Free Stripped Down by Emma Hart Page A

haven’t thrown out yet.”
    He folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the counter. “All right, then. Explain to me exactly why you can’t stand to be around me.”
    “Why? So you can fire me?”
    “I’m not gonna fire you, Blondie. But you seem to have built me up to be this disrespectful devil in your mind, and I wanna know what I did so wrong to you.”
    Got me drunk. Kissed me. Married me. Fucked me.
    A string of events any other woman would have been embracing, I was sure.
    “Fine.” I stared him down and put my hands on my hips. “You’re egotistical. You have a misguided notion that the sun shines out of your ass and the world revolves around you. You can’t stand it when someone doesn’t give you what you want. You throw a fit whenever someone tells you ‘no’ like a petulant toddler. You go through women quicker than I go through underwear, and you don’t listen to people when they say they don’t want to be around you.” I took a deep breath and held his gaze as I delivered my final hit. “And you absolutely hate the fact that I can resist you, because there isn’t a single cell in my body that wants you.”
    His indigo eyes darkened to a stunning midnight color as they fixated on me. Anger swirled in them, mixed with a dark hint of desire, and the pull of his gaze was undeniable. I wanted to drop my metaphorical mic and walk away, but his eyes and their hypnotic hold kept me in place, so I dropped my hands from my hips instead.
    The air tensed between us, and I drew a breath in when he didn’t move or speak after a moment. Unfortunately, I couldn’t speak, either—mostly because my mouth had gone dry. It was so quiet that it felt like my exhale bounced off the walls as it shuddered out between my lips.
    Then he moved.
    He walked toward me, his large, muscular physique imposing but not threatening. It took him all of five steps to cross the room and stop in front of me. He towered over me, inches taller and wider than I was, but I held his gaze in a move that was either brave or stupid. Or both.
    I wouldn’t back down. I would stand by the words I believed in, because I wasn’t the floozies he discarded so often without thought.
    Beck flattened one hand against the wall next to my head and took my chin in his other. His touch burned my skin, and a tiny, electric shot darted across my jaw as his thumb twitched. “I might be all those things,” he said in a low voice. “In fact, I probably am, and I have my reasons for everything I do and everything I am. So you’re right about those, but you couldn’t be more wrong about your last statement.”
    “Really? Do tell me how you know my body and my mind better than I do.”
    He moved his hand so his thumb barely touched the edge of my lower lip. His eyes were intense on mine as he actually dragged his thumb slowly across the soft curve, and I couldn’t help but suck in a short, sharp breath as he tugged on the corner of my mouth.
    Goose bumps danced across my skin. His light move was enough to jerk my body into a reaction, and I swallowed even as I defiantly held his gaze. Maybe he was right about my being wrong—maybe a part of me did want him, but I sure as hell wouldn’t admit it.
    I would never admit to Beckett Cruz that I wanted him.
    “Yeah...” he said in a low voice, leaning in and tilting my head back. “You don’t want me at all, do you, Cassie? That’s exactly why you haven’t pushed me away.”
    “Actually, the opposite,” I said back, just as quietly. “I haven’t pushed you away because then you’d think I’m hiding something.”
    “You’re hiding it anyway. You think you’re a good actress, but you’re not. I bet your cunt is wet right now. After all, I could tell you right now that I don’t want you, but it won’t change the fact my cock is as hard as a fucking rock and throbbing inside my pants for you, will it?”
    I licked my lips. “And that’s where it can stay—inside your