Page 37 of City of Salvation

Dancing was tough on the body, and all the extra stress from the last few months wasn’t helping. My sleep was shit, my eating was shit, and I desperately needed a massage. A soft moan slipped out when I hit a particularly tender spot, but the relief was short-lived when I heard the clearing of a throat close by.

When I opened my eyes again, Dex was staring me down with an expression I couldn’t quite read, which quickly morphed into one I knew well. He was pissed.

“Well, spitfire, turns out we’re sharing a one-bedroom, one-bath.” All I could do was gawk at him as he plopped beside me. Surely, he was fucking with me. “What’s your shitting schedule? Because that could be a real problem if we take our morning shits at the same time,” he said.

I pinched the bridge of my nose. Everyone who saidcalming breathshelped was a damn liar because they weren’t doing shit to help me avoid a breakdown. “That’s what you’re concerned about? What about the whole where the fuck are we both going to sleep?” I waved my hand between us to emphasize the fact that there were two people here with only one bed, as Dex didn’t seem to understand that part.

His face scrunched in confusion. “What do you mean? It’s not like the bed is a twin. Both of us will fit in it,” he said, leaning back and propping his feet up on the worn coffee table. You’d think the cartel could afford to have some nicer fucking apartments, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and in all fairness, I’d stayed in a lot worse since my fall from grace.

The first night I’d slept on a park bench and woke up to someone digging through my backpack. Luckily, they’d only taken the few dollars I had left and didn’t find my forged identification. I’d never had to think about hiding or watching after my things before. My father was a formidable figure inthe Bratva. No one would dream about stealing any of his things- or his daughter’s.

“Earth to Nikki. Come in, Nikki,” Dex called out, waving a hand in front of my face. I’d zoned out and hadn’t even noticed Dex move in closer. He sat facing me, his arm stretched across the back of the couch, our bodies inches from touching. “Listen, don’t worry about the bed thing. I’ll sleep out here on the couch, okay?”

My heart clenched at the genuine expression on his face. “Are you sure?” I asked, eyeing him and the sofa, trying to determine if it was even long enough for him to fit on it.

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” he said, pushing my hand away from my neck and replacing it with his. “Here, turn that way. You’re not going to find any relief doing that yourself.”

Of course, my brain instantly turned his words sexual, thinking of all theotherways he could help me find relief. We’d already made some unspoken pact that we wouldn’t cross that line.

But we can get close, right?

Thank god my back was to Dex, so he couldn’t see my eyes rolling back when he gripped my hips and pulled me closer, but there was no stopping the groan when his strong fingers worked their magic on the knots in my neck. I struggled to resist the urge to lean into his touch.

His dark chuckle wrapped around me, shooting straight to my clit. “You like that?” he asked, his breath brushing my ear. “Tell me what you want, spitfire. Harder? Deeper? Faster?”

He was fucking with me, but I didn’t even care because the sensation of his skilled hands kneading my tense muscles sent shivers down my spine— soothing and electrifying. I tried to maintain my composure, but every stroke made it increasingly difficult to resist melting into his body.

“Holy fuck,” I breathed out, my nipples pebbling when hewove a hand into my hair. The combination of the pads of fingers digging into my scalp and the slight pull of the strands was—orgasmic. I desperately tried to bring up my mental list of all the reasons it was a bad idea to hop on his dick, but was coming up blank.

Then, as suddenly as it’d started, it stopped.

“Now, let’s go get the rest of your shit,” he said, patting my leg before standing and heading out of the apartment. His long fingers had brushed the inside of my thigh since the shorts I wore covered next to nothing. The contact was like a brand on my skin.

My hair slapped me in the face as I attempted to shake off the horniness thrumming through me, and then Dex ruined all of my efforts when he walked back in with a stack of boxes and a bare chest.

“Want me to put these in your room?” he asked, completely ignorant to the fact that I was seconds away from climbing him like a tree. Thankfully, the boxes were hiding the majority of his muscled body.

All I could do was nod.

I groaned when he turned and walked down the hall. Why did he have to have a sexy back? A sexy, tattooed back. I peeked between the fingers covering my face, cursing that decision the moment I noticed how well his jeans hugged his ass. God, this was going to be awful.

I needed to fuck someone before I ended up fucking my roommate.

CHAPTER 17

DEX

FUCK. WE WERE BOTH FUCKED UP, WEREN’T WE?

“Nikki,what the fuck is taking you so long?” I yelled loud enough for her to hear down the hall and through her closed door.

I opened the cabinet above the fridge, hoping to score.

Would it be frowned upon if I drank my weight in tequila tonight?I let out a humorless chuckle. Ryan would beat my ass if I was drunk on my newjob, and Nikki…she’d run away. The look of determination in her beautiful blue eyes told me everything I needed to know. That woman was biding her time, but she wasn’t going to be locked down. I had to be just as worried about herleavingas someone taking her.

“Dammit,” I muttered when there was nothing but dust in the cabinet.

There was no going back on this shit, either. After the meeting with Ryan and all of them, I had to go deliver all the news to Pres at church. The vote was unanimous for me to take the security detail, and they didn’t vote that way because they were concerned for Nikki. Well, maybe Gunner’s and Torque’s votes were for that reason, but everyone else? No,they wanted someone from our club close to Nikki since she seemed to be the coveted prize.

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