Maeve stared down Bram and Poe at the dining room table. “Got it?”
“Sure thing, little bird,” Poe said.
She turned her gaze on Bram, and I was starting to think she had magic powers because a few seconds later, he tossed aside the steak he’d been holding on his knuckles. “Fucking fine.”
She looked at the Hawks. “Can I trust you to behave?”
“We didn’t come here to fight,” Jagger said, dabbing at his nose with the dish towel Maeve had given him.
“Good.” She took a deep breath. “First things first, this isn’t about you. This isn’t about any of you. Do you understand that?”
She was talking to them like five-year-olds but they deserved it.
They grumbled their agreement.
“Who is this about?” she asked them.
Another group mumble. “Cassie.”
She touched a hand to her ear like she couldn’t hear them and they said it louder.
“Good. And since this is about Cassie, we’re going to ask her — a grown-ass adult — what she wants.” Maeve turned to me. “Cass?”
I took a deep breath. “I want to honor my part of the bargain and stay with the Hawks until my ninety days is up.”
Bram’s eyes flashed. “Cass, this is?— ”
“Nope,” Maeve said. “We’re listening remember?”
Bram looked like he was biting his tongue hard enough to make it bleed.
Maeve looked at the Hawks. “Can we trust you not to hurt Cassie?”
They hesitated and my cheeks got hot when I realized they were thinking about their toys: the nipple and pussy clamps, the anal plug, who knew what else.
Maeve sighed. “Can we trust you to treat Cassie with respect and honor her wishes,” she cut a glance at Bram as if to silence him in advance, “whatever they may be?”
“Totally,” Vigo said. “We won’t do anything to our little mouse she doesn’t want us to do.”
Bram flattened his hands on the table. “I’m going to rip your?—”
“No,” Maeve said. “No, you’re not. You’re going to keep listening.”
“We don’t force ourselves on any woman, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Hawk sounded disgusted. “Fuck.”
“Good.” Maeve nodded.
“I have a condition,” Bram said.
I exhaled the breath I’d been holding. A condition was good. A condition meant Bram was coming around.
“Go ahead,” Maeve said.
“Cassie gets to leave before the ninety days if she wants to.”
“Obviously,” Vigo said.
“I have a counter condition,” I said.
