I started to blush, remembering I was in nothing but a towel.
I clutched the towel tighter to my body, but even still, my arms and shoulders were exposed. The towel covered most of my chest but not all. The towel ended above my ankles and Tripp made no effort to get out of my way. So I had to step over his leg to get by. My body was on fire in a way that it shouldn’t have been. This was pure temptation.
I resisted the urge to look back at him as I walked toward my bedroom.
“Where are you going now?” he asked.
I stopped but still didn’t look back. “Going to get changed. Do you want to watch me?”
Tripp didn’t reply.
Although, I wished he would have said yes.
7.
(Tripp)
She was fucking killing me.
Did I need to sit outside the bathroom while she showered? Hell no. Did I need to make comments at her as she strutted by me, that nice ass pressing against her towel? Not a chance.
But I did it anyway.
When she came out of her bedroom, dressed, she looked even prettier. Her hair all messy and wet. A t-shirt that hugged in all the right places. Jeans that did her hips sexy justice. And then pink socks. Freaking pink socks.
I opened her fridge and saw that she lived as poor as I did.
“Yeah, help yourself,” she said.
“I’m checking for bad guys.” I looked back and grinned. “And beer.”
“I haven’t been here in a long time,” Winter said. “Sorry I didn’t go shopping.”
“No worries, darling. Where can we grab some food and beer?”
She called and ordered burgers, fries, and told me that the place had a cooler with six packs. That was the best thing I’d heard all day.
She was pissed that I made her come with me to get the food and beer. She was even more pissed when I escorted her into the dive bar to get our order. Funny though, she didn’t seem all that mad when I paid.
Back in the car, she had the food on her lap, the beer on the floor between her feet.
“You don’t like me up your ass, do you?” I asked.
“Doesn’t really matter. You’re here. I’m here.”
“At least we have something to eat and drink.”
Winter half smiled. She looked at my hands again. She touched my right knuckles and said, “You have to tell me about this.”
“I already did. I’m a fighter.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“None of the guys in the MC fight?”
“You mean… drunk and fight?”
“No. I mean for money.”
“I don’t know. I was never invited.”
“That’s a good thing,” I said.
We drove back to Winter’s place in silence.
I went inside first, gun drawn, and did a quick check of the rooms. I had no clue what to do to protect her other than follow my gut and try to mimic things I’d seen in movies.
We sat, ate, and drank.
Not quite a dream meal or a dream evening, but it was something. And the beer was cold and good. I watched Winter’s eyes following my knuckles each time I lifted and lowered my food and my beer bottle.
It took me four beers to finally start to open up a little.
“I fought a guy called Killer Kidd,” I said. “That’s where the wounds came from.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“It’s an underground thing. It’s all I’ve ever known to survive. Okay? I train, I fight, I earn money.”
“So you win all the fights?” Winter asked.
I gritted my teeth. I felt like a jackass not being able to admit why I was actually there with her. Not because I was a winner, but because I was a loser.
“I survive,” I said. “That’s all that matters.”
“I know the feeling,” Winter said.
“Yeah? Then tell me about all this. How’d you end up here?”
“How much time do we have to talk?” she said with a grin.
“For you, darling, I’ve got all night.”
Christ, Tripp, are you seriously flirting with her?
Winter started to smile bigger, those pretty blue eyes flirting right back at me.
I quickly stood up and grabbed the empty containers. I put them in the brown paper bag they came in and walked to the kitchen. The entire place wasn’t really that big, which meant I couldn’t get far from Winter.
I walked to the window and looked out. There was an open field behind the converted garage. Then there were lights of the town, the city, the night settling.
“What are you doing?” Winter asked.
“Just looking.”
“So what’s your plan? I mean, this doesn’t make sense to me either.”
“What doesn’t?”
“Why you’re here. I don’t understand why the club can’t protect me. Or why they can’t just send me somewhere. Or… if someone really wants me dead that bad, why even bother protecting me?”
I slowly turned. “That’s how you value your life?”
“How do you value yours, Tripp?”
“This isn’t about me. I’m asking you a question.”
“I don’t know how I value anything.”
“You’re just upset,” I said. “Mourning. That’s normal. And for the record, the guy who sent me here is more powerful than anything you could possibly imagine. The MC might be rough and tough bullies who control what they want, but the guy I work for controls everything. It’s organized. And it all looks legit.”