Page 39 of The Villain

“Right. Which means you’ve got nothing more than a pretty face.”

I flinched, able to recall that particular insult with the same clarity as if he’d physically slapped me. Reaching for the waist of my pants, I shimmied them down my legs, lifting one foot out first, and when it came back down, it was into a pool of water.

“No!” I cried out. One more thing I didn’t think of—monitoring the water level as it filled.

I scrambled for the faucet just as a loud bang echoed from somewhere else in the house.

“Athena!”

I spun at the sound.Dare.And mid-turn, my foot caught on my pants that were still attached to one ankle, slipped on the wet floor, and pitched me forward.

This time, even Dare wasn’t fast enough to stop my fall.

“Ahh!” Pain erupted in my hip as it smashed into the tile an instant before my palm miraculously found purchase and stopped my face from becoming the next casualty.

“Athena!”

Those familiar hands grabbed my shoulders—my bare shoulders.Of all the thoughts I’d had in the last three seconds—the water on the floor, the impending injury from a fall, the sound of Dare rushing to save me—the recollection that I was practically naked wasn’t one of them.

But now, it was my only thought.

Not the water under my palms. Not the pain in my hip. Not the rush of the faucet I hadn’t managed to completely turn off.Nothing except that I was naked and alonewith a man I hardly knew.

I should be afraid. Embarrassed. I should be scrambling for cover. But if I felt any of those things, they were burned away by the heat of him. Charred by the warmth of his touch. Scorched by the sudden ache that made my nipples pebble and the center of me clench with want.

“Are you alright?”

My chin jerked down.

“Okay. Don’t move,” he husked, and his hold disappeared for an instant. I heard his steps splash through the water before his heat was in front of me again.

“Here.” The soft terry of a towel pressed to my chest, and as soon as I held it, he said low, “I’m right here. Just going to stop the water.”

A task that would put his back to me. For privacy.

My throat went tight.Of course.For a second, I cared less about him seeing my naked breasts than I did about him seeing my blush—the color of a fool who wanted him to look.

I wanted him to look in the same way I wanted to know the taste of his lips on mine and the feel of his tongue in my mouth. I wanted him to look in a way I’d never be blind enough to ignore.

And that was ridiculous as well as unprofessional.

He’d saved me—was protecting me. Of course, he wouldn’t take advantage of that.

I hissed as I pushed up on my knees. Unfolding the towel, I pressed it to my chest, listening to the flow of water stop and the gurgle of the drain open up.

“I’m sorry,” I offered, gingerly feeling for my hip bone until a shot of pain made me wince.That bruise was going to be one for the books. “I shouldn’t have—I didn’t realize it would fill so fast. I’m such an idiot?—”

The sound that came from him was absolutely lethal and very, very close. “Don’t,” he warned, his hands taking my shoulders from behind. A shiver barreled through me, feeling the way he loomed behind me like an angry shadow. “Don’t ever call yourself that.”

“Dare…”

“Take my arm.” He took one of my wrists and moved my hand to his forearm. Thick. The ridges of muscle cut sharp edges into his skin.His hot, bare skin. “Hold on to me and get in the tub.”

“But—”

“No buts.”

I bit into my tongue, the urge to cry almost overwhelming me. I’d been prepared to give up on the bath after the mess I’d made—one more habit I’d learned with Brandon:if I didn’t get something right the first time, there wasn’t a secondchance.

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