Page 11 of Their Greatest Strength

I jump at the deep voice and gasp while falling backward onto my ass. The floor is hard enough that the impact rattles my bones as I look in the direction of the man and tense.

“Who are you?” I attack, crab crawling backward before pushing to my feet.

Shit. This is so my karma for attempting to steal.

This guy is not who I was expecting to own a place like this. Not because he doesn’t look like he could be successful, but because he doesn’t seem to want to skin me alive for sneaking into his house and attempting to steal from him.

The smirk on his plump lips and humour in the steel blue of his eyes throws me for a loop. This isn’t an overly funny situation, and I’m certainly not feeling very at ease about it. I’ve just been caught stealing from a stranger. It’s a surprise I haven’t torn out of this place yet.

I definitely should when I realize that he’s currently half-naked. Wearing only a pair of low-riding grey sweatpants and a backward baseball cap, he leans against the wall with his arms crossed. And by arms, I really mean tree trunks. Christ alive,they could be as thick as my thighs, and I’ve always been heavier-set.

Clearly, he’s some sort of gym buff. First, the arms, and now, a stomach fit with flexing abdominal muscles and a deep-cut V leading to the waist of his sweatpants.

I snap my eyes up to his face again and scowl. While he might not have abs up here, it’s still a struggle not to get distracted by the sharp lines of his jaw or the strong nose that leads up to eyebrows that may be better kept than mine.

He’s too good-looking to also be so well-built. Any guy who’s hot both above and below the shoulders either has an incredibly small dick or an arrogance that already has me pushing to my feet, prepared to leave at the drop of a hat.

As if hearing my thoughts, he reaches up to press his hat further onto his head, causing the curling blond hairs beneath it to splay out.

“I live here. Who are you?”

Fuck. Even his voice is hot. All low and husky with a slight smoothness that I wouldn’t doubt has led several females to his bed.

“I’m nobody.”

He cocks his head slightly, eyes scrolling up and down my body. When he meets my stare again, his mouth lifts in a half smile.

“You’re not a nobody.”

“To you, I am,” I argue.

“Currently, yeah. But I’d prefer to put a name to the face of the woman robbing me.”

“Too bad.”

His laugh is just as husky as his voice. “Would it gain me any points if I said that it’s a pretty face?”

“It would actually make you lose points.”

“Shit. You play hardball.”

“You have no idea,” I say with a huff.

He pushes off the wall and takes three steps toward me, careful to leave double that still between us. “I’d like to get one.”

“Get what?”

“An idea. And a name. Anything, really.”

“Don’t you think you’re being a bit desperate? Did you forget already that I wasjusttrying to steal from you?”

His eyes crinkle at the corners as his laugh grows louder. “I can’t say that anyone has ever called me desperate before, but if that’s what it takes to get me what I want, then so be it.”

I blink at him, a brow arching. “And what you want is my name?”

“Yeah, Bandit. I want your name.”

“Don’t call me that. We’re so not on pet name status yet.”

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