CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Extract
About the Publisher
CHAPTER ONE
LINES ON THE PAGE. Each sketch, each movement created a world she was responsible for. A world whose rules she made. A world whose rules they obeyed.
For a control freak like Rachel, it was as good as the talk therapy shed been in for the last three years. It freed her. Gave her the ability to effect change on multiple levels.
And she didnt need to hunt serial killers or carry a gun to do it.
It was also a hell of a lot safer.
Sleep often eluded her, but the creative fire that had ignited into fierce existence in the wake of the events that had shattered her entire life four years ago rarely did. So when she couldnt find rest, she could always find art.
Her music wasnt so loud she missed the ping of her phone, indicating a text.
Im in my driveway. Your light is on. Are you still awake?
Her pulse kicked at the sight of his name on her phones screen. Vicktor Orlov. Heard the words in his voice in her head. That accent, a sexy Russian lilt though hed been born in the United States. Growing up in a houseful of Orlovs and various relations with heavy accents had been close enough, she figured.
And it worked. Like really, really worked. It didnt hurt that he also happened to be gorgeous. Sinfully sexy. Funny. Super smart. He worked with his hands so he had great forearms. One of her favorite parts of a man.
Over the years Rachel and Maybe had lived next door to his parents, hed come to be an acquaintance. And since her sister had gone and fallen in love with his cousin, Rachel and Vic had gone from acquaintances to friends.
And the door had been opened to something else. Something more. The possibility of what could be hung between them.
She considered not replying. He wouldnt know either way. He was messy. She couldnt keep him in a tidy box marked Friend. Not any longer and certainly not if she went and texted with him at three forty-seven in the morning.
Couldnt sleep. Working instead. Why are you up so early? Hot date that went late? Just enjoying stalking my window like a creeper?
It was a joke, or she wouldnt have said it. His house sat on the curve of their street, so from his front window and driveway he could see the side of the house Rachels bedroom was on.
I run a bakery. Im usually up by four thirty most days. Today I switched with my mother so she could accompany Evie to a doctors appointment. I start work in about half an hour or so.
Ah.
He always smelled really good. Like bread and cake and just a smidge of vanilla. She wanted to take a bite. Or a lick. Something of the sort.
Vic made her tingly and warm and sometimes he made her want things she didnt need.
And yet, she found herself responding because she liked himmore than she shouldand around Vic she was less alone. And maybe closer to being a normal person again who did things like have crushes and went out on dates with hot bakers.
Save me a loaf of black bread. Ill drop by later this morning to pick it up on my way to work.
Then shed be able to get some food and look her fill at him while she did it.
Thatd most definitely give her workday a fine start.
Ill save you two and throw in some salmon. But you dont need to come get it. Ill be done by eleven. Ill drop it by your house when I go home.
A flush washed through her. Shed be alone in the house by then.
It wasnt that having him in her house was bad. It was that he was dangerous for her constitution because she wanted to jump on him and ride him like a stallion.
Which would be a bad idea. Probably.
Possibly.
Not that she planned on avoiding it. The having him in her house part. The riding like a stallion was still in the fantasy stages.
Okay. Thanks, she typed back.
It wasnt like she had no self-control. She could say hello and look at his butt and flirt and it would be fine. She was a grown woman!
And, since this was just a conversation in her head, she could admit that maybe she wanted something to happen with him. They had chemistrymajor chemistryand she got the feeling, given the way he moved, that he knew his business when it came to a womans body.
She went back to her pad but instead of the drawing, all she could think of was Vic and those shoulders of his. Wide. Not linebacker wide, but solid and strong. Capable. She liked that.
In fact, she was bummed shed agreed to let him bring the bread to their house because she realized he probably looked ridiculously hot when at work. She bet it was pornographic just watching him knead bread. She already had watched him in her kitchen doing things and gotten a little swoony.