Page 44 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

THIRTY

ROWAN

“Sorry about Rory, she’s very protective of me,” Josie says after we leave the restaurant.

“I don’t mind.” She looks up at me like she doesn’t believe me, and I shrug. “I like it. Clearly, she cares about you. That’s a good thing,” I tell her, meaning it.

She smiles softly before explaining. “She doesn’t usually get the opportunity to interrogate someone I’m into, so I think she saw the opportunity and ran with it.”

‘Because you avoid bringing them to her?” Silence hangs between us as we walk. As I take a left to go the quieter route to the beach, the one mostly employees take, I look at her. She’s biting her lip, contemplating what to say. “Or…?”

“I haven’t really had someone to bring to Rory. Not in a long time, at least.” A light blush blooms on her cheeks as my brow furrows.

“You haven’t?”

“I don’t really…” She closes her eyes like she’s about to make a confession, and I squeeze her hand, trying to reassure her. “I don’t really date. I haven’t found one yet that was worth my time enough that I wanted to introduce him to my friends. ”

“I see you on dates all the time,” I say, and regret it instantly when her face drops.

Fuck . I have to stop bringing that up, rubbing in her face the many times I’ve seen her out with other men.

Not only does it not matter, but it’s really not any of my business.

She wasn’t mine then; we didn’t have anything between us, and she’s an adult, able to do whatever she wants.

I open my mouth to argue, but she cuts me off.

“They’re…” she says, looking off into the distance and taking a deep breath before continuing. “Those dates aren’t what they seem.”

A part of me wonders what they are, but I don’t ask. It’s not my business, I remind myself.

“It doesn’t matter what you do with your life or who you date. Right now, you’re here with me, and that’s all I care about,” I tell her. It’s what I should have been telling her from the start, but we’ve already concluded that I’m both an idiot and an asshole.

Relief washes over her face, and she smiles up at me. In that moment, I realize my words are the truth: I don’t care what Josie is hiding, what secrets she’s keeping, so long as she’s by my side and smiling at me like she is right now. I return her smile and squeeze her hand as we continue to move.

“So you took time off work to come eat lunch with us,” Josie says, breaking the silence. She sounds satisfied and a bit amused by that fact.

“Yeah.” I take a moment to gather my thoughts and shift gears before adding, “I thought I’d feel guilty about it, but I don’t.

The world kept spinning, the business hasn’t fallen apart just because I didn’t supervise every single action,” I say.

“I’m starting to wonder if maybe there’s more to life than working. ”

I’m starting to believe that more to life is holding my hand and smiling up at me right now.

“Why do you sound so confused by that?” she asks with a laugh.

“Because I am.” I laugh as well, shrugging. “I don’t think I’ve ever said that before. I love work.”

“Except… ”

“Except there’s this brunette who I can’t stop thinking about, and every time I’m at work, all I can think about is spending more time with her.”

“She sounds pretty awesome.”

“She is,” I say. “I keep wanting to ask her out, except I’ve recently realized I don’t even have her number.” She turns her head, our steps slowing as we approach the entrance to the beach where I’m going to leave her.

“Maybe you should ask her for it,” she says. “Have you tried that?”

I shake my head with a smile.

It’s wild how light I feel when it’s just Josie and me, how when she looks at me like that, I forget that my world is on fire and nothing makes sense. For a split second, the world revolves around Josie and her smile and the warmth radiating from her.

I stop and use her hand in mine to tug her into my arms. She lets out a little oof! as she hits my chest, but her arms go to my neck instantly, warm fingers on bare skin sending a rush of need through me.

God, I’m so gone for this woman if that’s what a single touch does to me.

“Can I have your number, Josephine?”

Somehow, her smile widens, the dimple I fucking love going deep as she nods before reaching into my pocket for my phone. She lifts it, puts it to my face to unlock the screen, then raises an eyebrow at me.

It takes a moment before I realize why she’s hesitating, why she isn’t just inputting her number like I asked: she’s making sure she’s okay to use my phone.

The arm on her waist tightens before I move us, tugging her over and back into an empty alcove that’s hidden and spinning her until her back is to the wall.

Her eyes are wide when I settle my gaze on her, wanting to make sure she not only hears but understands what I’m going to say next.

“You can go through my phone anytime you want, Josie. Ten, twenty-four, eighteen.”

“What?”

“The code to my phone. Ten, twenty-four, eighteen.” Her lips part, and I have to fight the urge to kiss the look off her. “I trust you, Troublemaker.”

A flash moves through her eyes, maybe guilt at whatever secret I know she’s holding onto, before it’s gone, before a wide, genuine smile spreads over her lips.

She moves to her toes, pressing a soft, quick kiss to my lip before shifting her attention to my phone and sending a text to herself.

Her phone dings with a new message before she slides the phone back into my pocket.

When she smiles up at me, what little bit of resolve I had left melts away, and I dip my head and press my lips to hers. Instantly, her hands shift up, tangling in the hair at the back of my neck and pulling my face closer, deepening the kiss.

I shouldn’t do it. Really, I shouldn’t. But as I kiss her, her body shifts, and mine does too, and somehow, my thigh ends up between her legs, as I seem to find it doing more and more often lately, and I’m pressed against her heat, just a pair of tight spandex shorts separating her and my skin.

A breathy sound leaves her lips, moving straight to my cock as I grind into her.

I’m so desperate to feel her wrapped around me, even though I have a call soon and she has a class to get to. I shift to move back, to ensure the head on my shoulders is calling the shots rather than the one in my shorts. We can’t do anything. Not right now, I tell myself.

But then she’s moving away from me, moving to her knees before me, and looking up at me.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen that visual. Not even the second. But I’ve never seen that look of determination in her eyes before. My cock is hard in my shorts, and she smiles as she palms it through the silky material. I let out a quiet noise of pleasure as she does.

“Your turn this time,” she whispers.

“Josie,” I groan, but my words are stopped when she unzips my shorts before she slides her fingers under the waistband of my underwear and tugs them down just until my cock is free.

The elastic sits under my balls, adding additional pressure that has me biting back another moan.

That is a wasted effort, though, when her hand wraps around me, pumping.

My mouth is slack as I watch her wide eyes, her satisfied smile, and her small hand gripping and twisting a bit as she moves toward the head, somehow knowing exactly what I like.

“What are you doing, Josie?” I ask, looking around.

This alcove is dark and far out of the way—really, there’s no reason for anyone to be over here, though she has proven time and time again that guests don’t really care about that kind of thing.

My back is to the entrance, so even if someone did happen upon us, I’d be blocking the view of her.

Still, I can’t find it in me to care, surely not when her hot, wet tongue flattens on the tip of my cock.

Surely not when her plush lips wrap around it and suck.

She releases with a pop before smiling up at me. “What do you think?”

“I don’t—” I start, but then slowly, I watch as inch by inch of my cock slides into her mouth. Air leaves my chest as it does, and the warmth of her mouth has my balls tightening.

Her eyes are wide, locked on mine. Then she starts to move, bobbing up and down, my cock sliding deep into her throat, then back out as she sucks the tip.

My hand moves to rest on the back of her head, to guide her the same way she did me.

I don’t press, even though I want to, not wanting to break the moment, especially not since this is the first time we’ve done this.

But as seems to be the way with Josie, she looks at me and knows what I want.

Her hand moves to mine, grabbing it and wrapping my fingers around her ponytail as she continues to move her mouth over my length.

She wraps my fingers around her hair and makes me tug.

“Fuck, Josie ,” I rasp through gritted teeth, my cock twitching in her mouth and as much as she feasibly can around me, she smiles.

She likes getting to me, something only she has ever been able to do.

“Is that what you want, baby?” I rasp, low and gravelly. “You want me to fuck your face and pull your hair?”

She gives me a small nod and a moan of approval, something I feel more than hear.

I grit out a choked sound before doing as she asks, wrapping the length of her hair around my fist and pulling, using the grip to guide her head how I want it, to show her how I like it.

Her back arches, her full mouth muffling a moan as her eyes drift shut just a bit with pleasure.

I bet if I slipped my hand between her legs right now, I’d find her drenched. Her hand moves to my hip for balance as she continues to suck me, her head bobbing, her tits bouncing in her bra that has little support as she moves.

“Pull your top down,” I say, desperate to see her for the first time. I’m not even slightly disappointed: full breasts, tight pink nipples I want to play with, to suck, to pinch. I’m a bit preoccupied at the moment, but she…