Page 97 of Greed: The Savage
Needing to move, to breathe, to forget…Addien wandered aimlessly to the fireplace. She cocked her head, then felt compelled to step closer. Riveted, she stared at the scene—so green, beneath skies so bright and clear that no fog could ever mar the endless sky of cobalt blue.
Unblinking, Addien came forward on the balls of her feet. She wanted to climb into the pretend world. She wanted to shed her shoes and walk barefoot upon nature’s carpet, a shade of green she had never before seen, without even a name, a color born of sea-green and emerald woven together into an unidentifiable masterpiece that words could never hope to capture.
This was the place she’d dreamed of one cruel winter’s eve. A night she’d never dared speak of.
Until Malric.
Had he somehow heard her yearning, even through the thunder of revenge against his father?
Her throat buckled.
Surely not.
Forlorn, Addien hovered a fingertip a breath from the canvas, tracing a path along that lush grassland she still longed to take.
And you could have had that…
She stilled, her pointing finger at the crest of a hill—the top of the world, it may be.
This was the true land of the nobility. These were their fairy tale castles. Mother Earth’s wonderland was a world only unto them, that they kept private and preserved so that their inferiors, the children of the streets, never saw, never knew of, that existence too pure and good for street rats to run through.
This was Malric’s world.
“…You are bold. Courageous. Beautiful beyond compare…You are a queen…Let me be your king…”
He’d offered her his name, protection, a future certain as the sunrise—everything and nothing all at once.
Addien let her arm drop forlornly to her side.
Or perhaps it wasn’t that at all. Perhaps she’d discovered something she’d never thought possible…that she could want more.
She was greedy.
She’d wanted more from Malric.
She wantedhim.
Addien briefly closed her eyes.
He’d offered her the keys to his kingdom, the security to be had in his name.
But she’d wanted more.
She’d wanted more than a kingdom. She’d even craved something far greater than safety and security.
She wanted his heart.
She had wantedallof him.
Addien took in a shuddery breath.
I still do.
That was why she had to leave. Why she’d removed herself so completely and gone somewhere he could never find her. Not because she’d grown too close to anyone—shehadn’t. She’d formed bonds with the women at the Devil’s Den but never trusted them with her sorrow, her dreams, her fears.
She’d turned those pieces of herself over only to Malric.
And in the end? What he offered was the same, cold, unfeeling, empty unions men of his ilk made with their alabaster innocents.
