“Why would I do that?”
I laughed, but it was so hollow I couldn’t even believe it myself. I couldn’t even fake its reality. “What am I supposed to do, Brett? Your sister just told me why you need—yes, need—me to do this, yet there you are, being the same old person you have been.”
“You’re right. I did tell her I couldn’t remember her, but it wasn’t a lie. I really do have no idea who she was.” He paused. “And no, I wouldn’t ask her out on a date, because she’s only interested in one thing.”
“Let me guess… your dick?”
He shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. Then without taking his eyes off mine, he pulled out a black credit card and dropped it on the desk next to my purse. He followed it up by throwing a small wad of green bills on there too.
“That. That’s all she wants. Don’t fucking think for a second that any of the girls you think I use aren’t using me right back. Anyone who’d fuck me on the first date will fuck me in an entirely different way in a few years.”
“That doesn’t excuse your behavior. Nothing does. Just because somebody doesn’t respect you doesn’t mean you have to disrespect them right back.” I shook my head, smiling humorlessly. “God, Brett. Who are you?”
He grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward him. My body slammed into his, knocking the breath out of me. My skin burned where his fingers wrapped around my wrist, and my pulse throbbed harshly against his touch.
He met my eyes with such a ferocity that it made me want to run but also needed me to stay. Needed me to know why he looked at me that way. “You don’t want me to answer that question.”
“What if I do?” I raised my chin in a challenge. “What if I want to know why you changed so badly?”
His lip curled so coldly a chill ran down my spine. “Then you’re a fucking idiot, Lani. Trust me when I tell you that you should drop it.”
“Why? Do you think so much of yourself that you really think I’ll give in to your so-called charms and fall helplessly into your bed?”
His silence answered my questions.
“Oh my god,” I breathed. “You do. You think that’s what’ll happen.”
Again, he said nothing. He simply speared me with his hard, hot gaze.
“Fuck you.” I tore my wrist from his grip and took a step back, shaking my head. “You know something? You’re right. Nothing I do or write or publish will ever be able to change people’s opinions of who you are. You’re such a self-absorbed, egotistical, self-indulgent, disrespectful—”
Brett grabbed my arms, pulled me back to him, and slammed his lips against mine. A spark of hot, angry lust cascaded across my skin, leaving goosebumps in its wake. Frozen in place, I could do nothing as he sank his fingers into my hair and cupped the back of my head, pulling me deeper into the kiss. His tongue swept across the seam of my lips teasingly yet forcefully.
My body reacted before my brain.
I gripped his shirt and fell into the kiss. My heart thundered against my ribs as he swept his tongue through the gap in my lips. I inhaled as his tongue touched mine and he fisted my hair so tightly my scalp stung with the pressure.
My entire body burned. It was the only word for the mix of feelings that were running riot through my body.
As he kissed me. And, god, he kissed me. He kissed me long and hard and deep until the reality of it sunk in and— He smacked my ass.
Hard.
I gasped, shoving him away from me. I smacked my hand over my mouth and staggered back a few paces. “Oh my god!” I breathed. “What the hell?”
Brett said nothing. It was a horrible habit with him, I could see. One I wanted to slap right out of him in that moment.
“You asshole. You self-entitled bastard.”
“Oh good,” he drawled, a vein bulging in the side of his neck. “I’m so glad you got to finish your insulting tirade.”
I stared him down. In the split-second it took for the lingering burn of his kiss to shiver down my spine, the fog in my mind cleared. Unfortunately, that meant I was feeling the kiss in other places. My nipples were hard and pressing against the padding of my bra, and my clit throbbed, leaving an uncomfortable ache between my legs.
Mostly, I felt one thing—anger.
It slowly crept its way back through my veins as I pressed my fingertips to my now-tender lips.
One job, Lani. You have one freaking job.
I was going to fuck it up.
I knew I was.
I don’t know why I ever thought it would be any different with him.
The power he’d had over me, the one I’d always allowed him, hung thick in the air. And I’d put money on the fact he fucking knew it.
Shit, it’d been eight years since I’d last laid eyes on the man who was once my best friend, but I wasn’t little Lani Montana anymore. I wasn’t a sixteen-year-old girl, hopelessly in love with her best friend and handing him her heart so he could stop on it with his man-slut boots.
I had the one ability now that I hadn’t had back then. I knew how to take back the power from him. I knew how to take it and hold onto it, and I was going to do it if it killed me.
“You listen to me, Brett Walker,” I snapped, holding my ground. “The next time you so much as even think about kissing me, I’m going to shove your dick so far up your insides you’ll be able to suck it yourself.”
“Will I be able to deep-throat myself?” His gray-blue eyes flashed with amusement through the heady attraction that lingered. “‘Cause that’ll save me having to explain how I like it next time I need a blow job.”
My jaw twitched in annoyance. God, he was such a smug son of a bitch. How had I ever had feelings for him? Oh, that’s right. Back then, he hadn’t been ridden so many times he could fill in for the bikes at the gym. He was an asshole-in-training as opposed to being the CEO of Asshole Central.
“Don’t think I’m joking. You had no fucking right to kiss me.”
“I didn’t see you pushing me away.”
It stung because he was right. “If you didn’t already guess it, I don’t want to be here. I’m here because your father wants me to work my magic and clean up your act so you look like you’re a gentleman. I can’t pretend that if you’re acting like the same asshole to me as you do to every other woman in town.”
“But I am a gentleman,” he said, lips curved into a dirty smirk. “I always make sure I ask before I spank.”
“Not according to my right butt cheek!” It stung, and it was definitely more noticeable now I was thinking about it. Kneeing his dick up into his throat was definitely appealing.
“Sometimes I forget. Can you blame me when faced with your ass?”
“Yes. It’s not like you don’t wake up each day and look at one in the mirror, is it?”
He paused for a moment, staring at me, before he burst into deep laughter. Each low chuckle danced across my skin and made the hairs on my arms stand on end.