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But no… I hadn’t mistaken the way he looked at me when Nick was feeling me up, and the cut on his hand wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart.
I pushed into his bathroom with a sigh and closed the door behind me a little harder than I should have. If Jayce noticed me slamming it, he didn’t come to check why.
My eyes turned to the mirror in front of me and narrowed — the hazel was flashing a near black color from my irritation.
I didn’t look like myself. I was still in my tight black briefs — the only clothes I had were the ones I’d shown up to the car shop in. My skin was slightly flushed from the sun, and my curls had dried in an unruly mess that fell past my shoulders.
I seemed every part the distressed victim, needing to be rescued. If you didn’t look close, you wouldn’t see the faded scar along my back, or the one on my brow. If Jayce never got down to business and peeled me out of my boxers, he’d never see the one that curled along my hip where someone had tried their damn hardest to shove a blade into the artery in my leg.
I’d slit his throat, but he’d left me bloody in return.
I was unblemished aside from my scars and a few freckles that dotted along the tops of my shoulders — just smooth skin, not even a damn birthmark.
So why wasn’t he trying to make good on his investment?
My hands were angry when I wrenched his shower on, and I ignored the way the water was just a little too hot against my skin. I scrubbed myself with Jayce’s shampoo and soap, and then leaned my head against the heating tile while I let the spray beat down my back.
This wasn’t how I’d expected my week to go. I was supposed to meet Marcus Holden in the basement of that damn car shop, and I was supposed to dispose of him.
If I’d been smart, I would have taken Nick and his men hostage. I would have tortured the information out of them… only, Jayce had made it clear they didn’t know half as much as I needed.
Which meant, if I’d been smart, I would have taken Jayce hostage and tortured the information out of him.
So why hadn’t I?
“Because he’s a fucking giant,” I muttered the words and turned to press my cheek against a spot on the wall that wasn’t hot yet. The cool sensation streaked through me, but it didn’t quell the thundering in my chest. “Because if he hadn’t broken, you would have brought the entire Holden estate down on your head,” I murmured softer, in case Jayce was randomly in his room.
Because when he looked at you, you wanted to take the route that wouldn’t end up maiming him.
I refused to say that aloud.
My hand slammed a little too hard against the hot water handle, and I grabbed the towel hanging on the shower stall and wrapped it around me. Jayce’s scent instantly flooded up, invading my nostrils and making something in my lower body clench.
It was something I couldn’t hide, being nude.
Shit, maybe I just needed to fuck, period. I’d been so entrenched in this job, I hadn’t had the time. Even though I made a point to not get attached to people, that didn’t mean my body didn’t have the same needs as everyone else.
I stepped out of the shower and shamelessly dried my hair with the towel to fill my senses with his scent before hanging it back up.
My eyes trailed back to the wet briefs lying on top of the toilet seat and the pile of clothes sitting beside it — I didn’t want to put those on again.
An idea sparked in my head. I wasn’t going to let Jayce get to me. I wasn’t going to let him win this little war — and if I was partially doing it because the thought of slowly cutting the answers out of him was… distasteful… I’d never admit it aloud.
Instead, I went into his room and started digging through his closet. The scent of him still flooding my mind with soft spice and heat gave me the idea, but it was a good one.
I’d been down this road before, and there were a few things I knew alpha males couldn’t resist — if I’d ever laid eyes on a man who exuded alpha energy, it was Jayce.
The front half of the clothing was exactly what I’d expected from the kid of a crime boss, all suits and ties and money. The further back I dug, the more I saw the mechanic I’d glimpsed in the car shop — leather jackets and soft t-shirts — and then the corner of my mouth lifted into a grin.
Perfect.
I came out of his room five minutes later in nothing but a pair of black boxers I’d stolen from his drawer and a long black hoodie. It hit me mid-thigh, though I was sure his broad shoulders left it snug on his chest. At this length, it was impossible to see if I had anything on beneath it.
And it smelled like him.
His eyes tracked me from the moment I stepped into the room. Even with the distance between us, I could see his pupils dilate slightly, could watch his breath hitch in his chest before he let it out in a slow sound that was nearly a growl — it felt like a predator settling in to hunt.
I felt it zip along my back in an electric tingle that told me I’d gotten his attention… and now I had to figure out what to do with it.
