Page 64 of Savage Hearts

Okay, that part’s exciting, but you get my point. There are no gangsters in my world.

There are no guns, violence, safe houses, or private jets. Most importantly, there are no large, terrifying, beautiful Russian assassins with vengeance on their minds breaking into my bedroom at all hours of the night to overpower me with testosterone and kiss me to within an inch of my life.

I don’t know what to do.

If I called one of my friends and told them the story of the past week, they’d ask me why I was hoarding my Molly and demand I send them some.

No one would believe it.

Idon’t believe it. What I need is a plan.

Though I hate to even think like this, that’s what Sloane would do. She’d assess the situation and make a plan. A plan that would crush the competition and leave a smoking path of destruction in her wake.

The only smoking path of destruction I’ve managed to create so far has been in my underpants when Malek was kissing me.

By the time I step out of the shower, I’m a prune. I still don’thave a strategy. I towel dry my hair and body, then wrap the towel around myself and brush my teeth.

Then I wipe a clear circle in the steam on the mirror over the sink and almost die of a heart attack.

Malek towers behind me, pale eyes burning under lowered brows.

NINETEEN

RILEY

My reaction is pure instinct.

I whirl around and slap him across the face.

It doesn’t budge him. He simply stands there and smolders. “It’s good to see you, too, Riley Rose.”

The husky tone of his voice suggests he’s seen quite a lot of me, most likely as I was coming out of the shower.

Heat pulses in my cheeks. Furious, I slap him again, this time with all my strength.

He licks his lips and says hotly, “What did I tell you about combat making my dick hard?”

He yanks me against his chest, fists a hand into my wet hair, and kisses me.

This is no sweet soft kiss, like last night. This is ravaging. Demanding.Owning.As much a claim as anything else, a cocksure declaration that he can come and go as he pleases and there’s not a damn thing anyone—including me—can do about it.

I’ve never been so angry in my life.

“You smug son of a bitch!” I hiss, breaking away from his mouth. “Get out!”

“If that’s what you want.”

“It is!”

“All right. But I’ll be taking a few dead bodies with me.”

“You know what? Go ahead and kill me! At least then I won’t have to deal with you anymore.”

“I wasn’t talking about you, little bird. I’ll keep you alive so you can watch me toss all your bodyguards’ corpses into a big pile and light it on fire.”

Breathing hard and shaking, I glare at him, my hands flattened over his massive chest. I try to shove him away, but it’s like trying to move a house.

“You’re a monster.”