Page 82 of Can't Get Enough

I still, the shot glass trembling in my unsteady hands. I set the glass and the bottle down and close my eyes.

“I’m not doing this,” I grit out, refusing to look at him lest I mount him again and go grinding for round two. “I’ve seen women make this mistake too many times. Choose good dick right now over what’s best for them in the long run.”

“You haven’t even tried it yet,” he says, some degree of levity finally threading through his voice. “How do you know it’s good?”

“Don’t.” I turn to face him and shove my hands in my pockets. “Don’t play with me right now.”

“The way I want you,” he says, the tiny trace of humor disintegrating. “What I want with you—that shit’s serious. I’m not playing, Hen.”

“Do you think Zere will work with me on this show if we start…” I gesture toward the sectional, the scene of our hunching crime. “Doing that? It’s not just me to consider. Chapel deserves this chance.”

“And doyouthink Zere is the only way you can get a TV show made?” He stands and walks over to me, his gait confident and powerful.

“What do you want?” he asks, stopping in front of me, cupping my face and holding my eyes. “I’ll get it for you.”

I jerk away, his words like a bucket of cold water on my overheated body.

“Why do I need you to get something for me I’m already doing for myself?” I snap. “What? I bet everything onyou? Fuck you for a few months till you’re bored and off to the next supermodel, meanwhile I’ve ruined something I actually worked for and earned on my own?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” He rubs a hand over the back of his neck and blows his frustration out on an extended breath. “I shouldn’t have made it sound like… I respect your work and your choices, Hendrix.”

“I like Zere. When a lot of people would have written Chapel off for her differences, she saw her light the way I do. We both believe in her and think this show could do something really special, that women out there who haven’t been affirmed will see themselves on-screen as beautiful and worthy when they see Chapel. Zere and I share a vision for that. I want to do this show withher.”

“Zere’s amazing. I never said she wasn’t, and I think she’d be the perfect partner, but she shouldn’t be able to dictate your private life.”

“Not even when my ‘private life’ is with the man she’s still in love with?”

“She’s not,” he scoffs. “We broke up a full month before that party in Miami.”

“What?” I do math in my head, retabulating everything I thought I knew about their history. I suspected they’d broken up before the press release, of course, but a full month?

“Yeah, and things had been falling apart for a long time before that,” Maverick presses on. “Because we fundamentally wanted different things and came to a fork in the road. We couldn’t escape that reality anymore.”

“Just because she chose having a family over having you doesn’t mean she’soveryou or that she’d be okay with us seeing each other.”

“How will you know if we don’t even ask?” He caresses my cheek, his touch firm and gentle on my skin.

I jerk back, afraid that if I allow even that simple touch, it won’t stop there.

“As soon as I ask, everything changes, Mav.” I shake my head. “No, it breaks girl code.”

“You’re a grown-ass woman, Hendrix, not a girl. And isn’t girl code for friends? I’ve known Zere for years, and I’d never heard your name before that party. You are, at best, business associates beginning a friendship.”

“You think those technicalities will make a difference when it comes down to it?”

“She was out with some other dude just days ago. She’s moved on. I’m ready to move on,” he says. “Look, I didn’t think I’d want this again, a relationship yet, but I met you. That changed everything.”

Hearing that makes me want to melt, but I steel myself against his arguments and the emotions. There was a tiny part of me that dared to hope when I saw Zere dating again, but I’m not convinced it will makea difference. And I don’t think I could blame her if she objected to me starting with her ex. I’d probably feel the same way in her position.

“I really didn’t mean to sound like some sugar daddy who thinks he can buy your way into television.” There is self-deprecation in the twist of his lips and his sigh. “I know you’d never look for that. I respect what you’re doing. Hell, why do you think I want you? Besides being gorgeous, you’re brilliant and generous and principled and industrious.”

This man could talk me into my own bed if I let him. It would probably be the best sex of my life. He would probably be the best at many things, only making it harder to walk away when I need to. And walking away from a man, putting my needs first, has never been a problem for me. I won’t start now.

I walk briskly to the door and open it wide.

“There are plenty of other women who are all those things,” I say, nodding toward the empty hall. “I’m sure one of them will be more than happy to fuck you and let you buy them a career in television ’cause it won’t be me.”

“Hendrix, don’t—”

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