Page 53 of Collide

The entire tattoo was made up of different shades of black and gray,and the only color was the piercing emerald green of the wolf’s eyes, making it look like the wolf was watching you no matter where you stood.

I’d never seen anything like it, it was simply stunning.

Hendrix slammed the door behind us, making me jump out of mydamn skin. Kai spun on his heel to face us, and boy, did he lookfucking madat the interruption.

Now he was facing me, his naked chest was exposed in all itsglory, and holy hell was he spectacular. I couldn't stop my tongue from peeking out and licking my bottom lip as I watched sweat roll down his solid pecs, which rose up and down as he tried to regain his breath. I cast my eyes down to his rock hard abs. Tattoos covered his strong arms, from shoulders to wrist and across his chest, all designs in black ink.

As my eyes roamed his firm body, I wondered what it would be like torun my hands all over it, or even my tongue…..

“Boss, sorry for the interruption but Riley here wanted a word,”Hendrix said, breaking me out of my inappropriate thoughts and throwing me straight under the bus. The fucker still had a tinge of humor in his voice making me want to jab my elbow into his ribs.

It was evident he thought I was going to get into trouble for disturbingKai, and that made me hate Hendrix just that little bit more.

Kai’s snarling face softened before he used his teeth to undo thestrap on one of his boxing gloves. Once he pulled it off, he undid the other one and threw the gloves down into the ring, the bag behind him forgotten about. He climbed out of the ring and stormed towards us, making butterflies in my stomach spring to life.

My jaw was on the floor at the sight of the God marching towards me.I should have been hot footing it back to my room and apologizing profusely for disturbing him, but I couldn’t move. My feet were glued to the spot and my eyes were practically bugging out of my head, all logical thought gone from my brain.

Never in my life had I had such a visceral reaction to a man, he wassomething out of this world, and I knew I’d be fantasizing about this moment for weeks, scratch that,months,to come.

Not that I’d tell him that, of course.

“Is everything okay?” he asked when he reached us, his voicesurprisingly soft and at odds with the way he had stormed over to us.

His question was aimed at me, barely acknowledging Hendrix, and hedid look like he was genuinely concerned.

“Uh…I…erm.”

Fucking hell.

I think I had a stroke or something because I’d lost the power tospeak. I couldn’t think of anything but the sexy-as-fuck man standing next to me, heat radiating off his sweaty body.

Kai’s concerned gaze turned from one of concern to one ofamusement and he gave a jerk of his head to Hendrix, dismissing him from the room. From the corner of my eye, I saw Hendrix’s eyes widen at being dismissed, but like the good little lamb he was, he turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him.

I couldn’t help but be a little bit smug. Guess it wasn’t going to be myfuneral after all.

Once the door was closed, Kai brought his hand up to my chin andgently closed my mouth.

“You good there, Star?” he said, his dark eyes alight with mirth. Thetouch of his damp hand against my heated skin sent little tingles of pleasure straight to my core.

I wasn’t sure if it was his touch or the mention of my stage namewhich snapped me out of the spell that had temporarily been placed on my sanity, either way, I cleared my throat and took a tiny step back, causing his hand to drop.

“Er, yeah. I’m sorry for disturbing you, I just…” Why the fuck had Iwanted to speak to him again? Jeez, I needed to get my shit together.

“You don’t need to apologize, Riley, you can disturb me any time,” hereplied warmly.

It was like I was speaking to an entirely different Kai, completelydifferent from the one who had been in the room with Blaze and me, the cold, callous bastard who’d not only bartered for Blaze’s release in exchange for a night with me, but had also pinned me against a wall and whispered wicked things in my ear.

That guywas nowhere to be seen.

“I didn’t want to go with Hendrix,” I blurted, immediately feeling stupid.

Kai looked towards the door Hendrix had not long departed throughbefore meeting my eyes again.

“Hendrix is one of my best men, he won’t hurt you.”

“He scares me. He walked into my room earlier without evenknocking. I could have been naked, Kai.” I was being honest, but I felt like a bitch for dobbing Hendrix in. In my defense, Ireallydidn’t like the fact he’d waltzed into my room. If he could do it then, he could do it when he damn well pleased, and that left me feeling uneasy.

Not to mention the creepy way he looked at me all the time.

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