier, I’d sound like a girl in love, and that was just a dangerous line to cross.

This was nothing more than a quick fling before I moved on. Perhaps somewhere remote and safe and peaceful. Somewhere I would never have to hear the term “club princess” ever again.

I was back in my motel room. As nice as the hotel suite was, I needed some time alone to recoup. And I was happy to relax a little before my shift at the restaurant tonight.

My phone ringing got me out of my thoughts, and I frowned at it, wondering if it was Silas. After coming back from his little trip, he had taken me back to the hotel to swim. Maverick joined us. Oddly enough, it had only been the three of us at the pool. Perhaps we got lucky, as I was subjected to their teasing for most of our time there. And the kind of teasing they’d done… it wasn’t exactly for the public eye.

I shook away the memory. I was back in my motel room now because I had work to get to soon.

Something like relief mixed with disappointment settled in my chest when I realized it was my mom calling me instead.

I debated whether I should pick up. It wasn’t that I was angry at her for leaving New Orleans just as I’d gotten here, but there was some resentment over her leaving me so easily—and not just recently, but years before, when I had been a kid who needed her mom.

I picked up on the last ring.

“Hello?”

“Mila,” she breathed through the line, and I couldn’t be sure, but she sounded almost—relieved? “Are you still in New Orleans?”

“Yeah,” I answered, lying down on the bed and looking up at the popcorn ceiling.

“Are you planning on staying there?”

I shrugged, even if she couldn’t see me. The smart thing to do was leave before the brothers left me. I didn’t want to be the one left behind, but the thought of leaving too early…

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