Heartbreaker (Unbreakable #1)(7)

“Henry Higgins would be so proud.”

“Iiieeey…” Her vowels twisted on a whine. “Eeey’s Professor Iggins ta yew, eeey is.”

I nearly choked on my coffee, laughing at her London street-urchin imitation. “Goodbye, Kendall.”

Hilarious subject closed, I clicked off the phone.

In the sober quiet that followed, her underlying point echoed loud and clear. One of us needed to get laid. I definitely did. My withering lady bits could only handle a sexual vacuum for so long.

But as I stared into the overwhelming white of the room, its starkness glared back at me. All the same things no longer seemed to be working. My optimistic self was taking a beating, no matter how deserved.

Maybe a change was long overdue.

I shooed the furry munchkin off the counter, washed his bowl, grabbed my purse and coffee, then stepped outside behind the little guy, locking up. And all the while, I couldn’t stop thinking about Darren. Something more lay hidden behind that sexy broody exterior. Maybe it was the unspoken challenge he presented.

Frustrated at everything that wasn’t going according to plan, I growled at the injustice of it all as I walked toward the alley again, back on the course I’d intended last night. Back to the only thing that soothed my soul regardless of the unfairness in life.

As I closed the front gate behind me, cat darting out at the last minute, my phone played Adele’s “Hello.” Kristen’s turn.

I pulled it from my purse and swiped it on, lowering my voice. “Grand Central Station.”

“That busy?”

“Yep. Just missed Kendall the Inquisitive.”

“Ah.” As usual, Kristen didn’t pry. “I forgot to send you the dimensions you needed for the party.” She referred to our next event for Invitation Only, the party-planning business I’d help create with my brother and sisters. “The client loves Loading Zone’s design so much, she wanted your flare with more than the finishing touches. She insisted on using your ‘Industrial Grunge’ nickname for the event. Hope that’s okay.”

I paused halfway down the short sidewalk, something nagging at my sluggish brain. “Sure. I don’t own the trademark.”

“And she keeps saying, ‘Make sure Kiki casts her welding magic.’ To which I keep replying, ‘You know this is Kiki, right’?”

My heart tripped, beginning to race even though I stood stock-still, planted to the cement.

“I just emailed you the measurements for the DJ equipment. Two sound boards, also a front panel for the bar and…”

My brain froze. DJ equipment. Darren.

When Kristen paused, I finally sucked in a lungful of oxygen. “Gotta go.” I muttered absently. “I’ll look for the email.”

In trying to forget my problems at Loading Zone last night, then while in hot pursuit of my next conquest, I’d completely forgotten about the project I’d been tasked with.

Having to do with said conquest.

“Idiot,” I grumbled. Darren had become too entwined in the periphery of my life to have kept him in the running for casual sex play. When he’d first caught my eye, he’d been Loading Zone’s new DJ. But then Cade had hired him on for a couple of Invitation Only parties. Which had eventually become nearly every one. The moment he’d attended the first, I should have discounted him.

With a resigned sigh and enormous willpower, I forced him from my thoughts.

After a few measured breaths, I began to feel close to normal and resumed my routine path. I rounded the corner of the white picket fence and began my ninety-seven usual steps toward my destination, kitten trotting alongside me in perfect feline balance on the cement curbing. At step number thirty-nine, my stride slowed. Before I hit forty-three, I stopped altogether.

My breath caught. My heart began to race as memories flooded in.

Two feet away from where I stood, hundreds of minutes ago but what seemed like the blink of an eye, Darren had stepped into my space—gotten too close.

In that early morning hour, where temps had dipped into the low fifties, he’d towered over me, radiating blast-furnace heat. The spiky black ends of his hair had softened, those deep emerald eyes had darkened, and that broad chest had huffed in ragged breaths.

But out of all that, I was struck by one instant. Suspended in the space between one hard pulse-beat at his throat and the next, through the impenetrable shield he’d erected to keep me and the rest of the world out, he’d been vulnerable.

Breath held, I closed my eyes, reliving the split-second moment: His intoxicating scent coiled around me, sweet with a touch of salty spice. Recognition flashed in his eyes as he gazed down at me.

Of what?

I sucked in a fast breath. My eyes snapped open and I stared at the spot where we’d been.

In the bright light of day, a glaring revelation hit me: I’d chased after someone too like me.

With a hard headshake, panicked about what that meant, I hurried down the alley. Running from the implications made me feel like I had some power in my out-of-control world.

But nothing eradicated the truth: Drastic change had already begun.





Darren…

The following afternoon, I returned to Loading Zone. As usual on Mondays, I laid soundtracks for the upcoming weekend.

But it was the first time I’d been back in the club since…