Page 22 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)
He looks side to side like he’s worried someone might be listening, and for a moment, that familiar guilt of toeing the morality line hits me before I forget it as he starts talking.
Then he leans his forearms on the bar. I lean in, too, keeping the pool house in my line of vision as I do, genuinely eager for his response.
“Honestly, no one’s really sure, but they’re pretty sure it was arson.” His voice goes lower. “Someone turned off all of the cameras on the resort five minutes before it happened.”
My eyes go wide as if this is new information to me.
“No way!” I say excitedly. “Does that happen often? Cameras turning off?”
He shakes his head. “No, this place is pretty well locked down, from what I understand. They see everything. We think it was someone who works here.”
“Here? My goodness.” I make my eyes wide and innocent, like this is the first time I’ve heard of this, and he falls for it, nodding fervently. “What do you think?”
He shrugs, but the way his eyes shift again has me leaning in farther, this time genuinely interested.
“I heard that Jeff, who used to run the rental shack, was begging for them to move him to excursions. And now that the shack is down, guess what he’s reassigned to.”
I gasp and let out a little shocked giggle. “No way!”
“Yeah. Crazy, right? I can’t imagine doing something like that, risking this job. We all have it pretty good here. I can’t imagine fucking up a gig like this.”
I take a long sip of my drink, which tastes delicious .
“So you like your job?” I ask, genuinely intrigued. Employee morale can be a significant factor in an issue like this, although I haven’t seen the employees seem to be miserable here.
“Oh, yeah. Great benefits…get to be outside all the time…good tips if you’re working directly with the guests. Gorgeous women…” he says, a cocky smile on his lips as he gets more comfortable. “Who would complain?”
I give him a flirty smile and try to think how long it’s been since Rory entered.
There’s a back door that, according to the blueprints Rory got her hands on, is the exit she’s planning to head out of, but she’s supposed to come out and meet me here when she’s done.
It usually takes five or ten minutes to get her stuff set up correctly.
I should still have a few more minutes before she’s done.
I open my mouth to continue my conversation when I hear a familiar voice.
“Are you on the clock?” the voice asks. The kid in front of me doesn’t hide his shock or panic, standing straight and paling. The panic is mine, too, because Rory is still in the pool house, and now Rowan Fisher is here once again while I try to do my job.
“Oh, Mr. Fisher. I’m so sorry, sir, she was?—”
“Oh, Rowan, so good to see you,” I say far too loud to be normal, but I hope to fuck Rory hears me through the walkie-talkie on my wrist. “I was just bugging him. He did nothing wrong. In fact, he was very tight-lipped. I was trying to get juicy secrets from him, and he didn’t say a word.”
Rowan’s head tips, his jaw going tight in a way that shouldn’t be hot. “Why are you looking for secrets?”
I roll my eyes like it’s a silly question. “Why wouldn’t I look for secrets? I’m a girl. I love to find out secrets.” I lean in, my voice going low and conspiratorial. “Do you have any juicy secrets to share with me, Rowan?”
He shifts to stand beside me, and I resist the urge to look directly at the pool house, having to rely on my peripheral vision to keep track. Rowan notices everything, and I can’t raise suspicions right now.
“I don’t share my secrets with anyone,” he says low, a challenge if I’ve ever heard one. I lean in a bit, turning my body on my stool toward his, my head tipped up to look at him as he glares down at me.
Without my mind’s approval, my body heats.
There’s something about the way he’s looking down at me, the way I’m looking up, the way he’s standing while I sit…
it sends my mind into inappropriate places it can not be in, not while Rory is on a mission.
Like he can read my mind, he sits on the stool, but it doesn’t help with my dirty mind, not when he spreads his legs, putting his feet on the foot rail, the material of his slacks stretching on his thick thighs.
“I bet I could convince you to spill a few,” I whisper, my words almost throaty. His throat bobs with the promise, and for a moment, I see it: a look of desire.
“Go back to work,” Rowan says to the bartender, low and gravelly, and not even averting his eyes from mine as he does. He’s so close I can feel his breath coasting along my skin, and I have to fight the full shiver that runs through me at it.
“Nice to meet you,” I say, also holding Rowan’s gaze. He mumbles something, but I don’t dare move as my heartbeat thrums with anticipation.
“Isn’t he a little young for you?” Rowan asks.
I raise my eyebrow and tip my head. “Excuse me?”
“That kid. A little young. And definitely not in the income bracket you normally go for.”
“You really do seem to pay quite a lot of attention to me and the people I spend time with, don’t you?”
His tongue runs over his teeth, and his eyes flare with irritation.
“Does it drive you crazy?” I ask, reaching over and touching the collar of his shirt, pretending to lay it flat. “That it’s never you?”
My voice is low and sexy even to my own ears, and for the first time, I see it happen in real-time: my impact on him. Some guard he normally keeps slammed down is up for a moment, and I can see everything.
I’ve burrowed so far under his skin, and he absolutely hates it.
“Not in the least.”
“Keep telling yourself that, but we both know you’re into me, Rowan, and you don’t know what to do about it.
” His jaw tightens, and I read every tiny shift of his body language that confirms my words.
“It’s probably better you try and keep your distance, though.
” I lean back into my stool, a playful, teasing smile on my lips.
“You couldn’t handle a girl like me,” I say low, and even though I still have my mask on, keeping my sultry spy facade in place, it suddenly doesn’t feel like a mask.
It feels like me, a playful, sexy woman flirting with a man, except there’s no hidden agenda for once.
I just want to watch him squirm and feel the thrill of the back and forth with him. That thrill tightens when a wolfish smile crosses his lips.
“Oh, I could handle you just fine, Josie.”
“Is that a threat?” I ask with a laugh.
“It’s a promise.”
My body comes alive with his words, with the images they evoke, with the memories of a dimly lit office and the sensation of his hands on me.
Just then, my phone pings with the sound that can only be Rory, forcing me to break eye contact and check it.
Rory: Hey. girly! We need to reapply sunscreen!
It’s code, just in case someone else gets a glimpse of my screen, but I know it means her task is done.
I’m to meet her back at the pool so we can casually pack up and then head to the room to confirm the transmission is successful.
Still, I don’t rush off, instead staying a few more moments, basking in the heady pull of Rowan’s gravity.
I take a long sip of my drink, savoring the sweetness and the light burn of the rum before setting it down.
He stares at me for another moment before, as if against his own free will, he says, “You’ve got something…”
He reaches up and brushes a thumb along my upper lip, sending chills through my body, chills that pool between my legs. “…right there.” When he pulls back, there’s a small smudge of whipped cream on the tip of his thumb.
I hesitate for the barest of moments before deciding fuck it . I reach up, wrapping my fingers around his wrist. Holding eye contact with him, I pull his hand toward me.
Then I put that thumb into my mouth and swipe my tongue over the sweet cream with much more diligence than is required. Fuck, even I am turned on by the show I’m putting on for him.
At least, that’s what I tell myself. It’s all a show, all some master plan to win him over, to win this game that we’ve got going on.
To get what I need from him, ever the man-eater.
When I release his wrist, his hand drops into his lap like he’s been burned, though his eyes are molten on me.
Slowly, because my legs feel like jelly, I grab my drink and stand.
“Well, I gotta head out. My friend is waiting for me,” I say, and my voice is almost inaudible now. A long beat passes as he stares at me before he speaks.
“Then I guess you should go,” he says. Without another word, I start to walk away, moving toward where Rory is waiting for me, but I feel his eyes burning on me with each step. This time, I lose the fight to not look at him at the last moment.
But I’m glad because when I look over my shoulder at him and confirm he was, in fact, staring at my ass the whole time, I give him a wide smile and get the privilege of watching that blush burn on his cheeks one last time.