Page 16 of The Rookie

“You okay there, Princess?” he drawls, making zero attempt to cover himself.

Cocky bastard.

My throat is so dry I might actually choke. Get it together, Avery.

I force my gaze anywhere but there—which is a struggle—and spin on my heel so fast I nearly wipe out.

“Jesus Christ,” I mutter under my breath, stalking toward the door before my brain fully processes what just happened.

I hear him chuckle behind me, low and smug. “Didn’t mean to shock you.”

I grip the doorframe so hard my knuckles go white. “Shock is not the word I’d use,” I grumble.

Liar.

Oh, I’m never recovering from this.

“Oh?” His voice is pure amusement, rich and teasing. “So what is the word you’d use?”

I squeeze my eyes shut. Don’t answer. Don’t answer. Do not?—

“Illegal.”

…What the hell?

Griffin barks out a laugh. “Illegal?”

Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no.

That is not the word I meant to say. I don’t even know what word Imeantto say, but that sure as hell wasn’t it.

Becausewhat I’m actually thinkingis:

This should be illegal. The sheerunfairnessof it. That body? Illegal.

The way he knows exactly what he’s doing to me? Illegal.

The way he’s standing there like he owns the air I’m breathing? Felony-level.

I meant sexy—or maybe overwhelming, or possibly mind-breaking, but somehow, my brain glitched and went with illegal.

Griffin crosses his arms, his smirk deepening. “Interesting choice of words.”

“I meant—immoral.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And unnecessary.”

His smirk deepens. “Unnecessary? Princess, I was just drying off. It’s not my fault you decided to turn this into a crime scene. Have you never seen one of these before?”

“Oh my God.” I groan, gripping the bridge of my nose.

His chuckle is pure sin. “So… just to clarify, you’re saying my nudity is both illegalandimmoral?”

I make the mistake of letting my eyes flick downward again—just for a split second—and immediately whip back around, horrified.

“Griffin, I swear to God, if you don’t put some damn pants on, I’m going to start throwing things.”

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