Max’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t talk like that.”
“You didn’t seem to mind how I talked when you had your hand stuffed inside my underwear.”
“I know what you’re doing and it won’t work.”
“I just want to know what changed between you stroking my clit and all this ‘it’s inappropriate’ bull.”
His expression darkened. “I explained that to you already and I’m not doing it again. I’m going to bed.”
“Yours or mine?” Julia let her hand slip from his shoulder down onto the broad planes of his chest.
Max gripped her wrist. “That’s enough.”
The cold look in his eyes seized Julia’s flirtatious mood and broke its neck. “Fine,” she said tugging her hand away. “I’ll stop hitting on you. Go to bed.”
With a look of suspicion, as though he still expected her to lunge at him like a groupie with a backstage pass, he got to his feet. “You gonna turn in as well?”
Julia’s eyelids were heavy but there was no way in hell she was going to bed just because Max Connor told her to. “Nope, I’m gonna stay up, listen to music, contemplate our trappedness.”
“Suit yourself.”
“I will.”
The speakers, which had been playing 90s pop, began pumping out some acoustic guff about painful love. She wasn’t having that.
“Okay, well, good night,” she said, crawling toward the speakers.
There was a sound like a strangled moan and Julia realized that she was presenting her ass to Max. She hesitated for a moment, then threw her caution to the wind. If he was so sure what happened between them was a mistake, he shouldn’t be looking at her upturned butt. She selected a pulsing rap song, lingering over the speakers much longer than was necessary.
Max didn’t leave.
Julia felt her stomach turn over. She bent forward, arching her back higher. There was a muttered curse and the sound of material shifting. She turned to face Max, still on all fours, to find his eyes burning like black fire. His hand was in his lap, clenching the bulge in the front of his uniform pants. “Why aren’t you in bed, officer? See something you like?” She bowed forward to show off the swells of her ass.
Max’s jaw was so tight it looked in danger of shattering. “Get up. We’rebothgoing to bed. Now.”
Julia let one palm creep closer. Then the other. “I don’t see why we have to sleep. It’s not nearly my bedtime.”
“Jules…Stop."
“Or what? You going to cuff me?”
Julia reached forward and touched his thigh and Max’s whole body shook. “I should. You’re so fuckingbad.”
He muttered the last word like it physically hurt.
Feeling ratherbad, Julia stroked the length of his thigh, canvas crackling beneath her palm. “But you like it, don’t you?” she asked. “You like me being all eager and slutty?”
She ran a finger along his waistband and he groaned, his hips rocking ever so slightly toward her hand. “Baby…”
Just like that, she was “baby” again. Julia wet her lips, staring directly at the bulge in his pants. “That looks painful. You want me to do something about it?”
Max glowered at her. “You like torturing me, don’t you?”
“What happens if I do? Do I get spanked?”
There was a low rumble deep in Max’s chest. “Don’t talk about spanking. Wait, what are you doing?”
Julia slung a thigh over his hip and leveraged herself into his lap. Max kept his hands passively at his sides but his heart was beating so fast she could feel it through his clothes. The smell of his sweat engulfed her, hot and primal. She’d dated guys who wore six hundred dollar cologne that didn’t smell as good as him. One inhale and her already damp panties absorbed more evidence of his attraction.