“Excuse me?”
She was going for it. For him. For no other reason than she just wanted him. Smart, stupid or crazy, she was going to have this man. And she’d use every piece of power she had to get him.
“I see the way you look at me. I know men, Deputy, and I know what your mind was turning out.”
“I don’t know what you think this will get you, Mia, but I assure you I wasn’t thinking anything.”
“Oh no?” She tugged on his belt again, causing his body to press against hers, and felt his hard cock against her stomach. “I don’t believe you.”
He looked down at her for a long moment, those dark eyes flickering with something hot. Something dangerous. Something Mia wanted to grab hold of and experience.
Because this man pissed her off.
He also got her wet by just shooting a look her way. It was obvious he was always in control. Which is why it took her longer to figure him out. His shoulders were always squared and his jaw always set. His persona spoke volumes. But that’s all it was, a persona. And Mia was about to call bullshit on the Deputy.
“What is your end goal here, Mia?”
“Is that how everything is with you? Some planned out list of bullet points that ends in…” she swayed her hips enough to rub against his erection, “a satisfying completion?”
His breath went a little ragged. So she pushed further.
She lifted her chin and skimmed her lips against his jaw when she said, “What if my end goal is you?”
“That doesn’t sound logical or obtainable.”
She leaned back enough to look him in the eye. He was a tough one to crack. Mia knew he was close, but Tatum with all his control, wasn’t pulling away.
She had to give him credit though. Maybe he wasn’t like the others, because he’d be in her pants right now. Instead he was arguing logic? He was a man. And he wanted her. That was obvious. Now just time to make him admit it.
She looked into his eyes and it made sense.
“Oh, I get it,” she said. “You’re repressed.”
He frowned, then scoffed and shifted his weight. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Oh, but she did. This was Mia’s specialty. Reading men. She didn’t have to sleep with them to know exactly what they were thinking. She just had to observe them.
“I do know, Deputy.” She slowly walked her fingers up his torso and he flexed beneath her touch. The man was strong, those ridges of muscles he was hiding under that shirt made her mouth water, but she stayed focused. Her mission was to break the starchy Deputy and take back the upper hand.
“I bet you like women who are delicate,” walk, walk, “the kind of women who ask you to make love to them,” walk, “with the lights out, missionary style, nothing too kinky.”
A small growl came from his chest.
She grinned, obviously hitting a nerve. “Oh, you don’t like that?” she mocked, walking her fingers just a bit higher until she reached his chest. “You obviously have your mind made up about me…about my kind.” She threw his words back at him, feeling more powerful by the moment. “You see Deputy,” she leaned in until her mouth was inches from his. “I wouldn’t ask you to lay me down and gently make love to me.” She flicked his bottom lip with her tongue. “I’d deman
d you to fuck me until I screamed.”
Whatever dam the Deputy was clinging to, burst.
His mouth closed the last piece of space between them and delivered a sizzling kiss so hot, it made Mia gasp.
That growl she’d heard earlier? Was now rumbling his chest. He thrust his tongue into her mouth and the way he moved his lips over hers, consuming, dominating, made her knees weak. He gave in. Just like she thought. Hoped. And she couldn’t stop from giving in back.
She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, kissing him back with all the raw need she felt. But when he slid that skilled mouth down her neck and started biting her pulse point, her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she knew she had unleashed something dark in Tate. And she was excited to experience it.
He backed her against the wall and kicked apart her feet. She spread her legs enough for him to wedge himself between them. Her skirt rode high. His jeans scratched her inner thighs and she grinded her hips against him. God she was crazed for him. Kissing, nipping, clawing. Anything she could do to get a better feel, a deeper drink of him.
Tate stoked a fire she long thought smothered. And she wanted that fire back. Wanted him. Bad. Despite the reasons not to and despite the fact that she technically kind of hated him.