Page 17 of King of Pride

She continued staring at him as Maverick's intimidating gaze slowly moved over her face before dropping lower. His expression suddenly stilled, and Rose instinctively followed his gaze.

The moment she realized what he was looking at, heat rushed into her face.

Her breasts were completely exposed.

As if struck by lightning, Rose immediately grabbed the covers and yanked them up to her chest, clutching them tightly against herself. Her eyes flew back to Maverick, her lips parting as she tried to say something, but her mind was suddenly too overwhelmed to form a single word.

Maverick moved away from the window and began walking toward her.

Rose's body tensed with every step he took.

A strange panic surged through her, and without allowing herself to think about what she was doing, she shifted toward the edge of the bed. She tried to slip out from beneath the covers, her only thought being to get away from him and reach the door before she had to face whatever had happened between them.

But she barely managed to move before Maverick was already in front of her.

He had crossed the distance between them so quickly that Rose stopped dead, her body freezing as she found herself with nowhere to go. He stood between her and the door, his tall frame blocking her escape as his dark eyes remained fixed on her.

Rose felt her heart drop and then immediately begin pounding so hard that she could barely breathe. The presence of the man in front of her suddenly became even more intense. That familiar sensation she had always experienced whenever she was near him swept through her again, leaving her body strangely still, as though she had fallen under his spell.

Maverick began stepping closer.

Rose instinctively stepped backward, having no choice but to retreat as he continued moving toward her. One slow step followed another, closing the distance between them until the backs of her legs finally hit the edge of the bed and she came to an abrupt stop.

Her fingers tightened around the bedsheet she was desperately holding against her chest as she looked up at him.

“I need to go,” she said, but the words came out so softly that they sounded almost as though she were asking for his permission.

Maverick’s eyes intensified.

He leaned forward, and in the very next instant, his hand wrapped around her waist and pulled her toward him.

Rose’s hand abruptly let go of the bedsheet she had been clutching to her chest. On instinct, both of her hands reached for his shoulders to steady herself, and the sudden movement brought her against him.

Everything seemed to disappear for a moment.

She was held against his body, the bedsheet still gathered around her lower body as she struggled to keep it in place. Maverick’s gaze dropped briefly before sliding back up to her face.

He raised an eyebrow.

“Where are you rushing off to?”

Rose gave him an awkward smile, a nervous little laugh escaping her lips as she immediately reached down to grab the bedsheet again and pull it back up. But it had already slipped too far, and no matter how she tugged at it, she struggled to get it into place.

Her breathing grew uneven as she stood there in front of him.

Maverick was one of the men everyone feared without him ever having to say a word, and standing this close to him, Rose suddenly understood exactly why.

Rose didn’t know a single person who wasn’t aware of Maverick Bishop’s wrath. His reputation alone was enough to intimidate people, and his presence had always affected her so strongly that she had never dared to stand in front of him for more than a few minutes without feeling like he scared the living daylights out of her. Yet, at the same time, there was something about him that stirred a reaction in her so intense that she could barely believe it herself.

Her best friend’s brother was someone she had been around a few times in the past, but whenever he came too close, her body seemed to react before her mind could stop it. The strange, overwhelming feeling always made her instinctively move away from him.

And now that very man was standing directly in front of her, his body pressed against hers, her bare skin against his as his shameless gaze lingered over her exposed chest. A tremor ran through her, and for a moment, Rose couldn’t even force herself to speak.

Then she gathered every ounce of courage she had possessed over the last twenty-six years and straightened her shoulders, forcing herself to meet his eyes.

“The night is over. I should leave now, right?” she asked, lifting her eyebrows as though trying to sound confident. “Do you have something to ask me?”

The intensity in Maverick’s eyes immediately shifted into an irritated look.