Stripped Bare (Stripped #1)(24)

“For your pleasure,” he murmured. His bright gaze swung to me, a smile teasing his lush lips. “Rock Solid...for your pleasure.”

“Yeah. Like I said. I was supposed to delete that.” My cheeks heated up.

He ran the back of one finger across my burning skin and winked. “I love it. Keep it.”

“Really? It’s cheesy as hell.”

“You seen the moves we pull in this place? Take away the music with a heavy baseline and we’re just overgrown toddlers trying to aim at the potty.”

I covered my hand with my mouth in an attempt to muffle my laughter, but it didn’t work. My mind flashed back to some of the awkward moves I’d seen the day before, and I had to admit that he was entirely right. Especially the guy in Sin Ropa. If you made the woman a toilet and took his pants down, he would have totally been a potty-training toddler trying to aim.

That was it. I’d never be able to look at strippers in the same way again.

“It’s kinda true,” he continued, his own laughter sparkling in his eyes.

Seriously—they freaking shone. I couldn’t look away, even though I was still giggling into my hand.

“We are rock solid, and it is for your pleasure.”

Rock Solid.

For your pleasure.

I’d inadvertently created a double entendre.

And, now that the thought was in my head, my gaze dropped to his pants and I giggled all over again. My stomach hurt, but I couldn’t stop, even as I wrapped one arm around my midsection like it’d soothe the clenching pain there.

“Are you all right?” West asked, still holding the paper.

I took a deep breath and slowly let it go. “The name and the slogan. You meant it as your bodies, but now, I’m thinking...other parts of you.”

He stilled, his gaze capturing mine once more. He swept his tongue over his top lip as his mouth slowly curved upward into a grin that was oh so delicious. “Dirty girl.”

My teeth dragged over my lower lip as I fought my smile. “Couldn’t help it. It just...popped up.”

“Mia.” His voice had dropped, and my name had come out as a husky rasp. “If you keep talking like that...”

I held my hands up as my heart thudded at the implications of what would happened if I did. “Sorry. My bad. Back to the logos. So, the final one?” I swallowed hard and looked away from him.

I couldn’t look at him. The battle between restraint and temptation that waged in his gorgeous eyes was intense, and if I looked any longer, I knew I’d make the choice for him. And that was bad, bad, bad.

West cleared his throat and put the sheet next to my laptop. “Can you make the slogan bigger? Not much bigger, just a bit more readable.”

I nodded and clicked on the Photoshop icon to load it. I was definitely glad I’d brought my laptop now, because it gave me something to do as his eyes seared a hole into the side of my head. My hair fell from where it had been tucked behind my ear, creating a fiery, auburn curtain between us. Though I would have usually swept it right back, I left it, despite how annoying it was as it tickled my cheek.

Just because I couldn’t see his gaze anymore didn’t mean I couldn’t feel it.

My heartbeat echoed in my ears, the harsh pulsing loud enough to drown out any other sound and impossible to ignore. I didn’t want my heart to beat this fast. I didn’t want to be attracted to this man in any kind of way, but I was so drawn to him that I couldn’t not be.

“Like that?” I asked after bringing up the layered file and editing the text size. I’d had to reposition it slightly, but it almost looked better. No. It did look better.

West reached up and trailed his fingertips across my skin, putting my hair back behind my ear. “Perfect.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but the words got stuck in my throat. What I wanted to say was, Okay, I’ll save it. Or, Don’t do that. But what I said was nothing, and what I did was turn my face into his touch the tiniest amount.

“I know why you didn’t contact me yesterday,” he said in that low voice of his, his earlier amusement entirely eradicated. “And, Mia? If I made you uncomfortable by kissing you, I apologize. That wasn’t my intention.”

“I...” I trailed off and gently sighed. I wasn’t uncomfortable, was I? No—I was torn. Torn between my own personal wants and my professional needs.

I shifted away from West by an inch, his hand falling back to the sofa. I scanned his body, from his large, rough hands to his broad shoulders and the trim, toned body between them. Even his thick thighs. Until finally my gaze reached his handsome face, meeting his.

He was still as he waited. Didn’t push me to speak, which went against everything I knew about him, and that wasn’t much. Maybe he really did feel bad for having kissed me. Which he shouldn’t have. It was a great kiss, all things considered. Just perhaps super ill-timed.

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable,” I eventually managed to say to him. “I just... I can’t have my personal life get in the way of my professional one. I’ve worked too hard for a chance at a contract like this, and it fell in my lap by an unfortunate circumstance, but I want to make it work. If we have a personal relationship, all of these lines will blur. If I’m doing a shit job, I want you to be able to tell me without worrying you’re hurting my feelings. That can’t happen if we’re anything more than consultant and client.”