Page 10 of Hero & Villain (Super Serum Billionaires #1)

Chapter Six

VILLAIN

I woke up to the sound of a woman cursing enthusiastically while strong arms carried me down an alley with bleached brick walls.

My eyelids fluttered, and I turned my head to see the boy I’d kissed at the top of the world.

It took a long time for all the pieces to fall into place.

He smelled of chocolate and whiskey. “Stop smelling so good,” I whispered in a husky voice.

I needed water. Or his mouth. He had a scar on his upper lip. Was this a memory or a dream or…

I gasped and tried to sit up, but his arms were around me, and any movement hurt and made me dizzy. Did I have internal bleeding?

He grinned at me, a devastating smile that made my stomach flop around like a dying cat.

“I can’t help myself.” He winked at me as he carried me inside.

“I’ll take you to the prep room. You can watch the pre-party madness and decide if you’re up for it long term.

Sweat and blood do smell strongly, but most women don’t protest that it’s too good, just too strong. ”

“You’re too strong,” I said, and then wanted to die. Yes, I was supposed to play up the helpless damsel role, but it shouldn’t come so easily.

He smirked, which to be completely be honest was a really good look for him, and carried me through a few doors opened by security wearing their black shirts and ominous scowls until we reached the large room where food and drinks were laid out for the team.

He put me down carefully on a bland gray couch, leaning over me and sniffing my hair obviously.

“Like the desert after a rain. Also, blood and pain.” He smiled with those soft brown eyes, and my heart started tripping.

“Is everything poetry with you? Also, smelling people is strange.”

“You started it. Also, I’m not interested in pretending normality. Normalcy? Normalness?”

“Normalness is definitely not a word.”

“I don’t think that the heatstroke victim gets to decide what is and isn’t real. You’re probably hallucinating this whole conversation.”

I pinched his ribs beneath his pinker-than-hot-pink t-shirt.

Magenta? He had muscles on his muscles. What was I doing touching him like he was Toni?

“Hopefully. What’s with the shirt? Did you plan on my fainting on you today and thought we should match?

It’s not sunstroke; it’s the color of your shirt that knocked me out. ”

He chuckled. “You’re the delusional one who needs pinching. I already know that I’m a hallucination. I’d pinch you, but it looks like you’ve had enough of that.” His face tightened, and a rush of humiliation had me tugging my sweatshirt off my waist and over my head.

“Not until March. I never wear green on St. Patty’s. It clashes with my eyes,” I said once I’d emerged from the black folds.

His strong brows rose over eyes that weren’t as soft as I remembered. “Neither do I. We’ll have a pinching war if you’re still in town.”

“Then you’ll have to buy me cake. My birthday’s in March.” I frowned. No, Toni’s birthday was in August. What was wrong with me? Maybe I really did have sunstroke.

He got up and went to a group near the door, still holding my backpack.

He spoke for a few minutes to the larger-than-life performers while I sat in that cold room under the air conditioner.

I should run away and try again after I had myself under control.

I could seduce the most difficult man in Boston, but I didn’t do that by fawning over muscles or saying how good he smelled.

An eight-year-old flirted like that. Yes, I’d just edge by them, snatch my backpack and then…

No. I’d come this far. I wasn’t going to leave until I had his heart on a platter.

Also, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it out the door without falling over.

Dirk came back towards me carrying a bottle of water. I snatched my bag as soon as he got close enough so I could use it as a shield. I watched him warily as he opened the bottle and held it under my nose until I took it.

“How do I know this isn’t poisoned?” I asked, sounding way too suspicious, not nearly demure and helpless enough.

He licked his lips and glanced down at my mouth for some reason. He took the bottle and swallowed before putting it to my mouth and tilting up. It was either swallow, drown, or spill all over Toni’s sweatshirt.

I swallowed, but I didn’t miss the glimmer in his eye, like he was thinking about our lips touching the same thing.

He lowered the bottle and straightened, frowning darkly. “You said that you’re Nitro’s cousin? The last time I saw you, the hair was green.”

“Aqua,” I corrected, scowling. When he frowned at me I felt very small and insignificant, the way I felt when my grandfather frowned at me.

“That was at the funeral, the same one where you said that a place would always be available on your team. You aren’t running the team, but you can still say a word for me, can’t you? ”

“Why do you need anyone to speak for you? Why do you want to be in this god-forsaken place?”

“Because you’re the idiot who feels guilty about Nitro’s death. Because I need a place to stay while I figure out some things. Because I’m a weak, helpless damsel looking for a hero. That’s you, isn’t it?” So subtle. A siren should be blaring: ‘Evacuate!’

His jaw clenched before he took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “I haven’t saved anyone in a long time. Still, I am the idiot who got Nitro killed. It would be nice to exorcise some of that guilt. You can stay with me as long as your hair is pink.” His lips twitched for some unfathomable reason.

I self-consciously tugged on a cotton candy strand. “I don’t want to stay with you. I just want a job, but not that kind. Never again.” My stomach tightened, and the room tilted to the side. I nearly toppled over despite being in a sitting position.

He grabbed onto my shoulders, keeping me from tumbling to the floor. His eyes softened slightly as he carefully held me on the revolving couch. “You definitely have sunstroke. Have you gone to the hospital since the…accident?”

I blinked at him. “What accident?”

“The bruises all over your arms and legs. Isn’t an accident what women call abuse when they’re protecting their lovers?”

I blinked at him. I couldn’t say that it hadn’t been an accident because I’d beaten myself up on purpose.

That would make me sound psychotic. It seemed psychotic to me in retrospect, and I’m the one who had done it.

“Oh, no. I don’t like hospitals. They’re always asking annoying questions: what’s your name, who stabbed your friend, do you have insurance…

It’s better to go to a vet. Do you know any vets? ”

“Did I hear someone say they need a vet?” A blonde man with too many muscles for his tight t-shirt sauntered over to us, all smooth smiles and charm.

“I’m Nix. You must be Nitro’s cousin. It’s sure nice to meet you.

What can I do for you?” His southern accent was soft, but his eyes were not.

He’d be watching me the same way he watched everyone with those pale blue eyes.

He held out his hand. I stared at him and then at the hand, like it might be rabid or something.

He reminded me of Philippe, a beautiful shark that was all teeth.

A woman wearing enough makeup to be seen in the dark came over with a blinding white smile between her blood-red lips.

“How cute. She’s overwhelmed with your southern charm and inordinate sex appeal.

” She elbowed him to the side before she crouched down in front of me.

“Hey, honey. I’m Jez. Don’t worry, we aren’t going to bite.

Trix, on the other hand…” She winked at me with her long false lashes.

“Oh, the dragon. Does she bite or light people on fire?” I had no idea what I was talking about.

She snickered. “That depends entirely on the night. Did I hear that Dirk was trying to get you to go home with him? No one deserves such a fate. He won his house in a bad poker game. Poor thing has to pay taxes on the ugliest monstrosity that Las Vegas ever spawned, and that’s saying something.”

Dirk shot her a glare. “You’re the one who lost the game.”

She patted his cheek, making him flinch. “Sometimes when we think we’re losing, we’re winning. And vice versa.” She put her hand on my forehead, and her eyes tightened slightly. “How long were you out in the sun?”

“I… An hour? I walked from the bus stop.”

Dirk sat on the edge of the couch, somewhat between me and the woman, like he’d step in if she tried to bite me.

“Jezebel is as close as we come to having a vet. At least she’s better with animals than with people.

Tell her if she’s hurting you. No, tell me if she’s hurting you and maybe between myself and Nix we could stop her. Torture is her forte.”

“Oh, hush. The sweet child won’t know you’re joking.” She didn’t look at him, just frowned into my eyes and then checked my pulse on my neck and then my wrist.

I flinched from bruises, and her eyes went glinty and hard, reflecting the light like only contacts could. “I had an accident,” I said, glancing at Dirk with a slightly crazy smile.

He shook his head with a frown because this wasn’t a joking matter anymore.

“I’d say. Take off your shirt, sweetheart.” She whipped my sweatshirt off before she finished the words and then pulled up my crop-top. I tried to shove her off me, but Dirk restrained my wrists, letting the woman have full access to my ribs. I snarled at him and snapped my teeth at his nose.

He smiled only slightly before looking down at my body.

I looked where they were looking, and then I froze as I stared at the damage.

I was supposed to be gently damaged, attractively bruised, not battered like an apple that had fallen off the truck on the freeway and then been run over a few times.

I gritted my teeth while the woman cocked her head and carefully moved her hands over my ribs. I inhaled sharply as agony pierced through me.

“Right there, a hair fracture probably, but not a clean break. I don’t think anything’s punctured. There would have been more swelling, and she’d probably be dead by now. What is this? Three days old?”

I blinked at her. She knew way more than most people knew about bruising. “Yes.”

“And you aren’t dead, so you probably won’t start now. Lucky you. Really, though, after this sort of thing, you shouldn’t traipse across the country to be a makeup artist, however glamorous it sounds.”

“As in not at all?”

Her smile sharpened as she studied me. “Dirk, let her go, or I’m breaking your arms.”

He released me immediately, but somehow I’d forgotten that he was holding me down. “I’m pretty sure she can take care of herself,” he muttered.

“On a good day, maybe, but this is clearly not that day. Your hands are in good shape, sweetheart. Didn’t you try to defend yourself?” She sounded more curious than accusatory, but how could she not take me for a weak and pathetic female when she’d seen my body?

There was no point in lying when I didn’t have to. “I’m a musician. I can’t damage my hands.”

“Are you any good?”

I exhaled and shrugged. “I wouldn’t call myself good.” Good implied that I lacked drive and talent. I worked far too hard to be merely good.

“Ah, so modest. Look, honey. We have a show to put on. If you’d rather hang around here instead of going to the hospital, I’ll fix you up a concoction, give you some compresses, and then you can wait it out right here until I can take you home.”

“Home?”

“Jezebel, that’s not necessary,” Dirk said with a dark scowl that made me blink.

In my head he was a hero and therefore weak, but he was not weak in this world.

He was more dangerous than most men I knew, and he wasn’t at all what he seemed.

I couldn’t forget that he was also Prescott of the coveted Geotech, the bored billionaire who got his kicks from playing war in the desert.

“She can stay with Trix, but everyone knows how OCD she is. Sugar will misplace one of her shampoo bottles, and then Trix will eat her alive. I’m a much safer bet.”

“You’re a man-eater.”

Jezebel fixed him with a stunning smile that made the hair on the back of my neck rise. “I’m sure that you’ve noticed that Nitro’s cousin isn’t anything close to a man. It’s either my place or the hospital. Which do you choose?” she asked me, like that was a choice.

The room was spinning, and everyone was staring at me. I swallowed and felt like I was falling off a cliff that I was supposed to be pushing other people over. “Thank you. I appreciate your hospitality.”