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  Sasha was scowling. She’d never seen him so dark and foreboding. He towered over her, face flushed. Kallie swallowed hard and told herself not to be intimidated.

  “Do not do this.”

  “What will you do if I do? I want a clean break. Cut. I’m not asking for anything but to start over here,” she said, gesturing around the apartment, dingy as it was. “You give me lots of stuff. Why is the one thing that doesn’t cost you anything, the one thing you can’t give me?”

  He was silent a long time. “Fine,” he said finally. “Just not right now. Let’s wrap up things back home and I’ll set you up. We can part ways after that.”

  “I don’t need you to set me up. I’m done with your setting me up,” she said, throwing the pillow on the bed and stepping deliberately into his space.

  It was a desperate move, one that she hadn’t counted on leavingv her unnerved. His sexual charisma was a force to be reckoned with. He was like a superhero or something, with this crazy scary ability to intoxicate her with a need for him, simply by being near. She couldn’t breathe. If she did, she’d smell his scent. A foot closer and she could taste the sweat on his skin. Could become lost in that incredible, stupid chemistry that led her down this path in the first place.

  “Kallie,” he said, his tone wheedling, stepping in closer. In her space.

  “No, Sasha, I’m not going,” she said, refusing to be moved.

  He cupped the back of her head and swept in for a kiss. It hadn’t even been a single rotation of the moon since she kissed him last, and she felt like he was feeding her after she’d been left to die of starvation. She responded, damn her, damn him, and nipped his lips hungrily. Was it she who made the first move, to plunge her tongue into his mouth, ravaging, plundering, taking everything she could from him, though she knew it was a mistake and that she would pay dearly? Her hands clutched at his shirt, the sheet falling forgotten to the floor.

  He was the one to pull away. To step back and look at her, her body flushed and aroused. He had to smell it on her, her entire body singing out just how much she still wanted him.

  The bastard.

  “I hate you, you know.”

  “Yeah,” he said, and to her surprise he was the one to look away. “I know. I was waiting for that to happen.”

  Chapter Two

  I’m coming back. This is temporary. This is mine and he’s not taking this apartment from me.

  The repeated litany wasn’t helping a whole lot. Maybe if Sasha wasn’t sitting there watching her pack, large as life in a chair that his frame was too big to even fit in properly.

  She hated this whole thing. Packing in front of him felt like a performance. Was he judging her underwear? He was, wasn’t he? She stuffed things into her gym bag so fast she had no idea what she was even grabbing. The whole exercise felt pointless. She’d just unpacked last night. She’d stayed in hotels longer.

  You have a lease, you know. Just because he wants you to go with him doesn’t mean you’re not coming back.

  It was an interesting thought. One might even say empowering. She didn’t want to leave, so then why should she? She threw a t-shirt into the bag and stopped to look at him, hands on hips. “You know what? No, I actually like this place. I’ll go back with you, but you and I are quickly wrapping up whatever you need me for. I’m coming back here.”

  He chuckled, and shook his head like she was crazy. “Whatever,” he said. “Get what you need and let’s go.”

  “Not ‘whatever,’” she insisted.

  “Yes, it is whatever. In an hour from now, you’ll be sticking your tongue in my mouth again.”

  It was a crude taunt, designed to hurt. “Well if you were a gentleman, then maybe you would just resist if I tried it,” she muttered, picking up the bag and slinging it over her shoulder.

  “Since when am I a gentleman?”

  Well, she certainly couldn’t argue that one. Biting back half a dozen possible retorts, she suddenly realized she had bigger problems. “I’m not riding with you,” she announced, eyeing the car parked outside her window. Of course, his people would have retrieved the other car already. She had no doubt it was long gone without looking.

  The problem was she no longer had a lot of options. He’d taken back the money. He’d taken back the car. Getting someone else to drive her was well out of the question, but the last thing she wanted was to spend a couple of hours riding shotgun with her creepy ex-boyfriend. Like it wasn’t already hard enough to look at him in the same room and remember what it felt like to be in his arms. To be in a closed space where she could smell his scent, could feel the warmth of his body right there next to hers as he drove. No way in hell was she putting herself in for that kind of torture.

  Besides, what if that girl called, the one he’d talked to on the phone last night?

  She swallowed hard. That wasn’t supposed to hurt. She’d broken up with him, after all. But it did. The thought left a tightness in her chest that made it hard to breathe. Him moving on was one thing. But him having someone within an hour or two of her leaving? That implied a sort of betrayal that felt like a kick to the stomach.

  She just couldn’t deal with that.

  So, she stared him down, arms crossed, and waited for him to come up with a solution.

  Which he did. Just not the solution she wanted.

  “Yes, you are, and this is the last of this bullshit, this back and forth,” he said as he stood and went to the door. “You don’t get to call the shots.”

  “I don’t want to be in a car when your girlfriend calls.” She hadn’t meant to say that. Even with a sneering tone, it came off as whiny and pathetic.

  He smiled. His face looked bright, as if he were happy about this accusation.

  Dammit. Let him know you’re jealous, why not? She winced and tried to brazen it out. “Call me a cab. I’ll meet you there.”

  “You’re riding with me. I’ll ignore the calls from other women, for the time being,” he said, and winked. Winked!

  “Not on my account,” she retorted. “We’re single people. If you want to talk to a woman, go ahead. And if I want to talk to a man, I’ll feel free.”

  He tipped his head and studied her. “Really,” he said, his eyes wide in mock disbelief. “And who would those candidates be?”

  Kallie said the first name that popped into her head. It wasn’t a good one. “Jeremy.”

  Sasha’s eyes flared, and the atmosphere in the room shifted. The air filled with the same electric charge as when an intense thunderstorm about to hit. “What?”

  “Yeah, he’s been in touch.” It was an out and out lie, but he didn’t need to know that.

  Of course, Kallie had forgotten who she was talking to. Sasha could verify in no time whether this was true. Right now, she didn’t care. The very idea of Jeremy might make her sick to the stomach, but right now she had no qualms about hitting Sasha below the belt with it.

  From the way his left eye started twitching it had worked.

  “In the car, now,” he ordered, in a voice so cold she was at risk for hypothermia. “I got the ground rules. Let’s go.”

  A martyr would take the bus. Anyone with half a brain wouldn’t get in the car with him, especially with him this mad. Apparently, she was an idiot.

  She followed him out to the car.

  She trailed him miserably. The last thing Kallie wanted was to spend time with a former lover. A week ago, she’d been in love. For that matter, from the moment they met they’d spent all their time together except when he was working. Which actually had been quite a bit of time. But people who were self-employed were expected to put a lot of hours into their businesses, right?

  Still, she’d been lonely. A lot. And while their love had been a passionate thing, you’d think he could have spared her a little more time beyond some totally amazing encounters in the bedroom.

  That’s what the business was supposed to be, though, wasn’t it? A chance to spend more time together? An opportunity to in
teract in a way that would challenge not just her body, but her mind. Wonderful how that had turned out to be.

  She really should have learned. It had been Sasha, along with her former fiancé, who had stabbed her in the back with her first business. Why she hadn’t at least half-expected it with the second only proved how idiotic she’d been acting. Of course, she hadn’t been expecting perfection overnight. It was difficult to learn how to work with someone new, especially when you were supposed to be partners and were still feeling out the whole division of work aspect to things. But even a rocky start couldn’t account for the way he’d left her out of every single business decision.

  And then she’d caught him in the act, breaking the law again and using her as a front to do it. What girl would be expected to stay around after that?

  Sasha’s driver waited patiently as they loaded up the trunk of the Lincoln. Sasha held the back door for her, always a gentleman even when he was so pissed at her.

  But Kallie was still mad enough to continue to push his buttons. “No, that’s okay,” she said. “I’ll ride up front.” She didn’t even know she was going to say that. It just came out of her mouth.

  Sasha towered over her. “You’ll ride in the back with me.” That booming voice of his left no room for arguments. This was no playful act of being the bully; he really was pissed, and was quite nearly at his limit with her.

  Was she really wanting to go there over a seating arrangement?

  More than a little scared she slid into the back seat, thinking how strange it was that love and hate could be so closely intertwined. As much as she didn’t want him talking to other women, as much as she wanted to feel his hands on her body again, she absolutely despised him. What’s more, she was starting to despise the person she became when she was with him.

  “Now knock it off,” he muttered as he settled himself next to her.

  Knock it off? How about start the whole thing over completely? But if she could turn back the clock would she have handled things differently? She’d like to think so. Yet if she had, she would never have learned that Sasha had at least one other woman on the hook.

  And this was something she was going to need to remember. As much as she was aware of him, the way his shoulder brushed against hers as the car set into motion and they pulled out into traffic. As much as she was intoxicated by his aftershave... he really was the bad guy. You know, the guy who talked your ex-fiancé into ruining your business? That guy who’s been using you as a front for his new business? The one you were never allowed to run in the first place?

  So, she turned away from him, suddenly interested in the passing scenery. Putting as much physical distance as she could between them, because she was still remembering the times he’d been sweet and soft-hearted to her, and was still struggling to remember how cold-blooded he’d been to talk to another woman in front of her like that.

  He did you a favor. Remember that.

  She pressed her forehead against the cool glass, trying to see the ocean between the trees, biting back tears because she absolutely refused to let him know that he’d made her cry.

  The car ride was silent for the first hour, until Kallie couldn’t take the air conditioning anymore. Sasha always ran warm, and so blasted the icy air until she thought she was going to freeze. There was no way in hell she was going to ask him to turn it down, but the only blanket in the car was just behind Sasha’s head.

  She recognized the moment he caught her eyeing it. His expression hardened, eyes narrowing. There was no way he was going to make this easy for her. “What?” he demanded, crossing his arms and positively daring her to say something.

  She swallowed hard. She knew he’d be playing these games the moment she got into the car. Truth be told, she was a little surprised it had taken this long to begin. “I want to use the blanket.”

  It was a stupid thing to get upset about. He wanted to hurt her, and was going to be as petty and small as possible. That the tears that had been threatening since she’d woken up and seen him there staring at her welled up in her eyes now over something so small as a blanket, left her feeling impossibly weak and vulnerable.

  And let’s be honest, you’re crying because the big handsome Russian doesn’t like you very much at the moment. As if you need him to! My gosh, it might have been only a day, but hasn’t this been a long time coming? Let go already!

  He reached behind him and, in doing so, his enormous muscles flexed. Her brain short-circuited. Again. He was so massive and cut. Which was more than a little perplexing, because she’d never so much as seen him head to a gym, or actually do anything toward exercise. Ever.

  ...unless you want to count bedroom sports.

  Argh. Stop already!

  She thought he was going to hand her the blanket, but instead he unfolded it and draped it over her. It was too much. She wrested the edge from him and slid it over her shoulder for herself, turning away again to look out the window. There was enough left to wad some of the blanket up so that she could rest her head on it. This time as she stared out the window, there was no holding back the tears. She hid her face against the blanket and cried, swallowing down each sob, trying to make as little noise as possible.

  For a few minutes, he didn’t acknowledge it in any way.

  “You’re being ridiculous,” he said finally. “Sit up. Suck it up. You asked for this and you got it. Don’t cry like this is happening to you, unless of course those are happy tears.”

  She wasn’t about to get into it with him. Suddenly furious, she tore the blanket from her and threw it at him with all the strength she could muster. Which, of course, didn’t work because it was a stupid blanket and all it did was settle over his head like a cheap magician’s trick. It would have been hilarious had he not somehow managed to latch onto her wrist, blind.

  He squeezed it hard enough for her to gasp. A glance at the driver showed her she’d get no help from there, though she struggled hard to get free.

  He jerked her to him as his other hand sent the blanket tumbling to the floor of the car. “Do not get violent with me, do you understand? Don’t shove me. Don’t throw shit at me.”

  Her chest hurt. Terror... fear... anger... she couldn’t begin to name the emotions that tore through her. She couldn’t get air into her lungs, and she opened her mouth to scream.

  “Breathe.”

  She did as she was told. One shaky breath followed another as he relinquished his grip. Rubbing at her wrist, she retreated again to her place against the door, darting him uneasy looks for the duration of the car ride.

  Another hour passed. It felt like ten. By the end of the trip, she’d been sitting so tense for the entire duration that she was wiped out by the time they got to what had been her home only yesterday.

  Kallie stared dully out the window as the limousine pulled up in front of the place. She’d adored this place once. Now it felt like a step backwards to return here, like she’d lost something she couldn’t even name.

  It took all her energy to drag herself from the car. Her gym bag felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. She was almost relieved when Sasha took her luggage from her and carried it himself.

  Fine. Let him. Let him do all the work.

  He dropped the bags in the entryway and paused to look at her. Whatever he’d felt for her was surely gone; the look he gave her was as hard and cold as he’d been all day. There had been no softening.

  But then she’d never given him reason to soften toward her.

  I’m not apologizing.

  She lifted her chin with a hint of defiance that he ignored completely as he turned to go. “Take the rest of the day, but tomorrow it’s business as usual. Be at the bakery at the same time,” Sasha said, hand on the doorknob.

  “Are you sending a car?” she asked, wondering just how she was going to take the bus when he’d taken all her money.

  He hesitated like he didn’t want to. He looked towards the end of the street at the bus stop like he was thinking the
same thing.

  I need what...five bucks? Ten for the day? Is he going to make me beg for bus money?

  She told herself she didn’t care. There was nothing wrong with taking the bus, even if she had to grab it before sunrise to get to the bakery on time. So what if the neighborhood was a little sketchy? She almost welcomed the challenge.

  “Yeah, whatever,” he said finally, though he clearly wasn’t happy about it.

  “You know what? You’re right,” she said, and she meant it, too. “I’m the one who wanted the independence, and I shouldn’t have asked.” He might have taken her cash, arguing that it had been his money, which it had been. But she still had her debit card and enough money in the bank to settle her for some time. So, who cared? There was a 7-Eleven not far away, and she could use the ATM there and get her own bus money. She didn’t need him for anything.

  Right?

  She suddenly pictured the neighborhood around that particular 7-Eleven and cringed a little inwardly. Getting cash from a machine and then walking to the bus stop didn’t feel like a great idea at all. In fact, it felt like a terrible idea. How the hell was she supposed to protect herself from would-be thieves?

  “Really?” he asked, turning to face her. He drew himself up to his full height, his face a mask of fury. “Are you going to keep flipping back and forth? I’m willing to view this is as a major bump in the road, like ‘so it didn’t work out between us but maybe down the road, we can be amicable.’ Keep it up and that’s not going to be a possibility.”

  “That’s how I meant it,” she insisted, throwing her arms up in a frustrated gesture. “I was saying it doesn’t make sense for me to ask for a ride if we’re not a thing anymore—”

  “I’ll try to work with the lawyer to figure something out quickly,” he said, and for once didn’t look angry so much as tired and sad. “So we can be done with this.”