Stripped Bare (Stripped #1)(36)

“Want me to stop?”

My head shook, answering before I could think about it.

He moved in, his lips barely touching mine, and then stopped. I couldn’t move closer to him or away from him. The world melted away as we stayed in a place, not kissing. But we were, and I could taste his coffee on his breath, feel his exhales over my lips, breathe in his very essence.

And then...

“West?” I whispered before taking a deep breath in. “Why do you keep doing this? What do you want from me?”

He sat back, not dropping his arm. A war waged in his eyes, as if he knew what he wanted but didn’t know why he wanted it. Neither of those things helped me as I stayed sitting in limbo, still able to lick my lips and taste his breath.

“West? You there?”

This time, he dropped his gaze like I’d burned him. “Beck?” He stood up, his chair squeezing against the floor. “The hell are you doing back?”

“Family reunions, man. They give me hives.” A tall, handsome man with dark hair cut a good inch shorter than West’s came into my line of sight as I turned. He was a little shorter than West, just as built, and just as freakin’ hot.

He’d called him Beck.

This had to be Beckett Cruz, the MIA-until-now business partner.

“I told you to tell your mom you had the flu.”

“I tried,” he responded. “She clipped me around the back of the head and dragged me through the house by my damn ear.”

West and Beckett shared a hug—you know, one of those guy hugs where they beat each other on the back halfway through.

“Come back here. Someone you need to meet.”

I bit the inside of my cheek as I stood. I hadn’t thought there was anything hotter than having West Rykman walk toward me, but I had been wrong. It was having West Rykman and Beckett Cruz walk toward me.

Speaking of...

Beckett stopped as soon as he laid eyes on me. He appraised me a little too thoroughly, his gaze hovering almost uncomfortably on my eyes. “Red hair. Curves for miles. Emerald-green eyes. I know exactly who you are.”

“Uh... You do?”

“Yeah. You’re the vixen who had this *’s head in a spin after that bachelorette party three weeks ago. How’d he find you?”

“I’m sorry?” I looked between West and Beckett.

West looked visibly uncomfortable.

“Yeah. I think he had wet dreams about you for a week like a f*cking teenager.”

“Beck,” West hissed out.

“Actually,” I said before he could continue embarrassing us both, “I’m with MM Marketing. Mia O’Halloran.”

Beckett’s eyes widened. “So, you’re... You’re not her? Well, shit. This is a bit damn awkward. West, you should’ve shut me up.”

“Well...” I tried to fight the sheepish raise of my shoulders. “I am...” I glanced at West.

“She’s also the vixen who had my head in a spin,” West ground out. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“Welcome.” Beckett slapped him on the shoulder and walked toward me.

I expected him to put his hand out, but no. He grabbed my shoulders and smacked a kiss on each of my cheeks.

“Pleasure to meet you, gorgeous. Beckett Cruz, the brains and beauty behind this guy’s... Well, f*ck it. I’m the body too. Call me Beck.”

“Nice to meet you.”

This was awkward. On a scale of one to ten, it was easily five hundred in the best moments. He talked to his business partner about me.

“I should get going.” I moved back to my things. “I’ll probably need the whole weekend to draft these fliers up since I’m not here Saturday, so I’ll check in Sunday night and let you know how it’s going.”

“Nah, gorgeous, don’t leave!” Beck clapped his hands together and rolled his sleeves up. Like West, he was wearing a white shirt.

I didn’t know if my ovaries would survive this conversation.

“Oh, no, it’s okay, really—”

“Stay, Mia. He’ll sit on you otherwise.” West tugged on a lock of my hair and sat next to me, boxing me in against the stage.

Beck didn’t miss it. He raised one eyebrow, but he didn’t mention it as he swung a chair around and sat on it backward. “Fill me in. What trouble have you been causin’ while I’ve been contemplating death by plastic fork?”

“He’s also a child and a drama queen,” West added.

“It was your death, buddy.”

“Right back atcha.”

They shared a grin.

They’d been friends a long time—I could tell. People like them had a vibe about them, like their friendship had its own airwave. The West I was seeing right then was a West I hadn’t seen before. I’d only ever seen serious or sexy West.

Not good-guy West.

This felt a lot like good-guy West.

“Well...” I cleared my throat and pulled my myriad of papers out of my folder. “We’ve rebranded the logo, which is here...”

“Rock Solid...for your pleasure. Ha!” Beck barked out the most infectious laugh I’d ever heard and smacked his hand against the table. “That’s f*ckin’ genius. Did he tell you that?”