Savage Hearts (Queens & Monsters #3)(57)

With faint laughter in his voice, Mal says, “Only to people who refer to him as ‘it.’”

Poe stands on my chest, waiting.

Feeling like an absolute idiot, I apologize to the bird again. “Sorry, Poe. I’ve only ever had goldfish. They don’t have nearly as much personality as you.”

Poe produces a quiet, rambling series of clicks and grating rattles to show his displeasure with me, then he starts eating again.

I’ve been dismissed.

The three of us are silent until Poe finishes off the cat food. Then he flies back to the open window, making me jump as he takes off from my chest.

With a final farewell squawk, he flies off into the night. Mal closes the window behind him and turns back to me, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Do you have any other animal friends I should expect for a visit?”

“There’s a family of raccoons who comes over from time to time.”

“Any bears?”

“Not friendly ones. Time for you to go to sleep.”

“Are you this bossy with all your patients?”

“Are you this mouthy with all your doctors?”

“Only the ones I like.”

There’s a pause where he simply stands and stares at me, his eyes warm. Then a miracle occurs: he smiles.

It’s beautiful.

He murmurs, “Go to sleep, Riley Rose.”

“How can I sleep with you standing there staring at me?”

“You’ve been doing well with it so far. Now close your eyes.”

I heave a sigh, flop my arms dramatically at my sides, then obey him and shut my eyes.

I must fall asleep almost immediately, because I remember nothing after that.

When I wake up in the morning, Mal is sleeping on his side next to me in bed, his arm under my neck, a leg thrown over both of mine, his big warm hand splayed over my belly.

Right over my scar.





29





Riley





“Just breathe,” he murmurs, his mouth close to my ear.

Okay, so he’s not asleep. And he obviously felt all the muscles in my body clench when I realized he was lying beside me.

I inhale a deep breath, but it isn’t calming. How could it be? It draws his heady masculine scent through my nose and deep down into my lungs, where it settles, making me dizzy.

My ovaries wake up from a dead sleep and start shrieking like zoo monkeys.

A million things I could say run through my mind, but what comes out of my mouth is a strangled, “Oh. Hi. This is new.”

He chuckles. “Don’t panic.”

“Who, me? Psh. I’m not panicking. I’m totally cool. I’m the coolest.”

He slides his hand from my belly to my wrist. He presses his thumb against the pulse point there. I know he can feel it throbbing wildly, because that’s what my heart is doing, too.

After a moment, he chuckles again.

“Don’t gloat. It makes me want to stab you.”

He doesn’t respond to that. He does hold onto my wrist, however, wrapping his big hand around it and folding my arm across my chest so I’m cocooned in a hug, safe in the delicious weight and warmth of him.

I close my eyes and try hard not to tremble.

“You twitch in your sleep like a puppy.”

His voice is low and warm. My ovaries have stopped shrieking, but now they’re busy running around lighting everything in my lower body on fire.

I don’t know what to say, so I don’t say anything.

“I have to go to work today.” He pauses. “I’ll be back late.”

I suspect there’s more he wants to say. The pause felt significant. I wait, my heartbeat going even faster.

After a while, he speaks again. This time his tone has changed. It’s grown dark.

“Don’t try to run away.”

I whisper, “I won’t.”

“You should.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

Oh, god, the sex in his voice. The raw, hot, dirty sex he put into those words has me hyperventilating. I can’t help it now: I start to tremble.

It does something to him. Brings out a feral animal he’s been keeping under tight control, leashed behind his tense silences and watchful eyes.

He drags me onto my side and back against his chest, pinning me there with his arms and legs, his heat and bulk all around me.

Into my ear, he says gruffly, “You know exactly what I want from you, don’t you? Or you think you know. But if you really did, you’d run as fast and as far away from me as you could, malyutka. You’d run away screaming.”

I blurt, “I know you’re not going to hurt me.”

“I want to.”

“No, you don’t.”

His voice turns into a wolf’s growl. “Oh, yes, I do. I want to hold you down and bite you and fuck you until you’re sobbing. I want to come deep inside your pussy, your mouth, and that perfect little ass. I want to see my teeth marks on your tits and my fingerprints on your thighs and the tears in your eyes when I put you on your knees and make you gag on my cock. Don’t get it wrong, sweet girl. I want to fucking devour you.”

Breathing erratically behind me, he seems out on the far edge of his control, as if he might snap at any moment and tear me to pieces.