“Not sulking.” He took a drink and looked her over. Whatever she saw in his gaze made her lick her lips, spurring new fantasies about what he wanted to do with that mouth of hers. “You’re making new friends I see.” He gestured toward the bar where asshole cowboy was.
“Oh, that’s Rob. He seems nice enough. Getting me a drink.”
“I’m sure he is.”
She frowned. “Is there a problem? You seem grouchy. Huck warned me you were in a mood.”
Oh, he was in a mood all right. She brushed her hand along her collarbone again, and Bass had no choice but to watch and wish to hell it was him touching that sweet skin.
“I’m trying to figure out why the hell you’re dressed like that.”
“You don’t like it?” she said, her sarcasm evident in her tone. She glanced down at herself, knowing damn well he liked her outfit. Every man in there did. “What would you dress me in then?”
“That’s not my decision to make.”
“What if it were?”
Whatever she knew about him, she was using it right then. She knew his love of control and how to tempt him with it. He’d dress her all right. In nothing but those heels and restraints on her wrists. He stayed silent, too afraid he might reveal his true thoughts.
“Nothing to say?” she asked. Again, he stayed quiet. “Other than you not liking my outfit, right?”
“Correct.”
“I would expect better lying from an attorney.”
He kept his eyes on her. If that’s how she wanted to do this, he was game. He could play. And he could win. Like he had every other time she’d come at him with attitude.
“Are you trying to get a rise out of me?”
“No,” she said, taking his drink from his hand and swallowing it in one gulp. “I’m trying to get you to admit the truth.”
“And what truth is that?”
She ran her fingertip along the empty glass he held. “That you want me.”
“You think so?”
She nodded. “I saw the way you looked at me.” She leaned in. “The way you’ve been looking at me.”
He took a deep breath. So she was challenging him. This was a game. Like it had been when they played Sardines. She’d call him out, and he’d shut her down.
“You think I want you, darlin’?”
The smile she unleashed was so devilishly sexy he was certain he’d imagined it.
She placed her hands on her hips and looked him dead in the eye. “I know you do.”
Damn, confidence was a good look on her. Made him think for a moment she might be able to handle the hedonist he was deep down.
“Even if you were right, what would your brother say about that?”
“Ryder has nothing to do with this.”
“There is no this.”
She bit her bottom lip. It was more of an insecure gesture than the licking, but it still made his dick hard just watching her teeth nibble the plump flesh.
“S-so, you don’t want me?”