Page 67 of Playing Hard to Get

“Anna, stop.” I grabbed her wrists off my chest and pushed her away from me.

She glared at me, her hazel eyes hard, clear for the first time in days. “It's time you stop this, Mitch. You need to let this happen.”

“I'm not gonna fucking sleep with you, Anna. Not gonna happen.”

She wrenched her hands out of my grasp and spun away from me. Pushed past and sat on the edge of her four-poster bed. One leg crossed over the other as she leaned back on her palms, pressing her large chest into the room.

“I’m not playing around anymore, Mitch. I want you, and I always get what I want.”

“Not this time.”

Anna pursed her lips. Dragged her eyes down my body, then up to my eyes. “This about your whore?”

“Excuse me?”

“Your whore.” She spit the word with a sneer on her face. “That little bitch I found in your bed. You still fucking her?”

“What’s it matter to you?”

“Because I can do it better.” Anna uncrossed her legs, spreading them out in front of her. The fabric inched up, threatening to give me a show I didn’t want to see.

I turned my head to the side, cast my eyes to the dark corner of the room. “You could never come close.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s the truth.” I dragged my eyes back to her, keeping them trained on her face. My own face was turned up so it took only the tiniest flick of my eyes to remove them from seeing anything she wanted to show that I didn’t want to see.

“What does she have that I don't?” she asked as if she thought she was better. As if she thought Viv was beneath her.

“Everything,” I said without hesitation. “She’s got class. Looks. A sense of humor. She's got a booming business that she's worked her ass off for. She—”

Anna scoffed. “My father gives me more money than I know what to do with.”

I let out a huff of air. “Her father’s fortune puts yours to shame. But she doesn't need that. She makes her own money, doesn't expect it to be given to her.”

Anna's eyes darkened. She stood and took a step toward me. I stepped back. Her lips curled as she placed her palms on her hips.

“You fell in love with a whore.”

Anger ripped through me and I clenched my fists at my sides. “I fell in love with the most beautiful, intelligent, good-hearted woman I have ever met. And nothing, I repeat, nothing you do could ever come close to her.”

Spinning on my heel, I took two long strides to the door. Anna’s cold voice stopped me.

“Fine.” Tension sprawled across my back at her tone. “Go ahead and leave. But know if you do, you're done for.”

I turned to her, my eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

She smiled, pure evil racing across her face. “If you don't stay here and fuck me?” She laughed, hard and humorless, then shrugged. “I'll tell my father you raped me.”

“I have never touched you.”

“So what? My father doesn't know that. And he would never believe you over me.”

Shaking my head, I ran a hand through my hair and yanked hard. “You wouldn't dare.”

“That won't be the end of it.” She raised her eyebrows, pure delight lighting up her face. “After I take you down, I'll take down this stupid little company you work for too. You'll lose everything. Your job, your whore, your freedom.”

She took a step closer. Ran a hand down her stomach, toying with the thin fabric between her thighs.