Heart Song Anthology by Carolyn Faulkner (summer reads txt) 📗

seen and recorded. They walked from the apartment, unable to purchase a car without valid ID and citizenship. Cora had considered reaching out to her old contact back in the States who was a counterfeiting genius. But Brett was one of her few friends while she’d lived in Miami, and so, was definitely under surveillance.

She’d grown so used to the Florida heat that the cold got to her, even after all the months spent in Denmark. She shivered as the wind cut through her many layers and cursed her thin skin. She kept thinking she would get used to the cold, but still she had to wear multiple layers of socks in thermal snow boots.

Asher was following her as she approached the school, his steps as silent as ever. The steps of a predator. He was stoic as he assessed their surroundings for any possible danger or onlookers. Cora peeked from beneath her hood to look for a proper place to hide the security camera, once Asher grunted the “all clear.”

“Two cameras, both turned away.” He pointed to two security cameras mounted to the school’s brick walls. One was facing the wall while the other was obstructed by a tangle of red heart shaped balloons.

“You’d think they’d notice that,” Cora scoffed.

“Schools aren’t well known for their security,” Asher pointed out.

“Maybe the security guard is who is selling cigarettes. It would be a good cover for communicating with the kids.”

“Maybe,” Asher agreed.

Cora circled the courtyard and decided the most opportune place to get a full view of the building was in a tree planted in the center of a concrete circle. The concrete had been carved just for it to grow unperturbed, even if it was growing in a seemingly inconvenient place.

She didn’t need to ask for Asher’s help, as in touch with her as he was, he was already against the tree with his hands interlaced in front of him ready to boost her up. She smiled sincerely into her scarf as she granted his gloved hands the underside of her dirty boot.

He lifted her to spring onto the nearest branch and she wrapped her arms around the thick limb awkwardly. She grunted as she tried to shimmy her way up and finally released a gasp as she lost her grip and fell back onto the ground, laughing at herself. “I used to be able to pull myself out of people’s burning basements and the window was higher than that branch. Now I can’t even climb a tree! My body has had it too good for too long.”

“It’s just out of practice,” Asher suggested. “Or, there isn’t enough incentive.”

“What better incentive could there be than preventing kids from becoming addicted to nicotine?”

“Me.”

She turned to him, but barely had time to react before his hard hands were wrapped around her shoulders and her back pressed into the bark of the tree. She immediately went as soft and pliable as wax beneath his grip. He had the power to melt her, relax her with just a flicker of those striking blue eyes, or light a fire in her gut so intense she feared she might choke on the flames as they licked through her body.

For a moment they just stayed as they were, her backed into a tree and him pinning her there. They stared at each other, rekindling that fire that had dwindled, smothered by fear and pain and loss. It quickly reignited.

He looked so different now, she realized. His hair was overgrown, the beard he had once kept so cleanly trimmed now full and unkempt in all its glory. His body, too, had changed. He had once frequented many gyms to keep in shape enough to assassinate quickly and efficiently, but now he worked an honest labor job, which kept him solidly built, but not as toned as he had once been.

She looked past those changes in him, knowing there were many changes in her too. She focused on his eyes. Those ocean-blue eyes that were so striking to her were now hidden behind curtains of hair, but they were still there, and they were still Asher’s.

They had both been changed by Asher’s company, but they were still each other. Still Asher and Cora.

As if sharing the same thought, both of their gazes gravitated towards one another’s mouths. She expected that first contact to be gentle, but instead it was fierce. She groaned against his lips, feeling all the pent-up desires he had felt these long months on the run.

Her arms remained trapped by her sides and rather than struggle, she arched her back as far as his restraint would allow so she could just brush her torso against his. She broke the kiss first, letting her head loll back against the rough bark so he could have full access to her throat. His lips trailed down the sensitive cord there, but it was his breath coming in desperate gasps that gave her shivers.

He released one of her shoulders to grab at the zipper of her jacket, tugging it down forcibly to reach beneath it. He could take it all the way off for all she cared, she was hot now. Steaming in her heavy attire, her body begging for freedom.

He did not grant her wish, at least not yet. He came back to his full height, his breath a billow of smoke all around her, but despite the out of breath gasps, his expression remained unchanged from the passive cool calculation it always was. Too intense for most, but for her it just made her core tingle more, her anticipation growing.

“Why is this incentive for me to climb? Why is this something I want to get away from?” she asked breathlessly. A sly smirk slid across her expression. The first he had seen in months.

His stoic expression however, did not change, other than a mischievous twinkle that developed in his icy eyes.

“Because if you don’t get that bony ass up that tree to plant that camera and catch this