Page 23 of Clinch'd

I contemplate his demand and decide what the hell. If I expected a please, I'd probably be dead, and it still wouldn't happen. Whatever.

I’m dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, and I have no idea what's happening on the top floor, beyond his growly demanding text and special code for the penthouse.

In any case, I’m tired and with a fatalistic shrug I head out. He’ll have to deal with the mess.

After a good five minutes of trying to figure out the fancy ass elevator to no avail, I sigh with frustration when it heads down to the lobby instead of the penthouse.

I can't figure out the damn code thing to save my life. I guess I will ask the person at the front desk and expose my complete ignorance.

But all thoughts of that fly out the window when the doors open at the lobby and I spy Cooper standing on the other side, with a buxom blonde staring up at him with stars in her eyes. Absently I wonder if that’s what I look like when I’m staring at him as my stomach twists into a painful knot.

He sucks you in with those wicked caramel eyes and sexy as sin body. The problem is, he leaves you fucking cold when he opens his damn mouth.

Suddenly, I want to be invisible, his implication about me acting like a whore bouncing around my brain. Besides, I’m all slouchy in my jeans and ratty sweatshirt but more than anything, I don’t want him to see me when he’s with some chick he no doubt plans to fuck.

Why I don’t know. I’m not the whore in this situation after all. Shit.

Slouching my shoulders, I avert my face and try to slide past them casually as they step back, but no such luck because I see his head raise out of the corner of my eye before he says, “Minnie?”

Shit. Fuck. Damn.

Turning my head, I school my features into surprise and say, a tad breathlessly, “Cooper?”

He looks good, of course he does. He's wearing a shirt and jeans, his arms bulging deliciously. His tattoos mock me through the material, reminding me I never got the chance to explorethem. I want to lick every single inch of his body, starting with the skull staring at me in shades of gray.

When I stop on the ridge of his dick plain to see straining against his jeans, my core pulses painfully and I look away with a flush to my cheeks.

He called you a whore, I remind myself, but my body doesn’t seem to care.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, and do I detect a hint of amusement?

Meeting his eyes, I confirm they are twinkling devilishly, and I narrow my own, before saying coolly, “Yes, well, I’m here with Beast.”

The chick drops Cooper’s arm at the mention of Beast, an uneasy look crossing her face and I move my gaze back to Cooper with a moue of distaste.

He just grins, but his eyes are icy when he says, “Hm. Well, give him my regards. Ready, sweetheart?”

The woman melts when he flashes her a charming grin, and my chest pulses painfully, but I step from the car as I originally intended, glancing back when Cooper says, “See you around.”

His mouth curls in a devilish smirk, but I look away because even though my being here is in direct relation to him, I’m not sure I want to see his fucking face ever again.

Lies.

Sigh.

I finally figured out how to reach the penthouse, and when I enter Beast’s suite, it's to a raging party. The music is pulsing so loudly, I’m not sure how the people sleeping beneath him can't hear it. To my shock and dismay, it's a freaking orgy and I avert my gaze, heat flooding my cheeks. What the hell?

I don’t spot Beast, but let's be clear, I’m not looking that closely. Instead, I slip into the kitchen, marveling at the size of the space. It’s got its own damn kitchen and living room, at that. With a sigh, I grab a beer and contemplate going back to my room because I have zero desire to search out Beast amongst the rutting couples.

I’m still smarting over my encounter with Cooper. Being underdressed was the least of my problems but I felt decidedly at a disadvantage because of it. Although Beast as much as said that Cooper dicks his conquests, seeing it with my own two eyes left a nasty taste in my mouth.

It’s hard to reconcile how my body heats in direct relation to his proximity when he’s such a douche. But I guess that’s what animal attraction is because I’m definitely not using my fucking brain.

“There you are. What took you so long?” Beast says appearing before me shirtless with his pants unbuttoned at that.

Truthfully, although he’s huge, has a menacing scowl and zero social skills, if I hadn't seen Cooper first, I might find him attractive. But still, he slept with Lorri so that’s out of the question, because I’m pretty sure when she told me to get laid it wasn’t with the intention that I sleep with him.

“Whatever,” I grumble. “What do you want?”

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