This asshole just shit all over my favorite spot.
I march toward him, my heels clicking with staccato fury. “You.”
He pivots before pocketing his phone and baring that million-dollar smile. “Hi, Cat.”
I barely maintain control of my voice. “Don’t you ‘hi’ me, you piece of shit.”
He lifts his hands, his face slack in mock surprise. “Don’t be like that. We had a great date. Orgasms all around.”
I clench my hands at my sides to stop from clawing out his infuriatingly pretty eyes. “Screw you,Connor. Who the hell does that? Why go to all the trouble of…”
“Of what? Seducing you?” His throaty laugh slinks around my spine and slithers lower to coil behind my belly button. If I weren’t so furious, I might drag him down the hall to my room to pick up where we left off last night.
No. Absolutely not.
Remain strong.
“You had fun, right?” He braces one shoulder against the wall beside the mermaid in the picture of relaxation.
I resist the urge to throw him through the damn window. “I had fun with an imaginary person. A stock character from a romance movie.”
A smirk crosses his frustratingly handsome face. “No romance I’ve ever seen.”
I hug my chest. “Fuck off.”
“I had fun too.” He pushes off the wall and closes the distance between us. “Last night was a blast.”
That scent of orangey smoke washes over me, fogging my mind and flooding my cheeks with heat. My neck’s probably an angry red, just like Nino’s. At least I had the foresight to wear a turtleneck. Small relief.
I refuse to let him know how significantly my body reacts to him.
It’s just a physical thing. Human weakness.
“Cat?” He regards me through hooded eyes, his lips turning down in the smallest pout.
My shoulders relax the teeniest amount. “What?” Maybe he’ll explain himself, or…
Connor hooks his fingers inside the front of my slacks and pulls me close, my crossed arms brushing his chest. “Let’s fuck right now.” His dark eyes glitter in the light from the window.
Like I would fall for that. Ignoring the flutter in my stomach, I shove his chest. “As if I’d ever lay a finger on you again. You were mediocre at best.”
A lie, but it’s all I’ve got. At least my voice stays firm.
Connor smirks. “Whatever you say, Cat.”
I hold my chin high. “I knew you were some cold-blooded killer-for-hire. Not an art dealer.” I look him up and down and scoff. “I’m just pissed I didn’t listen to my gut.”
He laughs again, quieter this time. My traitorous stomach still swoops. “Guess it takes one to know one.”
I frown. “To know one what?”
“A cold-blooded mafia bot.”
I should agree with him. Tell him the hands all over his body last night are registered lethal weapons.
But I don’t. I can’t. Because I’m not a liar like this asshole. I happen to have morals. I glance away and up at the mermaid while exhaling through my nose.
I refuse to let him get to me.
