Page 46 of Hero & Villain
“If it’s ruined, I’ll buy you something else,” Trix said, giving Minx a fond yet exasperated look.
“No offense,” Minx said with big eyes, “but there’s no way you’ve developed shopping skills in the last two months. I’ll handle the shopping, okay?”
Trix laughed and pulled us into the second row from the platform.
There were a few preliminary fights that Trix spent breaking down what each fighter was doing wrong and how he could fix it. She was incredibly knowledgeable. She actually had insights I didn’t know about, and I’d been training since I was five.
When Dirk came in, he was wearing hot pink silk shorts, gloves, and nothing else. My heart took off in a flock of butterflies that flew to the mat and fluttered around him, caressing his perfect tan skin with their wings.
I blinked my hallucination out of existence. But he was so perfect. Not obnoxiously huge and raw virility like Horse, but elegant, relaxed, aloof. His sculpted abs tapered to the band of his shorts, while his strong shoulders balanced his perfect proportions. Those arms would make the rest of the world disappear. And that chiseled jaw, so perfect I wanted to punch it. Privately. And then maybe kiss it better.
“Stand up,” Trix said, pushing me to my feet.
Wait, what? I stood there feeling like an idiotic piece of candy, staring at Dirk while he adjusted his glove until he glanced up and noticed me.
No, don’t notice me looking like a piece of pink cake! I could feel my blush creep up my neck. I should have put on full-body makeup.
He blinked and then raised an eyebrow and gestured to himself.
I wanted to shake my head, but one look at Trix and her broad smile had me wincing. I straightened up and put my stupid heart on my sleeve.
“I bet on you,” I whispered. I felt like the whole world was staring at me, laughing at the idea that Dirk Dagger would ever like some psychopath who dumped him in the desert. It was idiotic.
His mischievous smirk grew as he pointed at himself and raised that brow again.
I wanted to shake my head no and run away, but Trix squeezed my hand, giving me courage and fear. She’d break me if she thought I was hurting someone she cared about. She wasn’t a Jezebel.
I slowly nodded while my cheeks burned from humiliation and something else. What was it? No, it wasn’t that I wanted him to see me, to notice me, to think I was pretty. Was it? It was! My traitorous heart. I was such an idiot! No, this was all part of the seduction. Really. Maybe.
He shot a scowl at Trix before he shook his head and then smiled at me, adding a wink that made my knees collapse and I fell over on Trixie.
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 adrenalinefilled the crowd as we made our way out of the stands, but it was that wink that left me higher than a kite.
