Her grin sharpened. “You’d like that? Making me yours?”
I mean, she already was. But I’d let her keep thinking I was playing the game until the time was right.
I swallowed, dragging my eyes from her lips. “I don’t think you’re ready for that yet.”
She had no idea what I would do to her.
“You underestimate me,” she said, twirling her hair again. “I’m not a little girl anymore. Maybe you’re not ready for me.”
I wanted to tell her everything, all the filthy things building in my head. But I bit my tongue.
“I’m trying to be good, Trouble,” I admitted, staring at the menu. “But if you keep talking like this, thisfakerelationship of ours? It’s going to have problems.”
“What kind of problem are we talking about?” she teased. “Principal’s office? Detention?”
I grinned then. “Oh no. Worse.”
Her eyes sparkled. “Oh, worse? Wow. What, then? Do I need to beg for some extra credit? Bend me over a desk and?—”
I nearly choked on my water. I froze mid-sip, as if someone had unplugged me from reality. My brain short-circuited, as visions of her bent over a desk with her skirt hiked up around her waist flashed through my mind. She had been reading my mind again.
I didn’t know what to say to her. If this were anyone else, I would’ve quipped back with something snarky. But it was Mackenzie. When I was around her, I reverted to that twelve-year-old nerd she had befriended. My body was hot, my palms sweating. She said it so casually, like she hadn’t just pulled the pin on my grenade.
She was a freak. And I loved it.
“Fuck,” I whispered, because it was either that or confess every fantasy right there between the salt and pepper shakers.
The waitress popped next to us, saving me from complete combustion. Mackenzie jumped a little, breaking ourbubble. I ordered a milkshake with two straws like some smug idiot in a rom-com movie, and she gave me a look.
“What?” I said. “You’re gonna drink half of mine anyway.”
The waitress came back with our drink, and the second her lips closed around that straw, I felt it. That hum, that pull, like we were standing on the edge of something we couldn’t come back from.
She licked the chocolate from her mouth, and my eyes dropped without permission. My thoughts weren’t even subtle anymore. They were full-blown confessions.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she warned.
Like that.
I knew exactly what she meant. I was going to tear her apart. Watch her beg. I wanted her so wrecked she couldn’t walk straight for days.
“If you’re going to flirt with me like that, then fuck, baby, buy me breakfast first.”
I gave her a killer smile, waiting for her to fold. But in true Mackenzie fashion, she just matched me.
She didn’t laugh. She didn’t tease. She just looked at me. And that look? That was the moment I realized that she didn’t want to fake. But she hadn’t admitted it to herself yet.
MACKENZIE
My heart slammedagainst my ribs. I hadn’t meant to be so forthcoming, but I was turned on just by sitting next to him, and I wanted him to know it.
I was going to tell him to make me beg for it, that I wantedto, but before I could respond, the waitress slid by, and Max started ordering like he hadn’t just promised to ruin me.
When she left, I finally found my voice again.
“You think this is a done deal,” I said, looking away.
“What?” he asked.
