Page 19 of Mad Love

“Don’t call me that,” she says, side-eying me. “It’s so cliché.”

I smirk. “Most American women melt over it. Especially when I whisper it in their ears.”

“I’m not most American women.”

“Precisely why I gathered my courage and sat down here.”

She tilts her head. “Courage?”

“Well, the last time we saw each other, you left quite a mark.”

Her lips curl. “Sorry.”

I lean forward slightly. “That didn’t sound very sincere.”

“Because it wasn’t.”

“You could have killed me, you know.”

“Maybe I should have.”

“Why didn’t you?”

She shrugs. “You weren’t my target.”

“Is that all?”

She dips forward and my eyes instantly wander south to the impeccable cleavage spilling onto the table. “What are you implying, Archer Allen? That I’m harboring some intense, sexual attraction toward you that kept me from pulling the trigger?”

“Oh, no implication required, love. That’s exactly why you spared me.”

Her jaw sags in disbelief. “Wow.”

“I don’t hear you denying it.”

“Because it’s ridiculous.”

“And you still don’t deny it.”

She rolls her eyes. “Why bother? You’d only call me a liar anyway.”

“Tell me the truth.” I shift in my seat, sensing an opportunity. “For the next five seconds, I’ll believe any word you say.”

She presses her lips together. “You want me to be honest with you when you’ve had a gun trained on me since the moment you sat down?”

Shit.

I sit back and squeeze the grip a little tighter. “Old habit.”

She slides down an inch in her seat and I feel her bare toes trace up my leg. My breath catches in my throat as her touch drifts over the pistol on my knee and her toes come to rest on my groin.

I smile. “Wrong gun, sweetheart.”

Lilah locks eyes with me as she digs her toes in a little deeper.

I bite down on my inner cheek as my blood pumps south.“Well, then…”

“I’ll tell you what, Archer,” she says, firmly stroking my erection to life. “I have a room upstairs. We can go up and let bygones do their thing. Or you can fuck off and go watch your stupid bum fights.”

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