Page 69 of Maneater (The Mavens #1)

FORTY-SIX

JOSIE

I knock on Rowan’s door after Rory and I finish setting up last-minute details for tomorrow.

Rowan came up and spent most of the day helping us, contacting different people to try to get our idea rolling.

Before he had to leave for a meeting, he told me to meet him in his room when I was done.

There’s a good chance this is our last night in paradise—or at least, the last one where we won’t be celebrating a closed case and Rowan won’t inevitably be doing major damage control to decide how to deal with the employees who had a hand in all of this, and I desperately want to spend it with Rowan.

It’s our last night in this bubble before life goes back to normal, or whatever the new normal is, and despite Rowan’s reassurance that we’ll make things work, I can’t help but feel a twinge of nervousness.

“Coming,” the voice behind the door says, and I smile, looking down the hall once more to ensure no one is around.

Rowan’s suite is down an empty hall, though, so I don’t have to really worry about anything.

When the door opens, Rowan is standing there in a casual pair of shorts and a Daydream T-shirt.

I smile, but then my brow furrows in confusion.

The lights are off, though there seems to be some flickering behind him and maybe… fairy lights?

“Wha—” I start, but his hand moves out, wrapping my wrist and tugging me into his dark hotel room.

“What is going on?” I ask as I take in the living room of his suite, which has four tables scattered about, each filled with food and drink, though each area has a clearly distinct vibe.

One has white linens, tapered candles, and champagne flutes, with a salmon dinner on each plate.

On another low table, there’s some kind of fried noodle dish and a bottle of sake.

A third table features what I think must be mozzarella sticks, pizza, and beer, while the final table includes steak and what appear to be truffle fries, a bottle of wine, and large, crystal goblets.

“What is this?” I ask with a laugh. Somehow, he’s put together this big…

feast, yet I can’t rack my brain through all of the conversations we’ve had to figure out what he’s doing or why.

He moves closer to me, putting a hand to my lower back, and I look at him and see there’s…

nerves on his face. My unflappable man is nervous .

His hand lifts, and he tucks a piece of my hair back before resting his hand on the back of my neck.

“This is four of the twenty-one dates I should have taken you on.”

My body stills, and I continue to stare at him, confusion mixing with eager anticipation in my veins. Whatever is happening right now, I know to my bones I’ll remember it until the day I die. Cherish it, even.

“What?”

“I bumped into you twenty-one times before I had a drink with you in the bar.” Goose bumps erupt over my arms, and his hand moves down, rubbing them away absentmindedly before continuing to explain.

“Twenty-one opportunities I could have tried to take you out, to win you over.” My stomach flutters as I start to understand, start to put the pieces together.

“If I hadn’t been such an idiot who let his bruised ego get in the way, I probably would have been more persistent.

” The hand on my back presses, tugging me into his chest, and my hand moves around his neck instinctively.

He looks down at me with warm, open eyes, and I see the truth in every single word he’s saying.

“I’ll still owe you at least seventeen more after this, not including all of the other dates I plan to take you on.

” My breathing hitches with his words. “This is just my way of saying I know we should have been this…me and you…a lot longer, but I was too stubborn to take a step. It’s on me, and I’m going to make every effort to make it up to you. ”

I shake my head then. “You don’t have to do this, Rowan,” I say with a soft laugh. “I also am to blame.”

Now it’s his turn to shake his head, but with less humor and more fierceness. “As far as you knew, I was an asshole for no reason.”

My hand moves, cupping his cheek. “And as far as you knew, I wasn’t into you and lied about not dating people.”

He shrugs. “The difference is, if you told me that right now, if you said you didn’t date, it wouldn’t stop me. I’d keep asking. Five times, ten, twenty-one times until I convinced you to give me the smallest shot, to let me in.”

“That’s kind of obsessive,” I say with a laugh.

“That’s because I’m completely obsessed with you, and even though I couldn’t admit it to even myself until recently, I’ve been obsessed with you for some time.

If I had paid attention for just a single moment, I would have realized the world was throwing me a million chances to find my person finally. ”

I swallow emotion before giving him a small smile, my thumb grazing over his sharp cheekbone.

“You’re such a romantic,” I whisper in awe.

“No, no. I’m not.”

“Look around, Rowan. This is a romantic grand gesture at its finest.”

He gives me a soft chuckle and shakes his head. “I’m not a romantic. I’m just wild for you.”

My heart thumps, but I can’t let him think he’s totally won me over, despite us both knowing the truth, so I smile and tip my head.

“You bumped into me twenty-two times, but I only get twenty-one dates?”

He smiles wide. “The twenty-second time I bumped into you was a date. We drank, we talked, I dragged you into an office and made you come. It was our first date, even.” My jaw drops and my eyes widen.

He laughs at the shock on my face before his head dips, pressing a kiss to my neck.

“That’s exactly how you would have wanted that date to go, and you know it. ”

I roll my eyes, but he doesn’t miss the shiver that rolls through me.

“I would have preferred you fucked me, but—” I start, but he cuts me off.

“Then we’ll recreate it the right way when we get back.”

I let out a loud, free laugh, my heart full and light at the same time, the way I always find myself feeling when I’m around Rowan. Even when I used to see him out and dread how he could blow my cover, I also anticipated it. Wanted it. Craved the back and forth of it. Craved him .

God, I am so gone for this man. And I think I always have been.

“Promise?” I ask in a whisper.

“Promise,” he agrees. We stand there for a moment, and I contemplate forcing him to take me to his bed and fuck me, but then I remember the intricately planned date— dates around us.

“So, these dates—you gonna explain them?”

He grins down at me and nods, leading me around the room, starting at the table with no tablecloth and paper plates.

“This would have been After Hours. Pizza, mozzarella sticks, cheap beer,” he says, referencing the restaurant on campus that pretended to be a restaurant but was really just a dive where students could eat junk and hang out.

There’s a Go Raven s pennant on the table, cheering on our school team, and my chin wobbles, understanding this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision of his.

“Where did you get that?” I ask. “ When did you get that?”

“I ordered it the day after you explained what happened all those years ago. That you didn’t even remember turning me down, and I’d been holding a one-sided grudge like an idiot.”

“You knew you wanted to do this then?” I ask with a laugh.

“I knew I needed to.”

Something in me melts, but I can’t focus on it because he leads me to another spot in the room.

“This is the restaurant where I technically had dinner with you and Stephen. You ordered the salmon and potatoes with green beans.” I laugh and shake my head, remembering that was what, in fact, I had ordered that night, mainly because, despite being excited about it, Rowan being there and the nerves that accompanied it made me lose my appetite.

He moves us to the low table, pointing out that when he bumped into me there, I was in a red dress and barely even said hi to my date because he couldn’t keep his eyes away from me.

Then he shows me the final table, a steak house where I took a man who was embezzling, and Rowan was so mad about it because he already knew the man was a piece of shit.

“How do you remember all of this?” I ask after he shows me each table.

He shrugs, a light blush on his cheeks. “I can’t seem to forget a single detail about you, Josie, no matter how hard I’ve tried.”

I turn to him and smile up at him softly, my hand moving to his cheek as it all comes over me. The past few weeks, the revelation that has been Rowan, the fact that we both want this to work outside of this mission—it hits me with such clarity, it makes my throat tighten.

“This is going to work,” I whisper.

“What?” His brows furrow, not understanding.

I shake my head and smile wider before explaining. “After the assignment, you and I. We’re going to work.”

He returns the smile now, pressing his lips to mine gently. “I’m going to make sure of it. I’m not losing something this great, Josie,” he whispers. I have to fight back the lump in my throat. He must see it because he changes the subject. “Now, where do you want to eat tonight?”

I look around the room, around the five-star meals that were created specially for me, for this moment.

“You know, I could really go for some mozzarella sticks,” I say, and he lets out a loud laugh. But he doesn’t question me, doesn’t try to sway me toward any of the other more luxurious meals; instead, he grabs my hand and leads me to have dinner like we’re young lovers in college.

And even though I do end up tasting all of the meals, our first missed date was my favorite.