Page 15 of Hero & Villain (Super Serum Billionaires #1)
Chapter Nine
VILLAIN
T he first station was on a large butte overlooking a valley cut deep into the red rock.
We parked at the bottom and had to climb up a cliff to get to the raised pole and tiny platform.
I stood at the cliff base, studying the rough rock and then looking at my hands like they knew how to get to the top.
They had absolutely no idea. Give me a bow, a dagger, preferably glass, and sure, but rocks? Dirt? Um, no.
He said, “Are you afraid to get your hands dirty? I can’t get you a job, Nitro’s cousin or not, if you can’t pitch in wherever you’re needed.”
I scowled at Dirk Dagger. Jerk Badger was more like it since he liked stupid rhymes so much. “I don’t spend a lot of time climbing cliffs. If I die, you’ll feel even more guilty than you already do.”
He gave me a smile that made his eyes light up. Yes, my dying was such a happy thought. Such a jerk, so why was my heart tingling?
He said, “It’s not a sheer face. If you hang onto the brush and pull yourself up, you’ll be fine. I’ll be right behind you in case you slip, which you won’t, because it’s a gentle incline.”
I looked up and maybe it wasn’t sheer, but there was nothing gentle about the jagged rocks. “I’m still recovering.” That was true, but I felt much better than you’d expect after only three days plus the time on the bus. Whatever Jezebel had given me was potent.
“The longer you take to get to the top, the longer our day will be. We’ve got six we’ve got to check on. Do you need a boost?” His brown eyes twinkled and he flexed his muscles.
Um. Wow. And the way he was looking at me above those sculpted arms was just…
I took a step away from him, tripped on a rock and stumbled into the wall.
I caught myself on the lip of a jutting rock and felt like an idiot.
I was also going to die. I’d worked hard to overcome my fear of heights, but I didn’t walk around the edge of cliffs, much less climb them.
It didn’t matter. I was climbing this one.
I forced myself forward and kept looking up, searching for hand holds while my feet fumbled for purchase.
Jerk caught my foot and guided it into position three times before I made it to the top.
Once I pulled myself over the lip, I rolled away from the edge and then lay spread-eagled, staring up at the bright blue sky while my heart raced too fast. What was I even doing?
I stared into that sky and just tried to breathe normally.
There was a paint color that unnatural shade of blue.
Ultramarine. Boston skies were never that color, squeezed straight from the tube.
“That was terrible,” Jerk said, his head blocking out the sky.
“I hate you so much.” Oh yes, excellent seduction technique.
He grinned and held out a hand. “You should start with mild annoyance, build up to dislike and end with hate. The day has just begun and you are going to feel a lot more towards sunset. I didn’t have you climb up here so you could relax, I actually need two people. Come on, Pinkie.”
I hit his palm with mine and then gasped as he yanked me upright until I fell against him.
He was so strong and his mouth looked so soft as his warmth soaked into me, making me feel alive.
I could touch him. Earlier must have been a fluke.
Of course I was in control of my own body.
I should take advantage of this closeness, I should lean closer, to touch him exactly how he’d…
I shuddered and pulled away from him while my body went cold.
I stalked towards the metal pole rising out of the rock unable to look at him or the abyss at the bottom of the cliff.
It was only twenty feet, so I probably wouldn’t die if I fell, but it was still too high.
Why couldn’t I touch him with intention to seduce?
Maybe it was just the day, the heights, being knocked out for three days by the crazy cowgirl.
“Brace it right here,” he said, gripping the bar with his gloved hands, arms on either side of me but not touching.
I wanted him to touch me. I wanted to lean back into his chest and stop thinking about how I was supposed to seduce him.
I stiffened up and gripped the bar, but the hot metal burned and I flinched away, backing against his chest. His arm was around me, palm against my belly and all of him capable of brute strength and power, but his hand was so gentle holding me secure.
Heights and fear didn’t exist when I was in his arms.
I stopped breathing, just soaking in his warmth and strength until he dropped his hands and moved around the bar.
“Here.” He pulled a pair of pink gloves out of his belt and tossed them to me. I caught one, but had to retrieve the other one from the ground while he pulled a wrench out of the toolbelt slung around his lean waist. His pink t-shirt didn’t go with the manly toolbelt.
“What’s with the pink?” I asked, pulling on the perfectly fitting gloves and gripping the bar as he started twisting the joint just above my hands.
Toni would say something suggestive that a desert brawler would find intriguing while I asked about his color issues.
Why was I so bad at this? I’d seduced Clint so easily, but this was all nightmare fodder.
“I could ask you the same question.” He frowned, focusing on his work so the cords in his neck pulled.
A drop of sweat traveled from his temple down to his cheekbone.
His high cheekbones were so sharp under that perfectly tanned skin.
The drop of sweat beaded until he absently wiped it away with the back of his glove. Right. He’d asked me a question.
“Everyone knows that girls like pink,” I said, not noticing the color of his lips.
I should slap myself before I really started drooling.
I focused on his safe gloved hands and didn’t think about the feel of that hand on my stomach, except that I couldn’t help it, and my stomach flipped at the memory while my heart did that tingling thing.
It was such a stupid small thing, but I couldn’t seem to forget about it.
Also that drop of sweat. Maybe I still had sunstroke.
He said, “That’s your explanation. I like girls, and girl’s like pink, ergo, I’m more likely to attract girls if I wear the color they like.”
I shot him a look and realized that he was watching me, not his hands. The intention in his eyes made my thoughts tangle, or maybe it was the sun. Probably the sun. I smiled brightly at him. “So much logic. So little sense.”
He grinned. His smile was pure mischief that made his eyes crinkle and showed the dimple in his cheek.
I glanced away, fighting the pull towards that stupid dimple.
Why did he have to be so attractive? That’s probably what was messing with my body; I was confused by wanting him, so when I tried to act with intention, it shut down. Did that make any sense? Not really.
Wanting him didn’t make any sense in the first place since desire wasn’t one of my key motivators, but then he came around and my systems jumped ship.
Maybe it was some kind of biological imperative, that my genetics saw him as a prime match for ideal offspring, although if I tried to fit a baby with those shoulders through my birth canal, I’d die.
He nudged me. “What are you thinking about, Pinkie? You have a very odd look on your face.”
“Cesarean sections.”
His brows rose and then lowered. “You didn’t hesitate.”
“Was I supposed to?”
“I thought you were fixated on my use of pink.”
“No, I was thinking that genetically we’ve become a culture where we’ve bred bigger and bigger until the only feasible way of continuing the species is through cesarean section.
Maybe that’s why heads got larger, so brains could create medical technology to continue humanity.
” What was I talking about? This is the kind of blather I went on with Toni, not Clint, and certainly not my next big target.
That’s all Jerk Badger was, my target. A very hot target that I couldn’t seem to stop objectifying.
He wasn’t my screen saver anymore. I’d gotten over heights and him.
Which is why I was doing so great at heights. Also him.
He rubbed his chin. “Huh. You’re saying that my head looks big to you?”
I frowned at his head. Compared to his shoulders, it was perfectly proportioned, but they were both probably on the large side.
I shrugged. “Jezebel said that compared to Nix and Horse your head is practically miniscule. You’re supposed to have half a heart left that I’m not allowed to break until after the season.
” And I’d just said that. Out loud. That crazy cowgirl had definitely spiked my IV, or put something in this morning’s liquid breakfast. I had to stop talking.
Or talk about something else. “Oh, look, a cloud.” I stared over his shoulder at a smudge on the horizon that probably wasn’t anything liquid.
He glanced over his shoulder and then got back to work with a frown, moving faster. Once he’d gotten the top piece disconnected, he lowered it down and went to work on the end, which was a solar-powered device with fins that opened and closed, glistening in the sun.
I reached out to touch one.
He grabbed my hand and gave me a stern frown. “This is delicate equipment, and I don’t trust you to handle it lightly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? What delicate equipment have I hurt? I didn’t even go for the groin when I kicked Tom. Knees are probably delicate, but?—”
“Enough, Pinkie,” he said with a laugh. “I was referring to my half heart that you’re going to break after the season ends.”