“So I assume you’re banging this fancy-ass architect?”
“Hawke!” I waited for him to apologize, but of course he wouldn’t. Diplomacy was not part of Hawke’s skill set. “For yournoseyinformation, no. Derrick and I aren’t together—not like that. I don’t even know him all that well, honestly. It was a Craigslist thing.”
“He’s never made a move?”
“No.”
“Gay?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I’ve never seen him with a guy, and he’s definitely brought women home before, so—”
“Women. He’s hooked up with women, but not you?”
“We’re just… we’re not into each other. He’s—what? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You live with a dude who’s not gay and you think he’s not spending every waking moment trying to figure out how to get into your pants?” Hawke laughed until his eyes watered. “You’re too sweet for your own good, Maddie Lockwood.”
“Believe it or not, some people have evolved beyond their baser instincts. Look at us, right? We’re sitting here having a nice dinner, finally having a real conversation.You’renot trying to get in my pants.”
Hawke raised that maddening eyebrow again and fixed me with a hard glare that made my breath catch. “You sure about that?”
This conversation was rapidly going off the rails. I couldn’t handle those intense eyes, not when I was still imagining what his hands would feel like smacking my bare ass. Not when he was playing with my curls and messing with my head and asking rude questions about my sex life.
“I invited you into my home,” Hawke went on, his deep voice vibrating straight through my chest. “Checked out your car. Fetched your luggage. Let you use up all my hot water. Cooked you my secret recipe Alfredo sauce. This is A-game, panty-melting shit right here, Cupcake.”
My mouth went dry, heart jackhammering inside my chest, my lungs just short of stalling out on me…
And it was only going to get worse.
Hawke was amasterat this game, and now that he’d seen how easy it was to get under my skin, he wasn’t going to let up. He was like a predator in the wild, stalking me, homing in on my weaknesses, wearing me down until I finally admitted defeat.
Well, I had some news for him. Maddie Lockwood might blush, she might squirm, she might completely freak out on the inside, but she didnotadmit defeat.
Hawke wanted to play naughty little games? Fine. I could play too.
Just as hard. Just as dirty.
