Page 4 of Break Me

She squealed. “I’ll start looking. I know. Somewhere with a yard. I’m so excited. Now, tell me about this man. Was he hot?”

“He was an asshole.” I slapped my hand over my mouth, but not quickly enough. My daughter lifted and shook her little head.

“It’s not nice to curse, Mommy.”

There was nothing like being chastised by a child.

“You’re right, bunchkins. Don’t you do it.”

“Well, duh,” all three of us said at the same time. My daughter’s favorite expression.

Kristine chuckled under her breath. “So how bad was he and what did he do?”

“He parked his fancy sports car in front of a fire hydrant.”

“Active fire?”

“Yep.” Now I popped the p. That’s how furious I remained. Although I had to admit, every time I thought about the sexy stranger, tiny prickles of heat crisscrossed the back of my neck. Even right now with an image of him floating in my mind, I was almost panting. My reaction was ridiculous.

“Wow. Did you castrate him?”

“Let’s just say he’ll need a couple new windows.”

“Oh, I bet you loved doing that.”

My laugh was low and throaty. “You know me too well. You should have seen the look on his chiseled face. His eyes were mesmerizing, but at the moment could have easily turned me into stone. Even his massive chest was heaving and every word of admonishment out of his mouth accented his deep, baritone voice.”

“So he was handsome.”

“Gorgeous. Hockey star rugged in a slick suit handsome.”

“Hmm…” Kristine cooed and took a sip of her wine.

“What?”

“Well, since Sean’s death, you haven’t mentioned a single thing about any other guy you’ve encountered as being handsome. Not one.”

“So what?”

“Soooo…” she elongated. “You like this guy.”

I hid behind my glass, snarking a little to myself. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll never be forced to see the jerk again.”

“Famous last words.”

CHAPTER 2

Alexsey

“What the actual fuck?”

The moment I slammed the door on my Porsche 911 Carrera, additional shards of glass fell to the pavement. I gritted my teeth and glared at my brother Kazimir. The man had a shit-eating grin on his face that I wanted to wipe off.

I wasn’t in the goddamn mood after the day I’d been through.

“Don’t get me started.” I clicked the key fob to lock as I always did then huffed. What the fuck did it matter? My car was wide open. Thankfully, this was a secure parking lot located in the back of the hotel my brother operated. Between the gate, the cameras, and the guards, I doubted anyone would dare try to steal the car.

If they did, given the shitty mood I was in, I’d likely beat them to a bloody pulp.