Page 46 of Savage Hero

She gives me a sidelong glance as she slips inside, and then murmurs, “Us?”

I look away to check the outside hallway. Then I pull the door shut and lock it before slamming home the deadbolt.

When I turn around, Nyx has half her clothes off. She tosses her boots into a corner and leans against the back of the couch with her elbow as she yanks off first one sock, then the other.

I follow her silently, sidestepping the pieces of clothing she drops until we both end up in the studio apartment’s en-suite bathroom.

She doesn’t even stop outside the shower. Down to her black panties and the sports bra she wore the day I met her, she climbs into the small stall and turns on the water.

Her gasp does wicked things to my dick. She shields her face with her hands and sucks in a hiss when the water hits her shredded palms.The water turns red, then pink. I slip off my jacket, hanging it over the side of the basin, and set my Beretta down on top of it.

She looks at me when I take off my shirt, but says nothing. Her eyes drop to my chest. I’m not sure if she’s checking out my tattoos, or the scrapes all down my pecs and abs from when she took the wind out of me with her bullshit kidney shot back there on the roof.

“How many matches did you get in before they banned you?” I ask.

Her eyes darken, but she keeps quiet.

I kick off my shoes, yank off my socks. “That’s why you don’t compete anymore, right?”

“I don’t follow,” she says sourly, her hands trembling just a little as she holds them under the spray. It’s starting to steam up in there. Did she even turn on the cold water?

I unbutton my jeans, slide them down my hips. They land in a pile by the tub. I go to take off my boxers, but her eyes narrow to a glare so I leave them on.

The last thing I need right now is another chase.

“Me and you? We don’t follow the rules.” I step up to the shower, and she runs a wary gaze over my body as if wondering what right I have to share the hot water with her.

“Rules hold us back,” I murmur as I slide into the small cubicle with her. She doesn’t step back, and our bodies brush as I move to the back wall.

I was right about the water—it’s scorching. But she doesn’t even seem to notice.

“Rules keep ussafe,” she says. “That’s why I drive on the right side of the road.”

From the look in her eyes, she’s not really talking about driving regulations. She keeps her back to me as she takes up a bar of soap and slides it over her skin.

It’s the adrenaline still coursing through my veins. That, or the endorphins our marathon sprint released. My body feels heavy and numb, but my mind is soaring. We made it. We fuckingsurvived.And I know for a fact that wouldn’t have happened if Nyx was some bird-boned girl who’s favorite past time was watching reality TV or shopping for shoes online.

She might not be anything like me, but we do share something special.

We’refighters.Fucking survivors. The world thinks it can grind us under its heel, and instead we push back. I’d honestly never thought I would meet a woman like Nyx. My respect is grudging, but it’s there. And it’s doing carnal things to my libido.

“Some rules are meant to be broken.” I move her hair away from her neck and trail my fingers over her skin.

She spins around and slams the soap into my chest, flattening me against the wall. “That’s what criminals always say.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “You were going to kill my father in cold blood. That makes you a criminal too.”

Nyx pushes her next words through a grimace. “Your father has killedhundredsof people with his own hands. Thousands more have died because he said they should. If he wasn’t so rich, he’d be in jail with a death penalty hanging over his head.”

“I never pegged you as some kind of vigilante.”

Her lips quirk up at this, and she trails her fingers over one of my fresh wounds hard enough to make me wince. “You’re not immune from justice. Not Bryan, not you. Not me. Sometimes it just gets served in a more…personal way.”

I scoff at her, wrenching the soap from her fingers and throwing it against the opposite wall. “Did you ever stop to think that the people I hurt deserve it too?”

“Yeah? What did that baby ever do to you?”

“What baby?” I search her face and then throw out a laugh. “Who,Princess? I didn’t touch her.”

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