Page 45 of Duty

Andino turned his head a bit, and Haven swore she could feel his eyes drinking her in although he didn’t say a thing. For a long while, the two of them stayed silent like that, and she kept petting a very happy Snaps.

“Why are you here?” she asked, finally breaking the silence.

“I wanted to see you—I actually got a minute to get away.”

“What, from work?”

“Work, family … life,” Andino muttered. “It’s all the same to me now.”

“Andino—”

“Did the club thing scare you off, was that it?”

Haven let out a heavy sigh, and finally looked at the man. Looking at him, she found, was bad for her body in a multitude of ways. He was still staring at her in that intense way of his. As though for the moment, he couldn’t and didn’t want to see anything but her.

It was enough to make her skin heat up, and her heartbeat race out of control. It was enough to send memories of the way he felt fucking her rushing through her mind, and setting her nerves on fire.

Damn.

Get ahold of that, girl.

“It was more than the club,” Haven admitted.

“What, then?”

She shrugged. “I just … don’t get involved with people I don’t know, and despite what you may think because of my job and my appearance, I don’t do the casual sex thing. Jesus, Andino, I don’t even know your last name.”

Andino chuckled. “Is that all?”

Haven’s brow furrowed, and her gaze narrowed. “Don’t dismiss my concerns just because you might think they’re silly. I’m allowed to have them.”

“I didn’t dismiss them. I don’t assume anything about you because of your job, or appearance. I don’t mind casual sex—I actually tend to think that’s an easy way to handle something like sex when you just don’t have the time to get involved. I never said I wanted casual sex with you, though. And it’s Marcello. My surname, I mean.”

Haven blinked.

That name.

Why did it—

“Like the Marcello Complex?”

A huge, towering building in the middle of upper Manhattan. It was just one of several buildings in the city with the Marcello name on it, if Haven was correct.

Although, something else prickled at the back of Haven’s mind—another reason she should recognize that surname, but it just wasn’t coming to her. The more she tried to remember what it was, the less she actually knew.

Andino smiled. “Yes, that’s my uncle’s building, actually.”

“Huh.”

“I would like to take you to breakfast,” Andino murmured, “if you have time, and would like to join me. Snaps would be happy about that, too.”

“Don’t manipulate me with your dog, Andino.”

He grinned. “Where was the lie, though?”

Because Snaps was happy, and every fucking time she stopped petting his head, he leaned out of the window, and bumped her hand with his nose to make her start up again. Cute dog—even if he did look like he might kill somebody.

“Just breakfast, though,” Haven said. “Nothing else.”