Page 10 of Hot Receiver

Zak leans forward, his glare now on Anna. “I don’t believe we’ve met. Hi, I’m Mr. None Of Your Goddamn Business. Ididn’t catch your name. Would it happen to be Miss Stick My Nose Were It Doesn’t Fucking Belong?”

A snort of laughter catches in my throat, and now the glare is back on me. I shake my head, coughing. “Dude, that’s so fucking lame. So, what, you pay all that money for an MBA and they serve a side of lame-ass comebacks with your degree?”

“Fuck you both.” He sits back and folds his arms over his chest.

Anna looks back at him in the rearview mirror. “This isn’t the most tolerant place on the planet. If you wanted to buy a football team, why here in Ohio, of all places?”

“Do you need me to repeat my name?” Zak bites out.

Anna flashes her famous toothy smile at his reflection and pulls to a stop next to the curb. Then, she flips around to face him. “If you’re going to be managing people, you might want to learn how to speak to them. You can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar. And the stuff you’re spewing is more like toxic waste.”

Ouch.

She gets out of the truck before Zak can shake off the shock of her scalding words and walks around the front of the truck, swinging her hips, no doubt, for my benefit. I push open the door and jump out.

I take her hand and walk her into her building. “You’re really something else, you know what?”

“So I’ve been told.” She nods her head toward the glass windows behind us. “Now, fix whatever the heck is broken between you two because that team is going to need you more than ever right now. And your new leader has some serious issues.”

Christ, if she only knew the truth about why he has these issues… and who’s really to blame for them.

She reaches for my tie and pulls me close, her lips grazing mine in a kiss full of promises.

Things she wants to do to me.

Not necessarily things I want to have done by her.

Because the only thing that made my cock stir in those few fleeting seconds was an image of Zak’s head bobbing up and down on it.

And when his heated gaze practically sears the glass as I walk back toward my truck, the realization pops like a gunshot in my brain.

He wants that, too.

Chapter 5

Zak

Why the fuck did I have to look? Goddamn glass windows. I can’t unsee his lips on Anna’s, his hand on her ass. The blood in my veins turns to molten hot lava, engulfing my insides with all the emotions that were dredged up tonight when I saw Matt Harrison at that fundraiser we both attended.

I needed to get the hell away from him and here I am, sitting in the backseat of his truck.

He thinks he saved me tonight. I bet he thinks it’ll make up for every wrong he committed against me.

Covering my face with my hand, a strangled yell knots in my throat.

I want to hate the bastard. I want him to feel pain and anger and rejection. I want to torch his fucking charmed life.

But the only thing I want more than any of that right now is to strip him down and feel his hard, muscled body flush against mine. A sharp pain lances my heart. What the hell is he really doing with Anna Taylor?

He’s a fucking liar. How has he been able to fool the whole goddamn world for so long?

Matt thinks I have everything.

But I don’t have the one thing I desperately want but can’t buy.

Freedom.

I want to be free to live.

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