Page 58 of Brutal Boxer

No more fear.

No more pain.

Out of his reach, I hurt more than when held captive. The blatant hate I’d see in Zach’s ice-blue eyes strangled me. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get over the way he grabbed me so brutally that day during church. It made him no different than Casso.

How dare he treat me like I was a villain here to destroy him?

Then again, I took him away from his old lady. Crashed into his life uninvited. Why wouldn’t he be furious about guarding me? What man wanted to be in this situation with his ex? With the woman he couldn’t stand? The one he got a boner for when she was throwing up?

This was the kind of insanity in movies. A woman on the run from her deranged, violent boyfriend. She ends up in a lion’s den…biker’s club. Forced to trust them with her life. Made to stay in a remote cabin with the one man she’d hoped to never see again. The man she’d loved.

Years later, she hated that she still loved him.

I couldn’t make this crap up even if I tried.

Worse than anything else, how could Jill keep such important details from me? I hadn’t called her out on any of it yet. The timing never seemed right, but we’re supposed to be best friends. She should’ve told me her boyfriend Timur was a biker and his road name was Wolf. Then she could have mentioned Zach was one too.

I felt betrayed. Slighted. And salty as fuck over it.

Had I known any of this, I wouldn’t have come to Minnesota.

Stop already. You can do this. You’ve dealt with worse.

No, there was nothing worse than breathing the same air as Zach.

I expelled a cleansing breath. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do about anything.

The batter was mixed. The skillet on the stove was ready for me to get cooking.

A sudden urge to pee made me do the pee dance like when I was a kid. The pancakes could wait a minute longer. I rushed out of the kitchen.

Hollywood lifted his head. “Everything okay?”

“Yup. Bathroom.” I pointed down the hallway.

He snorted. “Okay, second door on the left.”

“K!”

The second door on the left,I repeated.

I thought Zach had said my room was the second door on the left. Whatever. It was a tense moment. I probably heard wrong.

I pushed open the door and ran smack dab, face-first into the chest of a rigid naked body.

“Oh my God!” I pushed myself away from the godlike figure, but not before I was poked in the stomach by his fully erect dick.In the process, I felt his six-pack abs against my hands. Familiar electric tremors traveled through my chest, down to my arms, and my southern region. I was rendered speechless.

“You okay?” he gripped my shoulder as I swayed a bit. His powerful hold infiltrated every cell in my body, tainting and possessing. “Are you hurt?” There wasn’t much light, but I swore the corner of his lip curled. His other hand covered his junk with a T-shirt.

“I… I’m so sorry. I thought this was the bathroom.”

“No. Not the bathroom.” He loomed above me, licking his lips and making me weak in the knees. The heat rolling off him caressed my red face.

“Why are you naked?” Thank goodness the only light in the room came from the cracks in the shutters on the window. Unfortunately, it was enough to make out his amused face. And his nakedness.

“Did you forget I sleep in the nude?”

I gulped. “It’s fifteen degrees out.”

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