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

Cora’s smirk merely broadened into a smile. “Oh no,” she said sarcastically. “Anything but that.” But she did turn away from him, arching her back ever so slightly to give him a good view of her not bony ass.

She again tried to shimmy up the tree and Asher granted her fifteen seconds before he delivered on his threat. One smack to that sensitive section of her rear where her thigh and hip connected. She yelped, then laughed earnestly.

“You just want to grab ass,” she accused.

“Less talking, more climbing,” he said gravelly.

She dug her boot into the bark, which splintered off beneath her weight, but after a few tries, she had worn a divot into the side of the wood and lifted until she could reach the branch again. “You know, if you want to touch me, all you need to do is ask.”

“Do I really need to ask to touch something that is mine?” he responded and she felt his hand on her leg, his hot fingers scorching her even through her protective fleece covering. He wasn’t holding her still, but she still hesitated before pulling away from his touch to continue her climb.

She didn’t want to be rid of his touch. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed his intimate caresses, and how she had been too distracted and overwhelmed lately to give him proper attention. A pinch of guilt had her swallowing. It had taken them chasing bad guys to really feel alive again. They had been living in limbo this entire time, living in fear of what could be coming rather than embracing what their life could be now. They’d been hiding and it had made them forget who they were, and what they meant to each other.

Realistically, chasing bad guys was how they had first met, so Cora supposed it made sense that would be what made them feel truly themselves again.

With lots of grunting, Cora managed to drag herself onto a stable branch and sit out of breath and only partially because that was the most exercise she had done in months. Her skin felt tingly and her chest tight with desire. She wanted Asher’s hands on her again, preferably beneath the layers of clothes. She was willing to sprawl out in the snow right here and now.

Reining in all her focus, she managed to find a break in the twigs enough for the camera to see, but not enough for it to be incredibly noticeable. She placed it strategically, then dropped from the tree and stepped back to examine her work.

“Practically invisible,” Asher commended and Cora smiled.

“Of course it is, I’m a professional.” Or at least I was, her smile faltered a bit at the thought and some of that adrenaline from his touch eroded away. This was just revisiting the past, that’s all this was. It wasn’t her reality anymore.

Asher was coping better with change given he’d never truly enjoyed murdering people but Cora had loved being a bounty hunter. She had loved bringing drug dealers, domestic abusers, rapists, even murderers to justice. She had hunted the streets of Miami for the biggest, baddest prey there was. She had been fearless, but now she was just afraid. Krone had put fear where there had once been none and now she didn’t feel like the predator she was, but nervous prey, and though she knew it wasn’t fair, part of her still resented Asher. Resented him for ever being involved with The Company that had uprooted both of their lives. The Company that was hunting them down and making her feel like prey.

No matter how good you are, there is always someone better, and Krone had been better, and she was just afraid of more of him arriving to finish what he had started.

She traced a finger over a scar on her wrist, something she did subconsciously when she felt anxious and afraid, or when she just remembered what Krone had done to her. The memory resurfaced at the strangest times.

“Cora?” Asher asked quietly, sensing the shift in her.

“Let’s get back,” she started, biting back that last word: home, because that cold room was not her home.

5

One Day to Heart Day

Asher thought about Cora as he helped Gregor throw lumber into a neat pile. She had been whimpering in her sleep again, and one stroke of her flesh had his hand coming back wet with her sweat. Her heart was hammering, he could feel it where his fingertips traced her skin. Krone had done more than torture fear into her, he had tortured out her confidence in herself. She was afraid and homesick and he hoped what he had planned for her would help her overcome this trauma. And his own guilt at her facing this trauma because of him.

The men were silent as they worked, but Asher was overly aware of Gregor’s watchful eye. Finally, the large man asked, “Valentine’s Day tomorrow, ready?”

“Almost everything is in place. I have a Valentine’s Day Utopia built in that hotel.”

“Paying for more than one night?” Gregor asked, surprised.

“I had to get set up. Everything needs to be perfect.”

“Trying too hard,” Gregor grumbled. “Making other men look bad.”

Asher didn’t comment and both men went back to stacking wood in silence. Asher had filled the room with balloons and rose petals, stocked the fridge with champagne and strawberries. He was following every Valentine’s Day cliché he could find so he could create a new tradition with his woman. She had left her life behind for him, what little family she had were gone and friends she had considered family she’d had to turn her back on for their own protection. She had gone through hell for him, so the least he could do was show her it wasn’t for nothing.

Asher was her family now, so they would start a new tradition together.

“I need to leave early today to finish setting up.”

Gregor rolled his eyes. “What could possibly be left for