Page 67 of Maneater
I nod.
“Now, while I’m doing this, tell me what happened,” she instructs. “After Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome dragged you off.”
I feel my cheeks flame. I suddenly feel shy, which is so wildly out of character for me. I tell myself it’s because I’ve never done this before, gotten involved while on the job, but deep down, I know it’s because it involvesRowan.
“What do you mean?”
Rory gives me a head-to-toe look before smiling wide and shaking her head, her fingers still moving on her keyboard like some kind of robot.
“Did you get laid?”
“No,” I say, my fingers moving to my necklace and playing with it, trying to distract myself.
She finally stops typing and continues to look me over, assessing like a mother trying to test her daughter for lies.
“Yeah, you don’t have theI finally got dicklook about you. But you do have…a look.” I continue to stare, knowing that avoiding her eyes will just make her more suspicious, and then, finally, she smiles. “He made you come? Ate you out?” A blush burns on my cheeks. “God, I’m good at this.” She laughs before looking back at her computer screen. “Still nothing for him?”
I roll my eyes. “No, he also got the SOS call and had to leave before I could return the favor.”
“Was it good?”
I nod. “Sogood, Rory. Like shouldn’t be legal, good.”
She smiles then, and my mind wanders over the last few hours and how it felt like Rowan and I had actually made…progress. He clearly still is suspicious of me, but I think he’s moving past it. But it puts me in such a strange spot, making my stomach tie in knots.
Rory continues to look at me, reading my face before her brows furrow. “What’s wrong? I thought it was good?”
“I like him,” I whisper, almostashamedto say it.
“Glad you can finally admit it,” Rory says with a laugh. I look at her, shocked, and she rolls her eyes. “Oh, comeon. I’m not stupid. You’ve been in denial from the jump. The day you started complaining about some hot, rich guy who crashed your dates, I knew there was something. The universe clearly got tired of you two taking your sweet time, throwing you two together on the same island.”
It’s strange to hear my very logical best friend discuss topics like the universe and fate.
“I just…I want to make things clean. Everything is very muddled right now, with work and him and…I don’t know. Lying to him is really eating at me, but I’m not comfortable sharing who we are or why we’re here with him, not yet, at least. Plus, Annette didn’t tell him for a reason, and we have to respect that. But I can see…something with him, and I don’t like starting it this way.”
But I also know it’s what has to be done, and honestly, if I want anything beyond the next week or so with Rowan, there willalwaysbe parts of my life that won’t be accessible to him. I have to be okay with that. It’s why I’ve stayed single for so long: men are not okay with this line of work, especially when it includes flirting with men and having to keep secrets. Early in my Mavens career, I tried to have a few boyfriends, but it always ended in heartbreak and disaster.
Since then, I’ve kept things easy: engaging the occasional fuckbuddy to scratch the itch but keeping them at arm’s length. It’s worked great, but suddenly, the idea of it makes a distinct loneliness that I’ve even hidden from my subconscious impossible to ignore.
I wanta person, and I’m starting to understand I want that with Rowan.
“If he’s the right one, he’ll be fine with it,” Rory says softly, and I nod, knowing she’s right. I won’t give up this career I love so much for aman. Another beat passes before she speaks again. “You know you have to tell Gabriel, right?”
I sigh and nod. “Yeah.” I look out the window at the blue waters crashing on the shore, and for not the first time, I wish I were on a real vacation. God, after this assignment, maybe that’s what I’ll do. “That can be a tomorrow task, you know? For tonight, can we just…change the subject? Talk about the case instead of my imploding love life, if you can even call it that? Actually,” I say, remembering what I snagged. “I got you a gift,” I say with a small smile, waving the keycard in the air, trying to ignore the niggling of guilt that runs through me once more at the idea of stealing from Rowan.
“No way,” Rory says with a wide smile, reaching out for it. I shrug. “Where did you get that?”
I grimace at the reminder before answering.
“I stole it from Rowan. It fell out of his pocket during the…well, you know, and I slid it under my things, then into my pocket without him noticing.”
She stares at me, awestruck, before looking over the card. “Is it universal? Is it coded to him? Can you get into any room with this?”
I shrug. “Not sure. I couldn’t ask specifics without seeming weird.”
“It’s fine, I can use this to find out.” She digs through her luggage, which is filled with equipment, and finds what looks like a credit card swiper. She plugs it into her computer and grabs the keycard, then opens a new screen and starts typing before scanning the card in the device. I sit patiently as she works her magic, and a few minutes later, she squints at the screen and smiles wide.
“Josie, I don’t think you realize how much you just gave us. This will let me hack into the entire system.”
