Free Crave (The MacKenzie Family #11) by Liliana Hart

that and get away with it. It was an incredible high.”
    “I know what you mean,” he said. She stood near the doorway, looking like she was ready to flee. “I could see it in your eyes. The thrill of the adrenaline rush—driving you to take chances—to up the stakes and make the high even better. You needed someone to make you stop. You never could’ve done it on your own. Your pride wouldn’t let you.”
    He wanted to put her at ease so he went to the refrigerator and looked inside, settling on cold cuts and cheese to make sandwiches. “Want something to eat?” he asked.
    “Stop changing the subject, Cal.”
    “Suit yourself. I make a hell of a sandwich.”
    “Bully for you.”
    He grinned and got the bread out of the breadbox. “You know what else I saw that night?” He left everything on the counter and closed the distance between them, testing her to see if she’d back away from him.
    She didn’t.
    “What?” She looked up at him warily as he drew closer, until he stood only inches from her.
    “I saw a woman that knew what it was to want.” She started to take a step back but he took her arms in his grasp and kept her still. “She was misguided and too stubborn for her own good, but at the core of who she was she had needs. Don’t think I didn’t see it for what it was.”
    Evie licked her lips and his cock twitched behind his zipper. Just that small peak of her tongue and he could feel it as if it were licking along his shaft. He pulled her closer, so her full breasts pressed against his chest.
    “You have a hell of an ego, Cal.”
    “Thank you, sugar. It’s well deserved. Just like I know you have one that matches. Do you know how fucking turned on I was, watching you lead me all over hell and back while I was trying to trace you? I wanted your mind before I ever saw that luscious body of yours.”
    “Uh, huh.” She placed her hands on top of his arms, preparing to push him back, but he tightened his grip and brought her even closer. Close enough that she could feel the hard ridge of his erection pressing against her stomach. She gasped and her eyes widened as she looked up at him.
    “And then I saw it was you and it was like being hit in the face with a two by four. I’ve been taken off guard two times in my life. The first was when I was fourteen and your father knocked on my door. The second was when you looked up at me through that elevator grate. You can’t tell me it wasn’t the same for you. When you realized I’d trapped you it sparked something inside of you.” He leaned in closer until his lips were right at her ear. “An edge of fear?” he whispered. “A sense of danger? A challenge?”
    “What are you trying to prove? That you’re better than me? That you win? Haven’t you already humiliated me enough?”
    “You’ve got it all wrong, sugar.” He nipped at her earlobe and she whimpered, her body betraying her and going pliant against him. “I set you free. Now you’ve got to make the choice to come back to what you love on the right terms.” He let the phrase soak in. What she loved. She’d loved him once upon a time. Maybe she could again.
    “You mean your terms?” Her fingers tightened on his biceps and he kissed his way down to the side of her neck.
    “I’m willing to negotiate the terms. The power was always in your hands. All you had to do was decide to use it. But for the right reasons. For the right agenda.”
    “Everyone thinks their agenda is right. It’s why wars are fought and elections are won. Just because you fight for it doesn’t make it right for everyone.”
    “Now you’re just being stubborn, sugar. You know the difference between right and wrong the same as I do. All I’m saying is that if you want to play for the good guys, now’s as good of a time as any to dip your toe back in.”
    “Oh, gee,” she said, leaning back to look him in the eye. “The great and powerful Cal Colter is giving me permission to sit at my little computer