Stripped Down (13 page)

“You have leftovers?”

“Um... Yes.”

He looked as though I’d kicked his puppy. “How?”

“I don’t know. I got full, maybe?” I frowned. “Did you eat all of it?”

“Do you put an open bottle of wine back in the fridge?”

“Obviously. I don’t want to insult the wine.”

“Exactly. I don’t want to insult the pizza, so I must eat it all.”

I blinked several times. “Yeah, well, that was a twelve-inch pizza, and I can’t eat something that big in one go.”

“Wanna try ten?”

“Do I...what?”

Beck grinned. Then he gripped the edge of the island top and leaned forward. “I said, ‘Wanna try ten?’”

Oh. My. God.

It just clicked.

“You know I bite, right?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“Is that supposed to deter me? Because, thanks to you mentioning masturbation, I have this pretty damn hot image on my head of you on your back, with your fingers on your clit.”

“And let me guess—I’m thinking about you, right?”

He held his hands up. “You said it, Blondie.”

“You were thinking it!”

“Negative. I was thinking I’d like to throw you on your back and put
my
fingers on your clit.”

I swallowed. “You’re not thinking right.”

“I know.” He pushed off the counter and walked around it. It was like he was stalking me, and the glint in his eye proved it.

Maybe that’s why I retreated.

It was a mistake.

I discovered why you should never run from a predator.

His grin sparked again, and he snatched my hand up with his, pulling me against his body before he took my other hand and linked his fingers through mine. I was locked against him whether I liked it or not, and admittedly, there were worse men I could have been pressed against. Hell, I’d been pressed against worst in the past.

“What are you doing?” I breathed, dragging my eyes from the sinewy muscle that ran from his neck to his shoulder to meet his gaze.

“Making it so you have to listen to me,” he responded in an equally low voice. He spun us so I leaned against the island and he slid one of his legs between mine. His eyes never left mine. “I’m wildly fucking attracted to you, Cassie, and goddamn if it isn’t driving me crazy. Goddamn if I can’t stop thinking about getting your body back underneath mine. I want you again. Shit, I pretty much need to fuck you again. So let’s stop beating around the damn bush. I’ve got your hands.” He squeezed them. “I’m going to kiss you right now, and if you feel absolutely nothing for me, then I’ll hand you the divorce papers right now. Then, after tomorrow morning, you’ll never have to speak to me outside work or the hearing.”

“And...what if I do feel something?”

He dipped his head toward mine. His breath was hot as it danced over my parted lips, and he lowered his voice when he spoke. “Then I’m picking you up, throwing you over my shoulder, and carrying you upstairs so I can fuck your tight, little pussy until you’ve screamed your way out of my system.”

I was already turned on.

I was so, so screwed.

“Fine.” My voice was scratchy, so I swallowed and repeated it. “Fine. Do it right now.”

He didn’t need another invitation, and he didn’t hold back. His lips descended on mine with a hunger that I felt firing through my own veins. His grip on my hands tightened when I whimpered at his tongue seeking mine.

He was under my skin. Desire tingled across every inch of my body, forcing all my hairs on end, sending my blood pumping, my legs clenching, my pussy aching.

I couldn’t do anything but kiss him. But accept and return every stroke of his masterful tongue and every sweep of his soft lips. I couldn’t do a damn thing but drink it and him in and drown in it all.

I wanted to be selfish. Just one more time.

I wanted him.

One night.

One time.

One more indulgence.

“Fucking hell, Beck! I thought you said you’d signed them!”

“West! At least make sure he’s—look, see, I told you! Oh!”

Beck pulled away without moving his body and turned toward the door. “Come in, you guys. I didn’t lock my front door for a reason. By all means, pull out your spare key and help yourselves.”

“West!” Mia repeated his name again as I squeezed my eyes shut and attempted to tug my hands away from Beck’s. He didn’t relent. “I told you that! I told you you couldn’t come stomping in here with your boxers strangling your balls. I told you it’d be awkward if you came in here and he was with someone.”

“Yeah, but now, I want to know who that someone is.”

“What, like you’re his keeper? He can screw anyone he wants.”

“Do you mind?” Beck asked sarcastically. “Do you wanna go somewhere else and have this conversation, considering we’re right here?”

I bit the inside of my cheek and slowly peeked to the side.

Mia’s eyes settled on me. They brightened, and then, slowly, her lips turned up. “Well, this is a fun surprise.”

West covered his eyes with his hand. “Don’t tell me he’s fucking one of your friends.”

She slapped him. “No. Well, yes, we’re friends, but... Jesus, Beckett. I need wine. This is stressful.”

Beck sighed and finally let me go. “Yes, I can see how walking into someone’s locked house is stressful for you. Meanwhile,
I’m
totally fine with it.”

“I will kill you in your sleep, you snarky little bastard.” She glared at him.

West finally dropped his hand and stared at me with striking blue eyes. “I know you. Cassie, right? You work in... Oh for fuck’s sake, Beck. You marry one and now you’re sleeping with another?”

Beck hit him with a hard glare.

Mia, however, smirked.

I grimaced when West caught the expression on her face.

“Right,” he said, somewhat sheepishly. “Understood. Still for fuck’s sake, but a milder version.”

“West?” Beck said, his lips somewhat twitching. “You’re making yourself look like an idiot, and if you become the idiot in this friendship, I’m not sure where I fit in. And you,” he said, looking at Mia. “You knew?” He looked at me. “She knew?”

I pause. “Long story.”

“I saw her note where she told you to kiss her ass.” Mia grinned, the smile stretching to her green eyes. “She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s my new best friend.”

“Oh sweet Jesus. Now, we’re all fucked,” West exclaimed, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut.

“Dude, can you keep it down? If you wake up CiCi she’s gonna whip your ass.”

I pursed my lips. It was kinda true.

“CiCi?” West looked between me and Beck, dropping his hand. “Who’s CiCi?”

“Ciara. Her daughter.”

Wow. He remembered her real name.

“She has a... And you are... And...”

Mia patted his arm. “Calm down, darling. It’s just a little girl. They’re really not as scary as they look in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” She looked at me as if to say, She’s no Veruca Salt, right?

I coughed into my hand to hide my laugh. “Nowhere near as bad as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” I confirmed.

“Right.” West stood still for a moment.

“West?” Beck said, folding his arms across his chest. “Take Mia and get the hell out of my house.”

Mia grabbed West by the arm and shoved at him. “We’re going, West. We’ll lock the door!” she called, still pushing him in front of her. She doubled back for a second, met my gaze, and mouthed, “Call me!” before disappearing again.

Beck stared after them until the sound of the door closing echoed through the air, followed by the much gentler sound of the lock turning. Then he turned to me, a mix of quiet lust and amusement scrawled across his features.

“Does that happen...often?” I asked slowly, glancing at the door.

“Too often,” he muttered then grabbed me. He dropped his gaze to mine as my body collided with his. “Now, since we were rudely interrupted... Do I have to kiss you again to make sure of your answer?”

I chewed the inside of my cheek. I wanted him to, but I knew the answer, so would it be selfish?

I had no idea why I was asking. I was being selfish by not saying No, give me those damn papers back.

I was also being stupid.

But something about this man, about this handsome, captivating, irresistible man, made me want to be reckless.

He was the kind of man who, after climbing into a car with the top down, would make you want to pull the headscarf from your hair just to feel the wind through it.

So reckless I would be.

“Why don’t you kiss me again without holding my hands and see if you can figure out the answer?”

He didn’t need another invitation for that, either.

His lips found mine in an instant, and almost quicker than that, my hands were sliding up the hot, hard ridges of his body and his were easing down my back and cupping my ass. Our bodies came together almost violently, the desperation of us both obvious in each gasped breath and tight grip we shared.

The desire that’d disappeared the moment West and Mia had walked in reignited more severely. Burned brighter. Burned fiercer. Burned hotter. Just simply
burned
.

Beck grasped me so tight that he lifted my legs and wrapped them around his waist. Before I could make a sound, I found my ass deposited on the island, my dress up around my hips. He swept his arm to the side and shoved the pizza boxes to the floor, much to my squeak of horror, but he quickly swallowed that when he dragged my lower lip between his teeth.

I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and pulled his mouth to mine properly. He kissed me with the same hunger as earlier, each touch unrelenting, each one needier than the last. And he consumed me.

The taste of pizza and beer on his lips.

The faint smell of chlorine and coconut shampoo in his hair.

The grip on my hips that screamed of need and possessiveness from his fingers.

The sensations of Beckett Cruz swarmed me, swamped me, completely and utterly owned me, until I was nothing but myself and, at the same time, someone I wasn’t.

Until I was no longer a single mom. Until I was no longer his accidental wife. Until I was no longer a stripper with a shame complex.

Until I was just a woman and he was just a man overwhelmed with want for one another.

And I liked it.

Wanted it.

Loved it.

Craved it.

Got drunk on it.

As he moved down my body, his fingers and his mouth expertly working across my breasts and up my torso to remove my dress...I got drunk on
him
.

And Beckett Cruz tasted an awful lot like freedom and regret mixed into one intoxicating, addictive package.

He kissed his way from my breasts to my hips, gently pushing me back with one hand. The marble countertop was cold against my now-bare back, but I barely cared as he dotted hot, openmouthed kisses across my panty-line and his probing fingertips worked the insides of my legs until they parted for him.

He pushed my panties to the side, exposing my aching, wet pussy to him. My head swam as he pushed my legs open just a little more and rubbed his thumb over my swollen clit.

“I don’t know, Cassie, baby,” he said in a low voice, his eyes darting up my body and meeting mine as he played with me. “You don’t feel like you want me.”

I squirmed as pleasure heated in the pit of my stomach.

“No.” He pushed one finger inside me then groaned as he added a second.

My elbow buckled beneath me as he moved his fingers through my wetness, and I fell back farther, dropping my head back.

“Watch.” His voice took on a light but harsh tone. “Put your head up and watch as my fingers fuck your tight little cunt, Cassie.”

I would have been a fool to ignore.

I forced my head up and dropped my eyes to the apex of my thighs despite his own harsh fixation on my face. There was something strangely erotic about watching his fingers slide in and out of my own pussy, and soon, my lips parted as I gasped with each movement.

He smirked. Dirty, sexy, dark, dangerous...The upturn of his lips held ideas and promises and threats.

I should have seen it coming.

I had been naïve.

He dropped his head, pulled his hand from me, and ran his tongue from my ass to my clit, where he pressed hard.

I bucked my hips against his face.
Sweet fucking hell on horseback
. It was nothing more than one lick, but the man had some magic damn potion that made it seem like the climax of an orgasm, although I knew that would have been so much better.

I wasn’t wrong.

When he was done exploring my pussy with his tongue, making sure he’d enjoyed every last bit of me, I came almost violently, and barely before I was done, he half dragged, half carried me off the island and spun me around so I was bent over it.

My hard, tender nipples pressed against the still-chilly surface, which startled me. I whimpered as Beck grabbed my hands and laid them out flat in front of me.

“Don’t move,” he whispered, smacking his hand across my ass.

I winced, but I managed to hold my gasp in until I thought he was gone.

I’d never been more vulnerable. I was laid across his kitchen island, my tits against the counter, my ass out, my legs open, my panties to the side, my pussy completely exposed. Yet I was excited. I knew he’d gone for a condom, and I knew it wouldn’t take him long, but shit...

I wanted to play him the way he was my body.

So I disobeyed him.

I slid one hand off the counter and down my body to my parted thighs. One fingertip ghosted over my clit, and I flinched at the tenderness of it, but it still felt so good. My mind wandered to what he was doing—was he putting the condom on before he came down? Was he stroking himself as he found one? What would he do when he walked in and found my hand between my legs?

The questions were hot and conjured all kinds of images of Beck with his strong hand wrapped around his hard cock as he moved it up and down.

Adrenaline shot through my bloodstream. Shit—I was more turned on by this than I should have been, but again, no shame. Instead, I closed my eyes, said fuck it to the universe, and thought of him standing behind me right now, stroking his cock as he stared at me.