Mastered by Malone (Haven, Texas 6)

“Mia, look at me.”

She couldn’t quite figure out why she wasn’t moving. She should head to her own bathroom, shower then sleep. Or maybe just sleep. She wanted a shower, but she didn’t know how she was going to manage it.

He grabbed hold of her chin, raising her face so he could look at her.

“You’re really beautiful,” she told him.

Whoops.

He smiled. Actually smiled. Alec Malone didn’t smile much. Not that she ever saw anyway.

“You shouldn’t smile.”

“What?” he asked, looking surprised. Why wouldn’t he? She was making absolutely no sense.

“When you smile you go from beautiful to irresistible. Shit. Didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

“Honey, you’re not yourself. And I’m not leaving you alone like this. So your choices are a shower with me then bed or I run you a bath and you have one while I shower then bed.”

Some choices.

She didn’t want to wait until the bath filled. “I want a shower by myself.”

“That wasn’t one of your options, now was it?”

Shit. His voice had turned to steel. And she was weak. Weak because she couldn’t resist when he used that tone.

“What’s it going to be, baby?”

“Please stop calling me that.” Because she couldn’t resist him when he called her that in that low tone of voice. As though they actually meant something to one another. As though they had some sort of relationship. When, in reality, she was just an obligation. A debt to be repaid.

Tears stung at her eyes and she blinked, shoving them back. Nothing good came from crying. She’d learned that.

“This is going above and beyond, isn’t it?” she asked. That fatigue was really hitting her now and it was making her feel melancholy. Because the only reason he cared about her was the obligation his family owed her cousin. No other reason. And while his brothers might be friendlier, she was still just a guest. When she left she’d just be a memory. Hell, mostly, they were more interested in her cooking than anything else.

But sometimes she could pretend she was part of this crazy family. It made her feel less alone.

“You’re really not with me, are you?” he murmured. “Okay, sweetheart, I want you to just relax. I’m going to make all the decisions right now and all you have to do is what you’re told.”

“You like to boss people around, don’t you?” she mumbled.

“It’s what I’m good at.”

With that, he pulled off his jeans.

She immediately slammed her hands over her eyes. “You have no underwear on. Why don’t you have any underwear on?”

“Mia,” he laughed. “Jesus, in all my years, me stripping has never made a woman cover her eyes and ask me about my habit of wearing underwear.”

She got that her reaction was maybe a little childish. And probably more than a little insulting. But he was naked. Alec Malone, the man who centered in so many of her dreams was standing there naked.

And she . . . she was standing there in her underwear, covering her eyes like an idiot.

“This . . . I . . . shit.”

“Second time I’ve ever heard you swear,” he commented. “Not sure I like it.”

She removed her hand from her eyes, looking straight up at him. “Fuck.”