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Page 24 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

SIXTEEN

JOSIE

When I get back to Rory, we hang out for a bit at the pool before heading to the room to debrief.

There, I tell her about what the bartender told me, adding a new suspect and notes to our files, and she confirms that the transmission of the bug she planted is working correctly.

I also fill her in on seeing Rowan again and the way he seems to keep showing up every time I’m trying to conduct any kind of investigation, though neither of us knows what it means or if we could work it to our advantage, just that we need to keep an eye on it.

We stay in for the rest of the night, Rory continuing to try and hack into the systems and succeeding on some smaller things, like the reservation systems.

I’m rinsing my face after scrubbing it clean that night when there’s a knock at the front door.

I give my partner a semi-confused look in the mirror before drying my face and walking to the door, opening it a crack.

A young man in a hotel uniform, maybe nineteen or twenty, is standing there with a bored expression, a box in his hand.

“Hi, I have a delivery for Ms. Montgomery?” the employee says, and I tip my head just a hair .

“That’s me.” He shoves the box in my direction without another word. “Uh, thank you,” I say, reaching for the box and accepting it gently. The employee nods and gives a half-hearted smile before walking away down the hall, before I can even think to tip him.

I step back into the room, letting the door close behind me with a loud slam. Rory grabs the card from the top of the box and sits on the couch before I can say anything. I sit beside her as she reads it, the heavy box in my hands.

“Looks like I found you,” Rory reads aloud, her tone filled with confusion.

I grab the card from her hands and skim it over with my eyes before letting the warmth of the words wash over me.

J-

Looks like I found you after all.

-R

It seems Rowan’s not nearly as immune to my charms as I thought.

“What does that mean?” Rory asks, breaking into my thoughts. I stare at the card for a few moments longer before answering.

“At the bar, he asked for my number before he left. I said no. I said he was a powerful man; if he wanted me bad enough, he could find me.”

Rory’s lips twitch with a smile. “That’s such a Josie move.”

I return the grin before shifting my gaze to the box in my lap.

I lift the lid from the box and see the bottle of whisky he drank at the bar, and I do my best to ignore the flutter of butterfly wings in my belly at the sight.

Once again, Rory spots another small card inside before I do, grabbing it and reading it aloud.

“Since you seemed to like the taste last time. ” She looks up at me, confused again, though my body is reacting with need at those few words. “Were you playing him? You hate this stuff.”

I remember the way he tasted when we kissed, and my pussy clenches.

Oh, I am so fucked. The realization is even clearer when I feel a warm blush burn over my cheeks.

“He drank it at the bar. I told him I wasn’t a fan, but when he kissed me...” I pause and swallow. “When he kissed me, he asked if I liked the taste of it then. On his lips.”

She lets out a low whistle, clearly impressed, before using the box lid to fan herself.

I grab the card from where she placed it on the coffee table, reading the words scrawled on the heavy cream cardstock. I know instinctively that it wasn’t written by some gift shop attendant or an assistant. Rowan took the time to write it himself.

“Is this him not interested in you?” Rory asks with a laugh.

I smile, unable to fight it.

“He said he couldn’t have dinner with me because he would be fraternizing with a guest. But he was clearly jealous at dinner. And at the bar. And now this.” A beat passes in silence as I try to reconcile this new information with what we already know about him before Rory breaks the silence.

“Is it weird that I’m suddenly finding a bottle of alcohol hot?” Rory asks.

“From him? No.” I sigh, setting the box aside and flopping back on the couch, my mind reeling.

“That’s it. He’s our in,” Rory says a minute into my spiral.

My mind is still lost on the way Rowan’s eyes ate up every curve of my body, the way his voice got low—half threat, half promise—and the way my body responded to it in a heartbeat.

The heat that flared in his eyes as I surprised him by putting his thumb in my mouth.

The way my pulse pounds a bit when he’s around, the way I want him to like me.

That last part is the most worrisome.

Men don’t impact me, not that way. I am always in control of whatever lust I feel. I’m the one being lusted after. I’m not the one lusting for someone. Not to say that I don’t have my own moments of desire and need: I do, obviously. They’re just on my terms.

“What?” I ask, still in a haze and trying to rationalize with myself.

“He’s VP of Operations, Josie. He knows everything about everyone. He could be useful to us. He’s our in. He’s your target.” My heart skips a beat with panic.

“I don’t know—” I start, uneasy at the thought.

“Look, either we focus on him, and it is him, and then we solve this problem right off the cuff—” I open my mouth to argue, to tell my friend that we both know it isn’t him, but she smiles and shakes her head, speaking over me.

“ Or you can use him for intel, and you can hook up with him and finally get laid.” My eyes widen with her words.

“Excuse me?—”

“When was the last time you got laid?”

“What does that?—”

“Josephine.”

I scrunch up my nose at my full name. For her benefit, I try to think back, but unfortunately, I’m unable to.

“He made me come, like, three days ago,” I say, avoiding the question obviously. She gives me a don’t be obtuse kind of look that she has perfected.

“We both know that’s not enough for you. You need insertion every few months to be happy, and it’s been a while for you.”

“Excuse me?!” I ask, sitting up.

“Tell me I’m wrong.” I glare, but unfortunately, she’s not wrong. I do enjoy sex, and it has been a while. Because she’s not wrong, I change my angle.

“And you don’t?” She instantly shakes her head.

“No. I DIY it on the regular. Men annoy me. You thrive off the blood of men.” I let out a loud laugh and flop back once more on the couch. “But Rowan would be the ultimate catch for you,” she insists.

“You’re out of your mind.” Still, the idea is enticing, and I should probably be a bit more concerned by how my mind doesn’t immediately balk at it.

But why would I? He’s attractive, and he’s an expert on the case I’m currently working on. Getting close to him is exactly what I would do on any other assignment. I need to remind myself of that.

“But won’t that be an issue? If I’m flirting with everyone and trying to start something with him?”

“Never has in the past.” She stares at me before her tone softens. “In any other circumstance, a man like him was into you; you’d be playing the game to get closer to him, find out more,” Rory says, echoing my thoughts, and hearing it in her voice makes it more reasonable somehow.

“Okay…” I say slowly, then nod. “Okay. Yeah. That makes sense.”

“You have to get close to him. Or closer .”

“Easier said than done. He’s already skeptical of me. If I start showing up in places, he’s going to get suspicious. I need an excuse to get him alone, an excuse to talk to him without him questioning it.”

“Didn’t you say the hiking excursions were his idea?

The article said he picked this location partially because of that, and Horace said he was disappointed it wasn’t turned into a golfing range.

” I nod. “I wonder if he goes to them, the excursion fitness classes. Guests aren’t allowed to go out on their own, and while he doesn’t seem like the type to follow the rules, maybe he also thinks he isn’t above the safety rules. ”

“Couldn’t hurt,” I say, thinking that, regardless, a hike might be a good idea both to clear my mind and get some information on the different excursions, especially with what the bartender told me about Jeff.

Rory goes to her computer, probably accessing the reservation processing system, hacking away in a way I find almost mythical, before she looks up at me and smiles.

“Fish, fish, we go our wish. It’s like the spy gods smiled down on us: there’s one more spot on tomorrow morning’s hike, and wouldn’t you know it, Rowan Fisher is on the list.”

“Looks like I’m going hiking tomorrow,” I say with a smile, pushing down the nervous energy that sits in my stomach. If I just ignore it, it will go away.

Right?

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