Page 96 of Savage King
Jesus, he’d better not do something like that to me. I’ve read books and seen movies, and I know that urban legend has itthat Mafia men cheat and shit, butI will lose the plot if he lets someone else touch him.
I stride into the lounge and see Lulu bartending. She’s not moving super fast, but she’s smiling, and I walk over to say hi.
“Hey, you look amazing,” Lulu says and wiggles her eyebrows. “Hot as hell.”
“Thanks,” I reply with a snort. “I was summoned by a certain someone.”
“Fun.” She glances over my shoulder and then back at me. “Good luck.”
Before I can ask her why I need luck, someone taps my shoulder, and I turn to find the woman I saw at the reception desk that first night that I came here. I think her name is Beth.
“Hi, Violet. I’ve been asked to escort you back. Please come with me.”
“Sure. Lead the way.”
Beth opens the door to the playroom, and my stomach is suddenly filled with lead. Something doesn’t feel right.
“Back this way,” Beth says, indicating the hallway that leads to the private rooms, and when we reach the end of the hall, she knocks twice before opening the door. She steps in ahead of me, and I stop just inside the doorway.
Mateo’s standing on the far side of the room. He’s in torn blue jeans and nothing else. His feet are bare. His shaggy dark hair is a little wild, matching the heat in his eyes, and his hands are in fists at his sides.
God, his muscles should be illegal.
I can’t help but swallow hard as my eyes roam down his torso, so freakingperfect. His arms are covered in tats to his knuckles, and I can see the pocket watch I put on his side.
The door closes behind me, but I’m startled when Beth stands next to me.
“Beth, come here,” Mateo orders, his voice hard and cold. His eyes don’t leave mine as Beth crosses to him, and when he lifts his hand to touch her, I shake my head.
“Hell no.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “I didn’t ask you.”
To my shock and horror, my eyes want to fill with tears. I’m not a crier. I don’t dissolve into a puddle at the drop of a hat, but thishurts. And when he drags his hand down her arm, I want to come out of my skin. He lifts her hand to his lips, kisses her knuckles, and then smiles kindly at her.
“That’ll be all. Thanks, Beth.”
She nods, smiles at me with sympathy, and then leaves the room, closing it behind her, and we’re alone.
“Fuck you,” I say, ignoring the tear that just escaped.
He doesn’t reply. Because ofcoursehe doesn’t. He’s not speaking to me. He’s giving me the fucking silent treatment like a child.
I hate the silent treatment.
He walks slowly to a spanking bench and tests the restraints for the hands and feet, and then motions for me to join him.
Fuck that.
“I’m not?—”
“Get your ass over here, Violet.”
My funny, affectionate, sexy man isn’t in this room. This man isangryand cold, and he makes me so damn uneasy.
But I take a step toward him, and when I’m a few feet away, I stop.
He lifts an eyebrow.
