Page 79 of Greed: The Savage
The smug smile made sense; it made all of this make sense.
All the air trapped in her lungs, and a cinch wrapped around them, squeezing and preventing her from getting any air into them.
Masking her hurt, too late, Addien brought both hands up and gave a hard shove. “Get the hell off me, yer lordship,” she hissed.
His big frame barely budged.
His rugged features displayed not cynical amusement but confusion.
How dare he? And worse, how dare she let her guard down and let herself…fall in love?
Addien strangled and choked. “My God, no, no.”
“What in hell is wrong with—Oomph.”
Addien’s knee connected squarely with his groin.
With a groan, Malric clutched himself.
Addien used his surprise to roll out from under him. Her chest heaving, she scrambled to the far side of the bed.
In those few seconds, he’d already mastered himself, standing easy, shoulders loose, but eyes locked on her like a predator sighting prey. She gnashed her teeth. Of course he had. He was larger than most men, forged of steel.
And she’d learned all too well, capable of the greatest cruelty.
Her lower lip threatened to tremble; she bit the inside to steady it, then jabbed a finger toward the doorway. “Get the hell out of my room, Malric.” Desperation made her reckless. Snarling, she launched herself onto the mattress so she loomed over him on the uneven surface. “Didn’t ye hear me?” she raged. “Oi said get the ’ell out.”
He didn’t move.
His stillness was worse than any threat.
The air shifted—heavy, charged—like the silence in St. Giles before a gang reckoning. His jaw flexed. A muscle ticked at his temple.
“Do you know, Addien,” he said softly, “I do not believe I will.”
Indignation should have been her response to his assertion. Instead, there was only hurt—and the sick fear he could see it.
Addien gasped as Malric drew her down beneath the broad wall of his body. Heat poured off him, heat and memory. Of how he’d taken her: tender, fierce, with purpose, and in every way there was. And afterward, how he’d held her while she drifted into the safest sleep she’d ever known.
He’d stripped away her fight. Hell, he’d already taken her pride. What was left for him to claim?
Tears pricked. She’d sooner die than let him see them.
Her gaze slid to the crumpled sheets—to the faint, faded smear of crimson. Her throat worked. “You silly nobs,” she said thickly.
His hand came up, so broad as to span her whole face. Malric cupped her cheek in a hold that was as claiming as it was gentle. In a command to look at him, his thumb stroked her but once. And when she did, there was no getting free.
“Do you truly believe I’m like the fops you despise?” His gaze scoured her, soul-deep, as if he’d wrench the truth straight from her if she dared lie.
She shook her head. “N–No.” He was unlike any man she’d known—larger than life. Honorable.
Honorable enough to try to do right by a gel like her.
Addien’s stare slipped back to the mark made by her virginity.
Malric tightened his hold.
He’d demand all her answers.
