Page 116 of Savage Ambition

Shaw shrugged. “Then you already have your answer.”

The quiet admission hit me like a bullet. I struggled to keep my tone neutral. “Did he touch you?”

“He shook my hand.”

“I’m being serious!” I couldn’t keep the anguish from my voice.

“He also showed me he knew about my…” Shaw touched where I’d marked him days ago. “Like I said, it was a warning.”

My fury was a living thing, clawing at my insides. “That son of a bitch!”

“It wasn’t bad. Well, it was a little inappropriate, but it’s fine.”

I silenced him with a fierce kiss, needing to reclaim him from Salvatore’s shadow. It was chaotic and desperate as my fingers threaded through his hair while his hands clutched at my shirt.

The knowledge that Salvatore had put his hands on Shaw to touch the mark I’d left ignited something feral within me.

For years, I’d followed rules and played the long game, sacrificing my body and dignity to protect Raphael. But Salvatore had crossed a line by targeting Shaw. And I’d be damned if I’d let him claim the territory I had fought so hard to claim.

When we parted, I took great pleasure in his flushed expression. “Let’s get out of here.”

“And go where?”

“Sometimes the safest place to hide is the one place he’d never think to look,” I said, the adrenaline of defiance coursing through me. “He expects me to be terrified enough to stay away from you completely.”

The first time I’d broken Salvatore’s rules with Melissa, it had been calculated revenge. Giving in to Renato in the limo had been an impulsive seizing of opportunity. But with Shaw, I was making a deliberate choice to take what I wanted despite knowing the risks.

“Let’s go to my apartment,” Shaw said with growing confidence. “My uncle and Trent won’t be home until late tonight.”

“Perfect.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

DANTE

At Shaw’s apartment, no cameras tracked our movements. No one observed how I bit his lower lip hard enough to make him gasp. Nobody recorded how his hands clawed at my back, pulling me flush against him.

I unbuttoned his shirt to reveal each inch of tanned skin. His fingers trembled as he worked on my buttons, his face flushing when I stared at his exposed chest.

Once we were naked, I backed him toward the bed. He fell onto the mattress, looking up at me with those green eyes that had haunted me since high school. I nudged his legs apart and dropped to my knees between them, taking his right hand in mine. His knuckles were still rough from connecting with Jace’s face.

I traced my thumb across the abrasions, his violence resonating deep in my chest. “You hurt Jace for me,” I murmured, pressing my lips to each knuckle.

Shaw tugged me down with surprising strength, arching upward as I guided him to his back. The afternoon stretched before us. I had hours before I needed to return to the brothel, to Dragon, to the performance I maintained for Salvatore’s benefit.

He responded to my touch with an honesty his words never could. I rewarded him by kissing a trail across his flesh to mark him as mine.

When I shifted lower, I found the hickey I’d left on him, which was already fading. I had assumed it would go unnoticed, but I had been mistaken. The bastard who adopted me must have upgraded the security cameras again to catch the blemish.

I reclaimed my mark with renewed determination, worshipping the spot with my lips, teeth, and tongue until Shaw writhed beneath me with soft whimpers that no amount of money could buy. When I murmured his name against his skin, the sound he made in response was worth whatever punishment Salvatore would devise. I slid my hand between his thighs, claiming more of him with each touch.

“Please, Dante,” he moaned, the forbidden syllables of my real name doing unexpected things to my heart.

For once, I didn’t punish him for the slip. Instead, I whispered against his skin, “I’ll have you shouting my name by the time we’re done.” A promise I intended to keep, consequences be damned. But first, I needed to hear him articulate his full surrender. “Tell me what you want.”

“More,” he gasped.

I clicked my tongue in disapproval. “Be specific.” When defiance flickered in his eyes, I relented, licking a long stripe up his cock. “Perhaps this?”