Read Online Hot Under Pressure by Louisa Edwards - Free Book Online Page A

hard, straight line. It was the look that told Skye, without words, that nothing she said was going to change his mind. “I won’t apologize for protecting you.”
    And Skye felt it again, that strange, conflicting welter of emotions she’d thought long behind her—the softening of tenderness spiced with gratitude bumping up against the tense, coiled unhappiness at being the cause of violence in the world.
    Not only generalized, capital-V Violence, either, but violence done and risked by this familiar stranger standing in front of her.
    Well, no more. “I’m not asking you to apologize,” she said, dragging calm into her chest along with a cleansing breath. “Because I know that would be a waste of time. But I am asking you to respect my wishes. Once the final round of the Rising Star Chef competition starts, I don’t care what Ryan Larousse pulls, you stay out of it. I’m a big girl, Beck. We might technically be married, but that’s just paperwork. You’re not my husband in any way that matters. And it’s been a long time since I needed a street-tough kid in my corner to fight my battles for me. I meant what I said yesterday. I want that divorce, Beck.”
    His expression of cool detachment never faltered. “No argument from me,” he said, without any inflection at all, and suddenly the tiny, faltering, brainless spark of hope Skye had harbored collided with a rage she thought she’d long ago come to terms with, igniting a stinging, burning fire in her chest.
    “No, no arguments,” she agreed viciously. “God forbid you should show enough emotion to fight for what you want.”
    “I thought you hated fighting.” Beck arched one brow. “At least, that’s what you said when I enlisted.”
    “What I hated was being alone in every fight. What I hated was never knowing how you felt—about anything! I hated…” That you were leaving me . Skye stopped herself before she could say it, breathing harshly.
    There it was again. Hate. She didn’t want to be someone who threw that word around lightly.
    Trying for calm, she said, “This is pointless. You never understood, never even tried—you’re not going to start getting it now, after ten years apart.”
    “Why do you want this divorce? I mean, why now?” he asked suddenly. “You could’ve brought this up back in Chicago.”
    Because last week in Chicago, she hadn’t gotten that cryptic email from Jeremiah, promising her a brand-new future.
    Panic buzzed through her. Should she tell Beck the truth? Would that make him more likely to give her what she wanted?
    No way. Beck didn’t get any more of her than he’d already had.
    “I don’t understand why we’re even having this discussion,” she hedged. “I’m trying to make it easier for you to do what you do best. Walk away.”
    Her words dropped into the pause between them like ice into a glass of water. When Beck spoke again, his voice was dangerously soft, and Skye tensed all over before she’d even registered what he was saying.
    “You know what? No.”
    Her jaw dropped. “No? No, what? No divorce? You don’t get to say no!”
    “And yet, here I am, my mouth shaping the word and … huh, yeah, seems like my vocal cords are working okay, because no. Uh uh. Forget it.”
    Shock tightened her throat until she was the one struggling for words. “But you … you left me! A decade ago.” A thought occurred to her, and she poked a triumphant finger into his wide, solid chest. “I don’t need your consent! I’ll claim abandonment.”
    Looking down at her from his great height, Beck seemed to loom until he blocked out the sun, and the sky, and the crowds around them, until it was almost like they were alone, the only two people on the planet. “A no-contest divorce would be so much faster, so much simpler.”
    Gritting her teeth until her jaw throbbed, she said, “But if you won’t give me one…”
    “I tell you what,” Beck said, his dark eyes unreadable. “I’ll play you for