Page 51 of Last on the List
Goddammit, she’s completely unmanned me.
What the fuck am I doing? Did I really barge into the bar and expect her to come home with me?
Yes, yes, I did.
Especially when I sat in that bar for over an hour watching her tolerate that douchebag. She so clearly wasn’t into him. Her body language was obvious. And he just stared at her like a lost puppy begging for a morsel.
She’s too good for him. It’s why he got so drunk. He couldn’t handle being sober in her presence, and when I saw him make one wrong move, I was done watching.
After he was out of the way, I thought everything would click into place. I thought we’d talk out an arrangement that suited both of our needs, and we would be on our way to bone town. Like another business deal.
Jesus. Bone town? I really have been around Cozy too much.
Then she went and called herself a convenience fuck, and I don’t know what happened after that.
When is fucking ever convenient? It’s not. It’s actually a lot of work. And when you find someone you want to fuck, finding time for that isn’t exactly easy either. Especially when she’s your kid’s nanny and a forbidden fruit that you shouldn’t taste, but you just couldn’t help yourself.
Fuck.
And all that bullshit she spewed about not being the type I normally fuck? She doesn’t know me. And she clearly doesn’t know herself.
Does she not see how beautiful she is? How her quiet confidence in those ridiculous tie-dyed crop tops she’s always wearing is quite possibly the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen? Does she not see how the soft curves of her body make it impossible for me to make the right decision here? How can she not grasp what’s so fucking obvious?
The lights of her house shut off, and it’s like a hardwired switch on my patience.
With a low growl, I slide open the door to my deck and march my ass across the lawn to her tiny house. She’s not going to bed. Not until I put those fucked-up thoughts she has out of her mind for good.
I bang loudly on the door and back up to pace in the grass, my chest heaving with all the thoughts running through my body.
It takes her a moment, but finally, a light flicks on inside, and she opens the door with a dejected look.
I fucking hate that look.
“Max, I’m going to bed,” she groans, pulling her cotton robe tightly across her breasts as she steps outside and leans against the side of the house. “Let’s just forget this horrible evening ever happened.”
“I can’t forget,” I bark, pointing at my head like a lunatic as I continue to pace. “Because I have a daughter. And knowing that she could grow up someday and have fucked-up thoughts about her physical appearance will never be something I’m okay with.”
Cassandra’s brows knit together. “What?”
“What you said about me throwing you over my shoulder? First of all…I could do that. Feel free to challenge me on that. I love a challenge.” I turn on my heel to march the other way. “But second of all, who gives a fuck if I couldn’t? Do you think that makes you any less worthy of someone? It doesn’t. It’s a superficial fucking nothingburger of a comment. It tells nothing about the person you are or the beauty you possess.”
I pause to prop my hands on my hips, hitting her with a lethal glare before I deliver the next bit. Her lips are parted, and her eyes are wide and glistening in the security light as she falls back against the white siding.
She looks like a goddamn angel.
“Third of all, you are not now, nor could you ever be a convenience fuck. In fact, you are the most inconvenient fuck of my life. Which is why I need you to hear the next part.”
“There’s more?” she gasps, her fingers touching her parted lips.
“A lot more, Cassandra,” I growl, my voice echoing off the house as I stalk toward her, slowly registering her body language to make sure I’m not scaring the fuck out of her.
I might be scaring the fuck out of myself.
I’m not sure I’ve ever spoken like this to a woman before. Not even my ex-wife got under my skin this much.
When I enter her space, I flatten one hand on the siding by her face and use my other to tug at the tie on her waist. Her chest heaves as I pull apart the thin robe to reveal the matching tie-dyed short set she’s wearing. It’s green, like her eyes. I run my finger along the exposed part of her soft stomach. My cock thickens in my jeans at the memory of my lips on her flesh.
I lean into her neck and inhale deeply, running my nose from her neck to her ear and then her hair. A low grumble vibrates in my chest when that heady scent of coconut hits me.
