Veryangry.
“Lo—” he began.
“First,” she bit off, “you’re hot.Not a little hot,alot.You might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but neither am I or anyoneelse.But trust me, Mo, I wanted to climb you like a tree the first time I laideyes on you and Tammy would have gotten down on her knees to beg you to haveher back.And that has a lot to do with you just being you, but the kind ofwoman she is, it also has to do with you looking the way you do and also thefact it’s pretty clear by her behavior you know how to use your cock.”
He’d had no complaints on that, as far as he knew, but hewas not going to share that with Lottie.
Even if he was, he wouldn’t get the shot because she keptgoing.
“So you’re hot, and that’s my call to make, you can’t makeit, so I don’twannahear another word about it,” sheclipped.“Second, my dad promised us everything from trips to theRiviera to castles in the sky.He didn’t deliver onone single promisehe made, but more, he wasn’t even enough of a man to fight the urge to hit atable in order to see to his woman and his girls.You’re man enough to fightthe urge to fuck me in order to make me safe.What else would I get if you letme have the rest?I don’t know, you do, and I want a shot at that.”
“Lottie—”
“And I don’t want Tiffany’s, Mo.If I did, I’d earn themoney to buy something there.I doubt you’re on food stamps working for Hawk,but I also make a good living and if a woman’s about the living a man can earn,she’s not much of a woman.I need a man with ambition and drive and a belief inwhat he’s doing.I don’t need a man to drive me to Tiffany’s.I got my owndamned car.”
“Baby—” he whispered, with all she said, unable to stop thatword from leaking out of his mouth.
But that was all he got out.
“I don’t know what those bitches did to you, since my guessis Tammy wasn’t the only one.And I don’t know what happened to you inAfghanistan.I don’t even really knowyou.All I know, and I know itgood, Mo, is thatIwannafind out.”
“This isn’t smart,” he said gently.
“Now?Or ever?”she demanded to know.
“Now.”
And possibly ever.
But he wasn’t going to get into that with her right then.
“Call Hawk and tell him to find this guy, Mo.”
“They’reworkin’ on it.”
“Tell them to work faster.”
He said nothing because all his attention was set onstopping himself from smiling.
Christ, she really was something.
“Do you have a problem with me stripping?”she asked.
Mo now had no trouble not smiling.
“I don’t like men watching you take your clothes off,” hetold her honestly.
“This is an issue because that’s what I do to pay the billsand I like doing it.”
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“Can you get over it?”
He didn’t know how he’d feel if he wasn’t there every night,watching the crowd watching her take her clothes off.
Maybe.
But doubtfully.
