Heat Wave Box Set: Volumes I-III Read online

  I left the book alone for a few minutes to relax. I closed my eyes. The sun felt as if it was only a few hundred feet in the sky. I could feel my skin sizzling, even beneath the layers of sun block.

  The extreme coziness of the heat, my lack of rest the night before and the relatively quiet poolside pushed me into a drowsy state that just bordered on sleep. A lounge scraped the cement next to me. I popped my head up and shaded my eyes with my forearm. A tall, large figure stood over the next lounge. It was my new neighbor. He looked like one of those breathtaking surfers from Malibu. As rowdy as he looked, it seemed suddenly obvious that he came from money. Might have been the perfectly straight white teeth or the skin that looked as if it had never seen a teenage zit.

  “How’s it going?” he said casually, and plopped down on the lounge. “It’s really hot.”

  “Yep.” I glanced his way and then closed my eyes and rested my head back. “I see you opted for a swimsuit for this adventure.”

  “Yeah. Thought I’d branch out with my attire.” He sighed as he leaned back. “So, how many minutes after our little hallway conversation did you Google my name?”

  I knew my mouth had dropped open, but it still took me a second to snap it shut. “About five. I would have done it faster, but I had to make some coffee first.”

  I peered over at him from the side of my sunglasses. He was smiling.

  “You seem to have lived quite a full life already.” I rested my head back.

  “Nah, just looks like it. I’ve still got plenty of life to live.” His phone rang. “Hey, Keller, talk to me.”

  I tried to get back to the drowsy state I’d been in before he sat down.

  “I’m just sitting by the pool. You know that hot new neighbor I was telling you about this morning? Yeah, she’s sitting here in a bright blue bikini.”

  I was trying not to listen but since I’d been the topic, I leaned a little closer.

  “She is even better in a swimsuit. Smokin’”

  I lifted my head and looked over at him. He winked at me.

  “Yep, I’m still planning to housesit for you. You kidding? I fucking love your place. No big parties. Scouts honor.” He paused. “Me? Hell no. Once I found out there were no girls in the boy scouts, I handed my mom back the little blue uniform.” I could hear his friend’s deep laughter through the phone. “All right, later, man.” He hung up.

  “So, as I was Googling your name, you were telling your friend about the girl who smacked into you at the trash chute?”

  “Yep.” He leaned back and closed his eyes.

  I shouldn’t have been flattered. The man was, as some of the headlines had stated it so aptly, a cad, a rogue and a rich playboy, who seemed to get his kicks embarrassing his family. But stupidly, I was flattered.

  I picked up my book, but he started up a new topic of conversation. “I’m curious. Why is an excessively beautiful girl like you hanging out alone at the pool and living by herself in a studio apartment?”

  I was momentarily caught off guard by the phrase ‘excessively beautiful’ coming from the mouth of a man who, no doubt, turned every female head in a crowded room. Then my ire went up. My wounds were still too fresh. “I’m enjoying my complete and utter freedom from men right now, thank you.” My voice wavered on the last words, and I wanted to kick myself for allowing my emotion to show through.

  He got quiet. “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject. I was just making conversation.”

  I waved it off. “No problem.” I got up. “I think I’ll take a swim.” I knew damn well he was watching me walk to the steps, and somehow, I liked knowing that his eyes were on me. I took my time getting in. There was such a sharp difference between the air and water temperatures, it actually felt cold on my skin. I shrieked as a large body canon balled in right next to me, making my slow descent into the water rather meaningless. I was now completely wet.

  Breaker popped through the surface with that damn smile of his. God, how was it possible that he looked even better wet? He moved his big hands through the water, and a small wave of water washed over my thighs. “You need to go under to get the full feel of it,” he suggested, unnecessarily.

  “Believe it or not, this is not my first pool experience. And I hadn’t planned on getting my hair wet.”

  “Oops, sorry.”

  I pulled my messy bun out and dove under. I swam past him and didn’t surface until the deep end. He’d gotten the attention of the women at the other side of the pool. They made quite the show of getting off their lounges and heading down to the steps in the shallow end. One of the women, an attractive red head who looked as if she should probably be sitting in shade instead of sun, raised her hand over her eyes as she sat on the first step. “Are you new to the building?” She directed her question to Breaker. Of course, I was fairly new too, and I’d never crossed paths with her yet. But, apparently, she was only interested in the other new neighbor. He swam over to chat with them. He was definitely sociable. It was my cue to get out of the pool.

  I climbed up the small ladder in the deep end and walked back to the lounge. I would lay out long enough to get dry and then head up. It seemed there would be no way to read my book outside.

  I closed my eyes once again, searching for that blissful state that hovered near sleep when a loud honk sounded in the parking lot behind the pool area.

  “Breaker,” a girl yelled. “Get dressed. We’re going to lunch.” I peeked back over my lounge. It was a jeep with, not one, but three girls, each one more scantily clad than the next.

  Breaker waved and climbed out of the pool, making sure to leave broad smiles and blushes that had nothing to do with the sun, on the faces of his two new neighbor friends. They watched him stroll across the cement to his towel.

  I allowed myself a look too. Water dripped off the thick muscles of his arms and shoulders. There were so many tattoos on his ripped abs, I half expected black ink to be dripping off his skin. He reached up and combed his long wet hair back, and I was sure the red head sighed.

  “I’ll be right there,” he called to the girls in the jeep. He picked up his towel and dried off his face. “Hey, Pepper, want to go to lunch?”

  I looked up at him. He rubbed the towel over his tight stomach, and I found myself mesmerized by it. “Uh, no thanks. I’ve got stuff to do.”

  He nodded. “I guess I’ll see you around, neighbor.” With that he turned and headed back inside.

  Chapter 3

  A plate with half a peanut butter sandwich was still on my stomach as I woke up from a long and much needed nap. My book, on the other hand, had slid to the floor, and I’d now lost my place. I picked up the plate and made the tiny journey to the kitchen. Just as I lowered the uneaten sandwich into the fridge, loud music stuttered through the wall. There was enough base to make it seem as if my small apartment had been swallowed by a giant and I was listening to his heartbeat. Boom. Boom. It felt as if my own pulse was trying to synch up with beat of the music. Again, I could hear a lot of noise, but it was so muffled I couldn’t hear the actual music. I closed the fridge and the magnets slid off again. I picked up my three resin panda bears and put them on top of the counter. It was hard to know if they’d slipped off because of the vibration from the music or the heat in the room. It was seriously hot enough for the stainless steel appliances to sweat.

  I’d left the windows closed all morning, thinking it might keep some of the night air inside, but now, I was living in a sauna, without the benefit of a spa treatment. I opened the window, ushering in a long stream of sticky, hot air. I turned on the fan. It roared to life and mingled beautifully with the annoying bass sound pulsing through the room. It was like living in a friggin’ jungle, tropical weather, animals roaring and an elephant jumping outside my straw hut.

  The long nap had felt good, but it had left
me with a headache. I walked into the bathroom to get an aspirin. A wilted, groggy and slightly suntanned face stared back at me. My neighbor’s flattery had felt good for those few minutes. Chase had always taken extreme measures to break down my self-confidence, pointing out all my various flaws. And once he’d pointed one out, I could do nothing but focus on it. My cheekbones were too sharp, my nose was too short, my lips were uneven. Each cruel comment became part of a longer list of things that made me wonder how the man could even stand to look at me.

  A new song came on next door with even more bass. My head felt as if it was beating along with the music. I hated to be the old curmudgeon neighbor, but I had to tell him to turn it down or go crazy. I threw on a pair of shorts over my bikini bottoms and headed out into the hallway. Mrs. Davidson poked her head out of her apartment, the second she heard my door shut.

  “I don’t know what the manager was thinking letting that scoundrel rent an apartment here,” she said grumpily. She was usually pleasant, but the heat and the noise had obviously broken down that layer of charm.

  “I’ll ask him to turn it down,” I said.

  “Thank you, dear,” she replied, sounding more like her old self. She pulled her head back in and closed the door.

  I knocked, politely at first. No answer. I knocked louder and wondered briefly if the three girls had come up to finish their visit. He definitely seemed like the kind of man who fooled around consistently and without being too discerning about who he screwed.

  The door swung open. He was shirtless again. It took me a second to draw my attention away from his awe inspiring chest and notice that he was wearing only a towel around his hips.

  “Hey, hot and spicy, come on in.”

  I hesitated. “I just wanted to ask you to turn it down,” I had to speak loudly, “the bass is thrumming so hard, my refrigerator is actually inching its way across my kitchen floor.”

  He laughed and motioned me inside. This time I took the invite. He turned down the music.

  “I’m just going to assume that you do have clothing. I’ve seen swim trunks, but that seems to be your most formal attire.”

  He laughed. “I’ll prove to you I have clothes.” He headed to the bedroom but didn’t hesitate to yank off his towel before being out of view. And what a view it was. A rock hard ass flinched back at me as he disappeared into his room.

  I stood in the center of the living area, shocked at how much bigger his place was than mine. And it was cooler. Much cooler. Much fucking cooler. He’d rented the two bedroom apartment, the luxury suite, as I liked to call it because you didn’t have to sleep where you ate. Although, in my place, the kitchen proximity was handy for a midnight snack. I could practically grab an apple off the counter without leaving my bed.

  He came out in a pair of shorts. Still no shirt, but I had no complaints. “Can I get you a soda? That’s all I have right now.”

  “I’m good.”

  There were still boxes in the center of the room, but he had a nice, chocolate brown leather couch that wasn’t secondhand like my sofa bed. Of course, the man probably had a nine digit trust fund, so a brown leather couch didn’t seem too exorbitant. He hadn’t unpacked very much yet, but he had taken the time to decorate one of his dining room chairs. Two pairs of handcuffs hung from the back of it, one with pink fur around the cuffs and one with rather painful looking spikes on it.

  Breaker picked up a remote and turned down the sound system even more. It was not your run of the mill sound system either. The voice and instruments were so clear, it was as if the band was playing live from the next room.

  I motioned with my head toward the cuffs. He looked slightly embarrassed when he saw the object of my focus. “Let me guess,” I said, able to talk in a normal voice now, “good cop, bad cop?”

  He pointed at me. “That’s fucking brilliant. Do you mind if I write that down? It would be the perfect marketing slogan.” He pulled out his phone and typed the phrase. “My friend owns a sex toy company.” He glanced up from his phone. “It’s called Playthings for the Playful. Have you shopped there?”

  I shook my head slowly, as if I was actually trying to remember if I had, which, of course, I hadn’t. “Nope, name is not ringing a bell. I’m more the sensible shoe and nice handbag type.”

  He smiled as he finished a text. “There. Sent it to him. He’ll love it. And I gave my hot new neighbor the credit.”

  “I’m so proud.” I glanced around. “Why is your apartment two hundred degrees cooler than mine?”

  “Oh, I put a portable air conditioner unit in the bedroom. Have to pay a hundred dollars to run it though. The thing sucks up electricity. But otherwise, it’s just too damn hot.”

  “Really? I hadn’t noticed. But that might be because I’m delirious from losing liquid and minerals from my body.”

  He pulled a soda out of the refrigerator and popped it open. He lifted it to me. “You sure?”

  I waved off his offer. I glanced around the room.

  “If you’re looking for drug paraphernalia, there isn’t any.”

  “I wasn’t,” I protested a little too abruptly. “Well, maybe I was. God, when did I become my mother. Scary thought,” I muttered, more for my own ears than his.

  His green eyes sparkled as he looked at me. “Woke up in the middle of some sagebrush off the interstate highway one morning feeling as if death had dropped me on the way down to hell, deciding I wasn’t good enough. Knew then I had two choices— life or death. So I gave up all my vices.”

  I raised a brow. “Really?” I looked pointedly at the handcuffs.

  “Well, I haven’t given up women. That’s an addiction I can’t ever kick. I fucking love women.” He walked over to the handcuffs and picked up the pink ones. “But these are just for fun. Nothing heavy, you know? Keller, my friend who owns the company, just gives me new products to try out. He likes to get feedback before he purchases things. I have enough companions willing to give things a try.”

  “Interesting. Well, I hadn’t meant to take up any of your time. I’m going back to my steamy little cave. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

  “I’m just unpacking. You can stick around if you’d like.”

  “No, I’ve got a book I want to finish.”

  He walked me to the door. But instead of opening it, he stuck his hand against it. I glanced back at him. He was very spectacular up close, which, of course, was not surprising. A man like him, with no bad angle or flaw, could hardly take on any trollish features just because of proximity.

  Now, I was acutely aware of his nearness and the fact that he smelled good too. He didn’t touch me, but he was definitely close enough to. His pale eyes had a highly erotic quality to them, and I felt a tingling sensation flash through me as he dropped his seductive, light green gaze to my lips and then more noticeably to my breasts. Probably should have pulled on a t-shirt, but, then again, I wasn’t planning to get trapped between his hard as concrete body and an even less pliant wood door. Chase had trapped me like this more than once, and I’d always felt a rush of terror with it. For some reason, I wasn’t scared with this man. A little nervous, but not afraid. Probably a mistake. Especially with a man like Breaker.

  “Hey, I’m really sorry about the music.”

  I’d been thrown off by him standing so damn close, close enough for a kiss. “Music? Oh, right. No problem. It’s just Mrs. Davidson gets a little uptight about it, and it’s really hot.” I looked around his place. “Not here, but out in the trenches where us common folk reside.”

  He seemed to sense my uneasiness and lowered his hand from the door. He stepped back a few feet. “Pepper,” he said, his tone and expression had grown serious for the first time since I’d met him. “Whatever that guy did to you, I’m not him. I’d never hurt a woman.”

  For a brief second, his words made my t
hroat tighten, but I’d spent enough time crying about my relationship with Chase. And I really didn’t want to have this discussion with a man who, aside from the fact that I’d seen his naked ass and read all about his teen years, was technically a stranger. “According to Google, your middle name should be Player instead of Breaker. Maybe you haven’t lifted your hand to any woman, but, surely, a man with your appeal has left a string of broken hearts behind. Hurting someone doesn’t always have to be physical.”

  “Touché. You’re right.” He tucked his long hair behind his ear, a gesture I was quickly growing fond of. “That was an ignorant thing for me to say, and it’s none of my business.” He reached for the doorknob. “Hey, if it’s too hot over there, come spend the night over here.”

  My eyes widened.

  “On my couch,” he quickly added. “You know, if it’s too hot.”

  “Thanks, but I’ll be fine.” I lingered longer than etiquette required for a casual goodbye and then walked out.

  Chapter 4

  The nap had carved into my usual bedtime. I’d finished my book early and decided to veg out on my classy sofa bed in my baby doll style nightgown. It was silky and semi-sheer and had been a stupid purchase. I’d bought it at a time when I thought I still wanted to hang on to my relationship with Chase. A sexy piece of lingerie that I never ended up wearing.

  I turned the fan directly toward the bed, but it only seemed to be dragging in warm, moist air. The sun was long gone, but its wrath was not. The nighttime temperatures were hardly an improvement from the stifling heat of the day. The Pride and Prejudice movie with Colin Firth as the dark, brooding and extremely sexy Mr. Darcy was on television, so I settled in to watch it. The noise of the fan made it hard to hear the dialogue, but I’d read the book and seen the movie so often, I could lip read.