Page 11 of Twisted Hearts

Right before I followed her around the corner, I dropped my face into my hands and scrubbed away the vision of her ass in those leggings as she’d walked away.

“You’re working, asshole. You moved here to work, to do something new.”

Yeah. All true.

But I’d also moved here to find a woman, and no one had tempted me as much as her in well over a year.

4

Adrianna

It took me two hours to decide being alone in a hotel room with two bottles of wine and a bottle of vodka I found wasn’t a smart idea. It left me to my thoughts that were already so jumbled and knotted I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to untangle them.

I’d tried to eat something from room service, a burger larger than any I’d ever seen with a side of fries, something I hardly ever indulged in. Unfortunately, the burger tasted like rocks and settled in my stomach like cement. It was too twisted into a ball of nerves and fear while I considered how my life had turned into such a mess.

It took me another hour of debating and pacing to do something completely outside my typical character—I headed to a drugstore, where I picked up cigarettes and soda and enough junk food to make it seem like I was in Halloween prep mode. I hadn’t had a cigarette in years, the few I’d had only during college, but whatever. I saw them behind the counter and had to have one.

My stomach was unsettled by it and yet my nerves had chilled—at least until I was caught.

By him.

“Stop it,” I whispered to myself. I needed to get myself together, needed to go back to the room and rethink those bottles of wine not being a good idea.

Perhaps getting drunk and being alone was exactly what I needed.

Are you okay?

One question from a guy I didn’t know and I was running like a scared little kitten.

Unfortunately, Iwasthat scared little kitten. My mind wouldn’t quit racing with fear of what was happening back in Charleston. Were they looking for me? How long until they found me?

I’d humiliated Daniel, who wouldn’t take kindly at all to being stood up on his wedding day. Worse…I’d probably infuriated his dad, a man who believed he ran the world, not one city in the South.

My fingertips were still tingling as I somehow managed to scrounge up my manners and thank the doorman for holding the door open then stepped into the lobby.

That man.He’d stolen my breath as soon as he called out to me. At first, it’d been fear—of being caught smoking, of being found by Daniel.

Then it was an altogether differing emotion that coursed through me as I took him in, really took him in once he stepped out of the shadows. Beachy blond hair. Eyes the color of the ocean. The man could have been made from soft sand, cloudless skies, and the rocks along the coast of Charleston.

So damn beautiful.

So damn dangerous.

Luckily for me, I’d sworn off men somewhere between Florence, South Carolina, and the North Carolina border. Even if I hadn’t, this guy wouldn’t be the one for me. Not now, not ever. Not with his alpha attitude, strong Roman nose, and chiseled jaw cut so hard my knees wobbled.

It wasn’t fear sparking that sensation; it was something else…something that made my thighs clench.

Footsteps followed me through the lobby and I knew it was him, but I didn’t want to see him again. He had been stunning enough in the dark. Seeing him in the bright light might send me over the edge.

God, I was a mess. How could I even find a man attractive right now? That I did probably spoke to the complete tangle of emotions racing through me.

This was the last thing I needed.

“Excuse me,” he called, and his steps grew louder and quicker.

I turned, because if I didn’t there was a chance he’d follow me to the elevator, and being enclosed in a small space with him seemed like an even worse idea.

“Yes?” I asked, spinning to face him.

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