His jaw hardens ever so slightly. “I wanted them to not treat me like I crawled out of a sewer. There’s a difference.”
“Mmhmm,” I hum skeptically. “I think it was more than that.”
“Yeah? Well, I’ve noticed a thing or two about you too.”
“Me? What would you have noticed about me?”
The quick glance he gives me is pure heat. “Plenty.”
“Like what?”
He turns his body toward mine ’til we’re only a couple inches apart on the backseat. “More than just from tonight if that’s what you’re wondering. Though there’s plenty from tonight too. But I was more speaking about… other things.”
“Are you going to tell me what, Callahan, or are you messing with me?”
“You’re a tease,” he says succinctly. “You like to drive men crazy. It’s a form of power for you.”
“Atease?!” I choke out, eyes widening. Then I laugh in indignation. “I amnota tease!”
“You are so a tease. Here’s the thing, princess. You recognize there’s power in sex. For the man maybe during the moment, but it’s not about that for you—it’s all in the lead up to it. The possibility of it. As a woman, you know that’s your weapon, and you ain’t afraid to use it.”
“Are you forgetting I was avirgin?” I ask incredulously. “You’re the only man I’ve even had sex with, Callahan!”
“Thanks for proving my point, princess. A gorgeous woman like you—a fucking former beauty queen for Christ’s sake—with your smile and those tits and that ass? You’ve had plenty of opportunity. Plenty of men tripping over themselves just for the privilege to breathe your air,” he explains. “Which is exactly why you never gave it up. You used it as a weapon. It gave you power to hold it over their heads.
“It’s smart, really. Maybe one of the only tools a woman in certain circles can have. But one thing about you is that you know it’s a weapon you can keep using, even now. You know exactly how to get a man worked up then feign innocence like that’s not what you were doing from the get go.”
As he explains his theory, pieces click together and allow me to solve the puzzle.
It’s so ridiculous I laugh. My lips fall open as the light sound tumbles out of me, and I peer at him as if he’s told the funniest joke I’ve heard all evening.
“Wait a second. You think I’ve been coming onto you? I’ve been doing things to ‘work you up?’ Is this about brushing your hand at dinner?”
“Kissing my cheek and whispering in my ear,” he says, cocking a brow. “Before bed each night, applying moisturizer to your body and letting your hands rub all over your chest and legs and thighs?—”
“Are you kidding me?! How else am I supposed to moisturize?”
“You know what you’re doing. You take your time with it. Every night before bed, you’re feeling up on yourself in those little nighties you wear. Nipples damn near poking out of the fabric.”
“Ronan!” I laugh, face flushing even hotter. I shove at his shoulder. “I had no idea. And what about my nipples? They’re not that pointy!”
“Princess, they’re fucking hard as pebbles,” he growls, leaning toward me. His voice drops to a huskier, rougher level. “You think I don’t notice, but I sure as hell fucking do.”
“Pervert.”
“Maybe. But can you blame me? You put a slab of meat in front of a lion, what the fuck do you think he’s gonna do? He’s gonna devour his meal the only way he knows how. That’s called nature, princess.”
I blink and realize he’s not the only one who’s inched closer. I’ve leaned in too, drawn toward him like there’s an invisible magnetic field between us and I can’t resist.
The problem becomes that the less space exists between us, the more I take in his smoky, masculine cologne.
An inexplicable urge develops inside me, yearning to bury my face in his neck and inhale.
Enjoying the way your husband smells shouldn’t be a crime. Yet it feels like one as I meet the gaze of Ronan Callahan and remind myself he’s the man I was forced to marry. He’s the man I once vowed to hate.
Gradually since, he’s become the man I can’t seem to resist. The man I evencrave.
My heart is pounding, beating faster and faster as I speak and discover my tone is naturally breathy and sultry.