Page 45 of Flirt

“I don’t know where you get off raising your voice at me. You aren’t in charge here. This is my damn house, not the club where you’re allowed to strut your dominant ass around and people have to listen. Leave before you wake Sawyer. It’s getting late, and I really don’t want to be up the rest of the night answering her questions.”

“Shut up,” he snapped.

“You don’t tell me to shut up,” I snarled. My blood pressure accelerating if the heat I felt rising on my face was any indication.

“I did, so get over it. I listened to the bunch of shit you spewed, and now you are going to listen to me.” I opened my mouth to rip into him, but before I got a word out, he shook a finger in my face. “Don’t say a word. If you do, I swear I will bend you over and spank your ass until you are screaming for me to fuck you. Fairly sure that will wake Sawyer, and you don’t want to answer those questions. Do you?”

I glared at Max and closed my mouth. I was not only angry with him, but I was also angry with the response my body had given with his words. My stomach spasmed, my thighs tightened, and heat radiated in my core.

“For fuck’s sake, stop looking at me like that, or I won’t get out what I want to say because I’ll be taking care of the desire I see in your eyes. Damn it, I bet all I would have to do is strip you down, spread your legs wide, run my tongue through your pussy lips, and you would go off like a rocket.” I blinked, shocked into silence, while Max groaned and closed his eyes. Running a hand across the back of his neck, he reopened his eyes and smirked. “Well, that sure didn’t help.”

The expression on his face caused me to laugh, which left me unable to keep the grin from forming. How was I expected to get over this man? Asking the question was an instant sobering effect because I knew the answer—I wouldn’t.

Chapter Seventeen

Flirt

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Everything I ever wantedin an ol’ lady stood in arm’s reach, and I was about to lose her if I didn’t pull my head out of my ass.

Gabriella had no clue how I felt about her outside of Whispering Nights, and the fault laid solely on my shoulders. I came to her house with the best intentions and geared up to come clean when what happened? She started spitting out a ton of nonsense that did nothing but make my blood pressure rise.

She doubted the time we had spent together as if it meant nothing to me. I made her doubt me. All because of my need to have her complete trust, though I hadn’t extended the same courtesy to her. Staring at Gabriella, I knew I had to acknowledge my screwup and move forward. I couldn’t afford not to. I refused to lose her over my own stupidity.

“There are no excuses for what I did, but I’m going to explain.” I took a deep breath, blew it out while I clenched and unclenched my hands. The need to pull her into my arms was pressing down on me. However, I knew if I touched her, the good intentions of explaining what I needed to do would be forgotten. I wanted more with Gabriella than just to dominate her sexually. I had tried to show her parts of me when instead of spending only time with her in the club, I had taken her out. I had wasted so much time with her.

“Are you planning to get on with it soon? It’s late, and I’m tired and want to go to bed.”

She would be going to bed alright, just not alone, and I had enough sense not to voice that information. Barely. The woman was determined to push all my buttons.

“You may not believe this, but I had planned to talk with you when we met at Whispering Nights. I’ll admit the hospital in front of my brothers and ol’ ladies was not the best scenario either. I guess I could have stayed away until I knew you had left but, damn it, I was ready for you to know. I need us to get past what I had done.”

“Fine, we are past it. Is that all?”

None of this was going as I planned, I thought. Then snorted because it made me think of what my dad had said about vital information being left out of the planning.

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