Page 5 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

FOUR

ROWAN

The first time I met Josie, I was enamored.

The second time, I was annoyed.

This is the twenty-second time I’ve bumped into her. Each time I left feeling slightly different, but this is the first time I’m leaving with blue balls.

Never in my life have I regretted my job or the way I’ve pushed every personal want and desire aside to continue to climb the ladder, but there is a first time for everything.

Because right now, my phone is sounding off with the ringtone for the line my assistant is only to use if and when there is an emergency.

Sutton is probably pacing her apartment right now, sending every curse she can think of my way for not answering immediately, but I can’t find it in me to care.

An extra minute in this woman’s presence isn’t going to impact whatever the issue is.

So instead of answering, I reach over to the desk and grab Josie’s panties that I threw there earlier.

I have to send Dante a bottle of something really nice for letting me use his office as I kneel before her, stretching them for her to step back into.

I’ve never been on my knees for a woman, but my fucking god, the way she looks down at me like she knows she could own me if she asked nicely makes my already hard cock throb.

She lifts a leg, placing it into the underwear before repeating the move with her second, and slowly, gently, reverently, I slide the fabric up her legs, making sure to graze my thumb along her pussy as I do.

Yeah. Still wet.

Fuck this job .

I make sure the black lace thong is situated perfectly on her hips before tugging the hem of her dress back down, all the while ignoring my phone and standing.

Then I pull her into my arms, taking in her sweet, floral perfume.

I’ve smelled it a dozen times when I’ve interrupted one of her many dates with colleagues and acquaintances, the scent of it haunting me each time.

Just like the woman now in my arms.

“Your number,” I murmur, pressing my lips to her neck, her pulse thrumming against my skin.

I haven’t ever felt such a pull to a woman like this, this undeniable need to touch her, to taste her.

Considering that no woman has interested me enough to make me put my work aside for even a moment, this feels monumental.

Despite myself, I want more of her. It feels like an idiotic move to let this go. I like the way she pushes my buttons and the way I can push hers back without her getting offended. I like the way that she’s clearly attracted to me yet doesn’t throw herself at me like some women I encounter do.

The truth is, I could get any woman I wanted, but I never jump at the offers. That would be far too simple. Instead, I want the one who incites a violently possessive need in me each time I see her sitting across from some other man I know is an ass.

“Give me your number. We’ll finish this another time. We’ll have a real dinner and drinks.”

And then I’ll take you home to a real bed and fuck you until you’re out of my system.

“No,” she whispers, a bit of a tease in the word before she steps back.

The room is dim, but I can see a smile playing on her lips as my phone continues to ring shrilly.

Each one is a reminder that normally, I’d push whoever I’m with aside to answer it, but for the first time since I started working at Daydream Resorts, someone else holds the priority.

“No?” I ask, confused. Her smile widens as she takes another step back, her hands moving to her clothes to straighten the skin-tight dress I would do just about anything to be able to tear off of her.

There’s something so magnetic about her, something that pulls me so when I saw her sitting across from Stephen Jones months ago, I knew I needed to talk to her.

Josie is nothing like the women who fawn and faint around me, batting their lashes and pouting their lips.

Instead, she challenges everything I say and practically begs me to argue with her, instantly knowing how to press my buttons in ways I shouldn’t like, but I do all the same.

“If you want me bad enough…a big, powerful man like you…you’ll find me.”

The words, like everything about her, are so unexpected, they stop me in my tracks. “Find you?”

She’s fluffing her hair as she reaches for the bag I didn’t realize had slid to the floor when we entered, a playful smile on her lips. That’s when it hits me: she’s really going to leave without giving me her number.

She shrugs before responding. “Yeah. If you want me, find me.”

“I don’t chase women,” I say, my mind muddled with the incessant fucking ringing and the way she’s staring at me and the throbbing of my cock that should be deflating, but my god, she’s still in the room. I can still feel the ghost of her on my fingers, still hear her breathy moans in my ears.

“Well, then, thank you for the orgasm, Rowan.” That smile has gone wide as she reaches for the doorknob.

Despite my better thinking, I stand quickly, reaching her and pinning her to the wall beside the door before she can leave. That smile is still playing on her pink lips, and it takes everything in me not to kiss her again.

“You’re really not going to give me your number?”

“You’re really not going to put in the effort to find me?” she counters in a whisper.

“I’m a busy man, Josie. I don’t have time for games.”

Something flashes in her eyes, and then she moves, dipping under my arm, smiling, and pulling open the door for good this time.

“Then it sounds like you’re too busy for a woman like me. Thanks again.”

And then she’s gone.

I stand there in shock for long moments before coming to my senses.

I’m already annoyed when I answer my phone and sit down in Dante’s chair.

But when I finally take a moment to look at the screen of my phone, I realize it’s not Sutton calling.

Instead, it’s the emergency line for the resorts.

My stomach drops as I tap the screen to answer and bring it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Hi, Mr. Fisher, I’m so sorry to bother you,” the voice on the other end of the line says, clearly a bit panicked. “But there’s been an accident at the resort, and they’re starting to worry the employees.” My heart drops.

“A fire?” I ask when Annette picks up thirty minutes later.

It’s long past her bedtime, I’m sure, but I used my own emergency line to call her, and considering it sounds like she’s been keeping things from me, I’m not in the mood for niceties.

“And an allergic reaction?” I expect some stuttering or lies or, at the very least, an apology for keeping this vital information from me, but I don’t get that at all.

Instead, the CEO of Daydream Resorts and my mentor, Annette Rhodes, sighs. “Let me guess: Chris called you.”

Chris, the manager of the East Coast locations, did, in fact, call me.

“Well, you sure as fuck weren’t going to,” I say, driving far too fast to my place. I closed my tab quickly upon leaving the office, knowing I needed to get home and pack.

“I’ve got it covered, Rowan.”

There’s exhaustion in her voice, confirming that she was in fact asleep or close to it when I called, but I really don’t care.

I held off on calling her until I got the full picture, texting or calling everyone at the impacted location I had contacts for, only to find the situation is way worse than I thought.

“Do you? Because from what I’m hearing, there have been no less than four incidents in the last three weeks, and the most recent was an allergic reaction at the spa that required hospitalization two days ago.”

A small gasp comes from the other end of the line. “What?”

“Oh, I guess you haven’t heard that one,” I say with a laugh lacking humor.

“I called Jonas, and he told me all about it. I’m glad someone decided I should be in on this.

” Jonas, the head of security, is the only person I personally vetted and hired.

When I got in contact with him, he told me there have been multiple issues at the Keys location, not just this fire.

“He also told me when he called to tell you he was worried something nefarious was happening that you told him not to worry you with it, and you’d handle it. ”

That was the most infuriating part of the call—that whatever was happening had been a known issue, and Annette had intentionally excluded me from it.

She lets out a deep sigh before responding to my accusation.

“You’re working on the opening for Malibu. This wasn’t vital. I’ve got it covered.”

I groan, knowing that’s not the case. I love Annette, but she constantly works with a best-case-scenario mindset, rather than a realistic one.

“How? How do you have this covered?”

“I’ve hired an outside investigation party to do some digging. I have full confidence that in the next two weeks, we’ll find the source of this and resolve it.”

She must be referring to Wilde Security, the company that established our security and safety procedures for each resort, ensuring that our elite and celebrity clientele receive the most confidential experience, if that’s what they desire.

Her solution does appease me. A bit.

“In the meantime, Daniel has been instructed to talk to each department about any oddities that may have been occurring so we can get a better idea of the span of this.” Daniel is the general manager of the Keys location, and although he isn’t my biggest fan, I can’t say he isn’t good at this job.

“I’m still headed there,” I say, putting my car into park and swinging the door open before heading to the elevator that will take me to my penthouse overlooking Hudson City.

“It’s not necessary, Rowan.”

“You’re the one who taught me there is no better way to keep track of things than by having boots on the ground. I’m going, even if it’s just to oversee things for a bit. I’ll work from the office there.”