“What if I told you I was?”
“Detective, if you were truly ready, you’d contemplate taking some time off work, because I would fuck you so hard youcouldn’t walk straight, and then I’d fuck you in every position on every surface of my house, claiming you as mine, until you became addicted to the feeling of my cock filling you up. If you wereready, you wouldn’t be able to resist me while sitting at this table. You’d be begging for me to finger-fuck you under the table before insisting I take you to the car because you couldn’t wait one more goddamn minute for me to fuck you. I don’t see any of those things happening right now, so no, I don’t think you’reready.”
Sophie was practically vibrating with need, her face flush and lips parted. “Maverick—”
“Your meals,” a waiter said as they appeared at our table. Grateful for the reprieve, I waved the dishes over so we could eat. “Is there anything else I can get for you?”
I shook my head. “That will be all, thanks.” I turned back to Sophie, who was now staring down at a plate of food she didn’t order, breathing heavily, before picking up a fork and shoveling food in. I stared at her. “Hungry?”
She glared at me, her dark eyes darker than usual. “Starving. I haven’t eaten all day.”
I frowned. “What do you meanall day?”
“Exactly what I said.”
“Why?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t act all concerned about my well-being now, Maverick.” My frown turned into a scowl. She sighed. “My job is demanding. I go from crime scene to office, back out to interviews, blah blah blah. I don’t often get a chance to stop and eat.”
“We’ll have to do something about that.”
“I’ve managed this long. I think I’ll be just fine.” Something in her voice gave me pause. There was more to the story than she was letting on.
“Why are you so fucking stubborn?”
She dragged her finger along the rim of a water glass, the faint clink of her nail against the crystal filling the silence. “Why do you care so much?”
I hesitated. WhydidI care so much? To avoid answering, I cut into my steak and popped a bite into my mouth.
“You never told me why you called your goons off,” she said quietly.
“Because I made a stupid fucking call by approaching you to begin with. I never should have done that, let alone proposition you the way I did. Had I been wrong about you, you’d have thrown my ass in prison.”
“Hmm. I wouldn’t be so sure about that. I’m not a goody-two-shoes cop, nor am I as morally right as you seem to think I am. You said it yourself. You see a darkness in me that you recognize. So when are you going to be completely honest with me?”
“Baby, we hardly know enough about each other to have established trust, and this is arguably one of my best-kept secrets. Attraction and trust are two completely different things.”
Sophie raised her eyebrows, looking slightly offended as she sat back in her chair. “Well.” She gently placed the linen napkin draped over her lap on the table next to her plate. “I hear you loud and clear. You can go back to being Mr. Mercer and I’ll go back to not knowing who the hell you really are. See you around.”
I flinched at the name. That was what people called my father, not me, and certainly not whatsheshould be calling me. Maverick, orsir, would do just fine, but clearly I had pushed her too far. If I let her walk away from me now, I may never have a chance to play out all the fantasies I’d created in my mind.
“Wait. Don’t go,” I commanded, my voice lowering to a tone that I knew affected her. But this time, she just swallowed and turned, walking as quickly as she could away from our table.
Shit shit shit.
She wasn’t giving me an ultimatum, but it sure as hell felt like it. She’d come in here so confident, so sure of herself, but this defeated woman was not the same. She weaved through the restaurant, her hair billowing behind her.
Whatever was between us was a living, breathing thing that I didn’t want to resist. At least not tonight, not after she’d come all this way just to get my attention. I threw a few hundreds on the table and raced after her.
“Sophie,wait.” I grasped her elbow, equally firm and gentle, but she tore her arm away from me.
“Just leave it, Maverick. I get it, so let me leave. Please.” Her pleading tone was a punch to the gut.
“What did I say?” She started walking again, and I matched her pace effortlessly.
“There’s only so much rejection a woman can take. I shouldn’t have to practically beg you to pay attention to me, let alone fuck me. I refuse to be reduced to that level of desperation.”
I groaned inwardly, questioning how I found myself in this position—chasing after someone when I had never played the role of pursuer before. “It’s not about what you think happened. Acknowledging our chemistry doesn’t equate to trusting you.”
