Stripped Bare (Stripped #1)(62)

He put his two down, but I couldn’t see there was two. I leaned over in front of him, licked my finger, and split them. The bright colors combined with the important text in white would be readable even in the low club light.

“Ah. Got it.”

For a businessman, he wasn’t good at placement. I had to redo another two of his as we slowly made our way through the next few tables. Awkward silence surrounded us as my parting words from not so long ago hung in the air. The tension thickened every time we put fliers down and our hands touched. I couldn’t fight the sensations that zinged across my skin whenever our fingers brushed.

I needed to speak to cut the tension and break the silence. So I said the first thing that came to my head. “Last night’s craziness, huh?”

“Hm?”

“What you said to Vicky.”

“Oh, yeah.” West fiddled with his sleeve and put a flier down. “The bachelorette party got a bit excited. One of them threw up in the restroom but missed the toilet. The bride wooed herself one of my guys and made out with him quite enthusiastically. Her cousin slipped and sprained her wrist when it hit a table, and one of the girls put a napkin with her phone number on it down the front of Vicky’s shirt.”

“Wow. Sounds like that was a load of fun.”

“That’s not even the worst part. Honestly, it all paled in comparison to the moment the maid of honor asked me how much I’d charge her for, and I quote, ‘the privilege of being able to suck your fine-as-f*ck dick.’”

I looked at him. “How much did you charge her?”

He stopped dead, but I carried on, even as his hot gaze burned into the back of my head.

“You think I let her?” he asked.

“I was joking.”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Fine. I wasn’t. It was genuine curiosity that had me asking.”

“Had you asking what? How much I charged, or were you really asking if she did?”

“Both, honestly.” Especially considering I’d gotten to do it for free. Several times.

“Mia.” He put his fliers on the table and moved in front of me.

I hugged my pile of papers to my chest and refused to look at him, so he pried them from my hands. I didn’t let them go easily, but he managed it and set them on the table next to me.

“Do you really think I’d let someone else do that?”

I trailed my gaze up the row of buttons that ran up the center of his fine body until it grazed over his stubbled jaw and finally met his eyes. “I have no idea.”

“Is that why you said what you did earlier? That our personal relationship has to end?” His eyebrows drew together.

“No.” It wasn’t a lie. I assumed the maid of honor’s request had come after I’d left. “I said it because it does, and I told you it’s not up for discussion.” I tugged my arm out of his grip and grabbed my pile of fliers. I still had a little over half the club’s tables to put them on and I needed more, so I moved to stage, and—

And West pounced on me, his strong hands grasping my waist and pushing me back to the stage. I dropped the sheets in shock, and they scattered all across the floor of the club, but that didn’t seem to matter as West hauled me up and laid me back.

My heart pounded ferociously as he jumped onto the stage too and lay over me. He grabbed my hands and threaded his fingers through mine, pinning them to the floor. Then he rested his knees on either side of my hips. His upper body pressed against mine, and I struggled to breathe easily as the heat from his body seeped through the material separating our skin.

I was on fire. I felt him everywhere, even in the places he wasn’t touching me. I was aware of every movement he made, from each exhale to every twitch of his fingers. The only sound that filled the club was of our breathing, which broke through the silence in an extraordinarily loud way.

I was looking down, but the force of his gaze pulled mine up to meet his. The blueness blazed back at me, enthralling me even as I knew I should try to get him off me. But I couldn’t. I was frozen, and it felt like time had frozen too.

That was the problem with looking into West’s eyes. They were captivatingly beautiful, surrounded by thick, dark lashes, and the emotions that swirled inside them hooked you and reeled you in.

He was fishing for my attention.

And he had it.

Hook. Line. Sinker.

I was caught in him completely.

“She didn’t touch me,” he breathed out, his voice rough. “Just because you and I met that way doesn’t mean I’m going to take up any woman who offers to suck my cock. I’m not a cheater, Mia, even if all we’re doing is having sex. I told her no and told her that, if she made more lewd comments to me or any of my boys, she would be asked to leave. Even if we weren’t sleeping together, I wouldn’t have touched her.”

“Were having sex,” I managed to force through the lump in my throat. “We were having sex.”

West dragged my hands closer together and lowered his face. “We’ll see about that. I don’t mind telling you that I’m humoring you, angel. You want to be professional? Fine, but I don’t see you trying to wiggle your sexy little body out from under me right now. I also know you’re hiding why you left here last night, but I don’t know why. Things that are hidden rarely stay that way.”