Page 28 of Hero & Villain (Super Serum Billionaires #1)

She pushed me upright onto my own seat, grinning. “This is going to be beautiful.” She leaned back, her focus going to the stage while I tried not to die from shame and adrenaline.

Dirk’s opponent came onstage. Bulldog was bald, tattooed, with big ears that made him look like an orc. He grinned and showed his gold teeth.

“This is going to be awful,” Minx said, shrinking down in her seat.

Trixie patted her hand and refocused on the stage. “It’s fine. I’ll replace the dress if it’s blood-spattered.”

Minx was worried about Dirk getting hurt, like a sane person. Or was she just worried about the dress? I shook my head and focused on the fight.

Dirk fought perfectly. Trixie kept up a low commentary, cataloguing every punch and kick. Dirk stayed loose, an indifferent gentleman while Bulldog got more and more wild and out of control.

When Bulldog hit a solid right to Dirk’s body and then crossed to his face, Dirk fell down, rolled and came right back up, eyes gleaming with something I’d remembered from a long time ago. There would be blood.

After that, Dirk didn’t work at blocking and dodging as much as he did ripping apart Bulldog. If Bulldog was an animal, Dirk was a force of nature.

“Where did his technique go?” Trix hissed.

The first round ended with Bulldog snarling and snapping while Dirk beat the other man, as graceful as a dancer, and deadly as the dagger he’d been nicknamed. And those abs.

My heart pounded as I watched him fight, staying just ahead of his opponent until the final round, and Dirk combined his technique with his intensity, and ended the conflict with an uppercut and a spray of blood, but away from us.

I rose to my feet with the rest of the audience while Trix clapped and nodded in satisfaction. She glanced at me with a grin. “And now we know.”

I laughed, a rush of endorphins going through me that were eclipsed when Dirk looked right at me and winked.

My heart turned into a hummingbird and darted out of my chest to join the butterflies. The rush of the fight, the adrenaline filled the crowd as we made our way out of the stands, but it was that wink that left me higher than a kite.

Somehow, I got separated from Trix. Someone bumped me from behind, and I fell into the person in front of me. I turned around to punch the guy then held back because the last time I punched someone, I’d hurt my hand. It was the beer guy from the store. What were the odds?

He smiled brightly. “Hey, Pink! Imagine bumping into you here. Literally! You clean up nice.” He gave me an appreciative up-down. “Really nice. Are you in the mood for an afterparty? For that dress, I’ll spring for a nice room.”

I had my heel in my hand and was about to stab him with it when Tom stepped between us. He had a hand on the guy’s chest and gave me a nod.

“Dagger wanted to know if you’d like to join him for dinner,” he said, the bald brick wall not seeming to notice that he was holding back the idiot who had been about to bleed.

“Dinner?”

He gave me another nod. “That’s what he said. Also dessert. Either way, I’ll escort you where you want to go. Trix shouldn’t have left you in this press looking like that.”

Like what exactly? Tom put his hand on my back and walked me out of the crowd, handling the hysterical fans easily. We made it through a side door that led beneath the stadium and into the cement halls where fighters and sparkly women talked and laughed.

Bulldog was sitting on a bench while a medic taped his eyebrow. He gave me a look- hungry, angry, a look that I’d seen enough times to know what it meant. I was still holding my glitter heel and gave him a look of my own.

“There you are,” Dirk said, stepping between us and cocking his head to study me. “Or are you? I can’t see you underneath all the sparkles. It’s cute. Isn’t she cute, Tom?”

“Yes, sir. Almost as cute as you. Your nose was misaligned. You’re going to have to tape it for another week.”

“Aw, Tom, I didn’t know you thought I was cute. I’m touched. Come on, Pinkie. You owe me dinner.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd, pink button-up shirt over dark jeans and shoes.

He thought I was cute? Was that as much of an insult as I thought it was? I wanted him to think I was pretty, not cute. I shook my head. It didn’t matter, but my heart was still fluttering all over the place. “What do you mean I owe you dinner? You made me pay for the turtle burgers last time.”

He flashed me a smirk that relaunched another wave of butterflies. “I won your bet, so I deserve a good snack. I’m in the mood for Greek kebabs, maybe some of that nice saffron rice.”

“Dolmades would be good,” I agreed, trying not to notice how good his hand felt in mine, how awkward this entire situation was.

Was this actually what seducing Dirk looked like?

It felt a lot more like he was seducing me, but like I could go back now.

Particularly when it felt so good to have him hold my hand.

He glanced at my shoe. “Is there a reason you’re holding your heel? Did it die from a glitter overdose?”

I should say something girly and sweet. But I’d already dumped him unconscious in the desert.

I gave him a sweet smile. “I was going to stab a guy. He keeps running into me, but I guess that’s not really a legitimate reason to stab someone.

Toni always said that the punishment should fit the crime. ”

He raised a brow over a shiny eye. “So you could run over him with Prudence, right? Since he’s always running into you.”

I rolled my eyes and stopped to put on my heel. I held his hand tight to keep my balance and took longer than I needed to, because I was going to let him go once I had both of my shoes on. Seduction wasn’t a hand-holding event.

I was, I really was, but then we were walking down the sidewalk between palm trees and a big pool in the still warm darkness. It was beautiful, like an oasis in the desert, and I didn’t want to let him go, not when he’d won the fight for me.

“Why don’t you mind losing?” I asked as we walked through the garden. The wind rustled around my shoulders, and I stepped into him, nestling against him for warmth without thinking.

My heart fluttered when he wrapped an arm around me like it was the most natural thing in the world. He felt so good, strong, protective.

“I like fighting. Winning, losing- that’s not what it’s about for me. I just like the violence. Bulldog’s a good fighter, and that makes it more interesting. How about you? Why do you like stabbing people?”

I snorted and sank closer to him, resting my head against his shoulder. “What else do you think those kinds of shoes are for? They aren’t for comfort.”

“Ah. Now I understand women much better, or at least Pinkie. Nix is going to be happy.”

“So am I. I tripled my paycheck thanks to your fine demonstration of martial artistry.” I grinned up at him without leaving the comfort of his shoulder.

His eyes widened in horror. “Tripled? Don’t tell me that you gambled your entire first paycheck on my fight.” He shuddered theatrically. “I don’t always win, even when I mean to. You took a big chance on me.”

He kissed my nose, sending a wave of ridiculous delight through me.

We walked over a bridge and paused to look over the water.

Okay. This was romantic. We were snuggled together, looking at something pretty. Say something seductive. “I feel like you’re a sure bet, the only sure thing in this place.” I stared at him. How could those words have come out of my mouth? They’d sounded so sincere, and stupidly vulnerable.

I coughed and cleared my throat. “I mean, everyone here is crazy. What’s going on between the Dragon and the Horse?” Yes. Excellent seduction technique. Talk about other people’s obvious chemistry.

His eyes gleamed as he leaned closer, as if he were about to share gossip. “No idea, but there has to be a story there. They both live at the Providential, which is the cleanest hotel in Vegas. Maybe they’re secretly married with fifteen children.”

The image of that brawny brawler and the Valkyrie covered in tiny humans had me gurgling. “At least twenty, and their whole conflict is actually about him forgetting to load the dishwasher after dinner.”

“Makes sense. Do you like it?” he asked, turning me to face him instead of the beautiful pool surrounded by greenery and exotic flowers. He was more beautiful to look at. I wanted to touch his face, to feel his stubble and the softness of his mouth.

“Yes,” I answered, somehow not poking him like a weirdo.

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you like about Vegas? Is it the aridity? It’s true that very few people miss humidity once they’ve had dry heat.”

Oh, that’s what he was talking about. Vegas, not his mouth.

What was wrong with me? So many things. I needed to get out of this dress.

Its cuteness was killing me. This seduction was killing me.

Or the mass murder of a seduction that was going on right here.

“Right. Vegas. I like Vegas for the regular hours and the paycheck.”

His smirk wanted to be bitten off his mouth. “You almost sound like you were thinking about something else. What else do you like, Pinkie?” He moved closer, that smirk curving into something absolutely…

I took a deep breath and dragged my eyes off his mouth to his eyes.

Soft brown eyes like melting milk chocolate.

I spun around and walked quickly away from him to the other side of the bridge before I fainted at his feet.

“Greek kebabs.” Like I could stab him with kebabs and then maybe he wouldn’t be so delicious.

Only maybe that would make him even more delicious.

He laughed and followed me out of the garden, down the sidewalk to the street where his pink hybrid waited for us.

Neat to-go boxes were already in the back seat of the car, so there was nothing to do but find somewhere to eat.