Page 191 of The ARC Unit: Breach

The car conversation came back so clearly that for a second, I could hear the wet road beneath us. I remembered sitting in the passenger seat, asking what he liked, pushing when he told me I might not like the answer. He had warned me that the fantasy version was easy. He had talked about the moment control stopped being something I imagined and became something another person actually expected me to surrender.

I had joked that maybe I wouldn’t reach for the door.

Maybe I’d be interested.

Standing against his desk with his eyes fixed on mine, I understood why he had looked at me the way he did that day. This was the side of him he had been talking about.

I was not thinking about any door and that fact should have concerned me more than it did.

Wolf’s voice dropped lower until I had to listen closely.

“You want to keep using that dirty fucking mouth, Mercer?”

I swallowed. “Maybe.”

“Wrong answer.”

“I didn’t know it was a yes or no question.”

“Still doing it.”

“Doing what?”

“Trying to get cute because you don’t like being made to sit in what you did.”

“I’m not trying to get cute.”

“No?”

His eyes took in my face, then trailed down the front of my shirt before settling back on me.

“Then quit performing and answer me like an adult.”

My pulse beat hard against my throat.

“Yes. I want to keep using my mouth.”

“And what kind of mouth is it?”

I scoffed. “You really are an arrogant asshole.”

He took one slow step closer.

“If you’re so determined to run that fucking mouth tonight, keep going.”

He still had not threatened to touch me, and the patience in his stare made the warning uglier. He was giving me room to push while making it clear he intended to remember every inch I took.

“You think yelling at me changes the fact that the operation was a win?” I said.

“I’m not yelling.”

He was right. He had raised his voice a few times, but now it was low again, stripped down to something rough enough to make my skin tighten beneath my shirt.

“Thirty-one women are out. The case is ours. Kade got away, but now we have a way into Paris.”

“And Keller is dead.”

My mouth closed.