2-Stroke (SEAL Team Alpha #14) - Zoe Dawson Page 0,1
from the time the fight boss yelled for them to begin, Quell had gotten Jam down to the mat and was holding her there. Finally, the blonde tapped out, and the place went crazy when Quell raised her hands.
“I have an idea,” Saint said as he headed for the hallway Quell walked down after leaving the cage. There was just one problem: two beefy guards who made Professor look small.
They needed a distraction, so he deliberately knocked into one of the patrons and sent him careening into another one. With all the fight-induced adrenaline in the air, it didn’t take much for the other guy to push back, and the guards at the head of the hall ran to intercede. Saint and Professor slipped into the hall and moved quickly down to the changing rooms. He pushed open the door and found Quell, the fishnet now on a bench near a bag and nothing but a red push-up bra and matching lace boy shorts on her body. Her hair was wet and slicked back, accentuating the exquisite features of her face. His gaze dropped down her body, from the slope of her shoulders over her breasts and hips and the sleek length of her legs, and he felt gut-punched.
She turned and sighed. “I don’t do autographs,” she said in a faint Slavic accent. “Get out.” She slipped into black leather pants that hugged the lower half of her curvy body. He’d never seen an ass like that…ever.
“We’re not here for autographs,” he drawled, his West Virginian accent thick. “We have a proposition.”
She turned back to them, shrugging into a short, tight leather jacket and zipping it up. Then she looked him up and down and smiled. He felt gut-punched all over again. She was so beautiful. He found it hard to put two words together. Her eyes narrowing, she snapped, “I just bet you do.” She shook her head. “Sorry, handsome. I don’t do that either. I just fight.”
“This…would be lucrative.”
She bit her lip, giving him a sexy amazon look. “Not interested, but it is tempting. I should kick your ass for offering me money.”
Then it dawned on him. She thought he was pandering for sex. He had never paid for it in his life. Getting the ladies had never been a problem for him. If he turned on his Southern charm, he was sure she wouldn’t be interested in walking out. She zipped up the bag and started for the door, but he blocked her way.
“Wait, that came out wrong,” he said, meeting her direct gaze, and he could tell she wasn’t exactly immune to him. He’d take the advantage.
“This is going to come out wrong for you if you don’t move. I’m hungry and tired and don’t want to deal with your male bullshit.”
Professor laughed.
His mama did tell him he could catch many more flies with honey than with vinegar. He’d used his silver tongue in his small hometown to get out of speeding tickets, searches when he was running moonshine, and as a teenager, talking a sweet thing out of her clothing. He smiled slow and wide. “Don’t be like that. Look, if I buy you a meal, will you listen to what I have to say?”
She sighed and not all of it was in exasperation. “All right. You have the duration of a meal. Since you’re paying, I’m ordering lobster.” They followed her out of the club. Her butt looked amazing in the buttery soft leather cupping her rump. “I’ll drive.”
They got in. Saint in the front seat and Professor in the back.
When she parked in a lot adjacent to a seafood place, they got out and went inside. Once seated, she ordered a club soda, shrimp appetizer, and a lobster meal.
When Saint went to talk, she held up her hand. “Just give me some quiet right now.”
“No one followed,” came through his earpiece. It was Anna’s voice. TOC overwatch.
Her meal came and she dug in while they waited, drinking nothing, eating nothing. The hunt sustained him right now.
He watched her crack the claws and the spine of the lobster with adept strength, cleaning out the meat like a pro. When she was done, she sat back and wiped her mouth on the napkin. “All right. What is it you want?”
He was one of those guys that went for the bad girls…very bad girls. The fact that his mind kept wandering with her unnerved the hell out of him.