Page 25 of King of Pride

“I'm not naked!”

She looked up at him, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment and irritation.

“What are you doing here? I told you it was a one-time mistake, Mr. Bishop. You can't force me to pay you back for taking your innocence.”

Her voice hardened as she tried to sound intimidating.

“My dad is a big name in the perfume industry. If you threaten, or punish me, he won't let you get away with it.”

Maverick’s gaze never left Rose’s face. Even as she continued trembling beneath the weight of his stare, he remained completely still, listening until she finally finished speaking.

Then one of his perfectly arched eyebrows lifted.

“Punish you?” he asked, his voice dropping lower. “You seem to have misunderstood me, Rose. What happened last night was me showing you mercy.”

His gaze slowly swept over her before returning to her eyes.

“If you think that was punishment, you have no idea what I’m capable of.”

Rose’s breath caught.

“I haven’t even started making you pay for what you did,” he added, the faintest smirk touching his lips. “And when I do, I doubt you’ll be calling it a mistake anymore.”

Heat rushed into her face.

“Pervert,” she muttered, glaring at him.

Maverick’s eyes warmed with amusement as he looked down at her.

“If you don’t want to spend the entire night sitting out here in the snow, then let me do the talking with your father. And when we go inside, you don’t say a word. Got it?”

Rose swallowed.

The authority in his voice made her feel strangely intimidated.

Then the meaning of his words finally registered.

“You’re going inside?”

Rose’s body stiffened.

“What do you want? Why are you going inside our house?”

Maverick looked down at her, completely unfazed by her suspicion.

“What do you think I want, Rose?”

She bit her lip, her eyes darting away.

A tremor ran through her as memories of the previous night came rushing back—the warmth of his body, his hands on her, the way he had made her forget everything around her.

“You’re still thinking about last night,” she murmured.

One of Maverick’s eyebrows lifted.

“Am I?”

His gaze lingered on her flushed face.