The Girl With Hearts (Midtown Brotherhood #1) Read Free

then tenderly the next as he fought against his own eagerness. Tonight, this one, small flash in time, would be his only opportunity. Tomorrow, she’d be like all the others.
    A memory.
    He forced himself back long enough to catch his breath. He noticed the look in her eyes, the one she’d never admit even if it killed her, and he knew her memory would be the one to finally haunt him.
    Clouds formed in her brilliant green eyes, the brown flecks swirling with the craving they both felt. He hadn’t realized that he’d moved her, that he’d picked her up and swerved around the couch. Her lips ravaged his throat as his shaky hand sought out the doorknob to the bathroom. He shut and locked the door behind him, setting her down on the sink.
    She shot him a crooked smile to ask about the change in scenery. He shrugged. “Just in case your brother decides to come back early. Austin is my roommate, remember?”
    He should have been alarmed by the complete lack of guilt he felt at the mention of his best friend. However, in that moment, with Leila’s shiny lips smiling at him for maybe the first time ever, Austin was just the name of some guy he knew. Her hands were already busy when his lips found hers again. She yanked desperately at his shirt, and he discarded it quickly before setting his sights on her dress. Now that she was here, the countless fantasies he’d harbored finally coming to fulfillment, he found himself wanting to slow down, to savor every second.
    He maneuvered the zipper of her dress down as the lavish kisses down his shoulder steadily slowed. Her fingers traced his shoulder blade. She inspected the sleeve of tattoos that decorated his entire left arm. “This is new,” she whispered, her breath rushing across his skin like fire on water.
    “How would you know?” he challenged, and the look they exchanged said what neither of them would.
    Their mutual hatred didn’t mean they hadn’t each been acutely aware of each other for the past four years.
    “They’re hideous,” she proclaimed.
    His smiled widened. “Uh-huh. That’s why you’re still touching them, right?”
    She looked down to see her fingers absently tracing the outline of the emblem that represented their college logo. She pulled her fingers back, and he laughed. “I don’t mind,” he whispered, dropping his forehead down to hers. “I was actually hoping to get a taste of yours. If I remember correctly—” He pushed her hair over her shoulder, revealing the tiny string of hearts, descending in size, that led from behind her ear down her neck. “Yep, there they are.”
    He kissed them then, each of the four pink hearts in turn, before dropping down to the nape of her neck. Leila could pretend to be a prim and proper socialite all she wanted, but she’d never convince him. She’d always be the girl with hearts, sitting in the stands and wearing that worn-out jersey. Her bright, innocent eyes taunting him, a constant reminder she was everything he wasn’t allowed to desire.
    She sighed, and his primal instincts threatened to take hold of him, enhancing his desire to claim this prize that fate had given him. He grabbed her hips and pulled her down from the sink as his fingers traced the inside of her thigh.
    He paused, his jaw going slack with shock as he realized she wasn’t wearing any panties beneath the dress. She pushed up on her tiptoes to meet his ear, and this time it was Leila who laughed. “I was prepared to seduce you if necessary.”
    Henrik bit the inside of his jaw, bundling the fabric of her dress between his fingers. “Damn. I would have really liked to have seen that.”
    “That’s what you get for being easy.”
    He growled, though he had to admit he enjoyed when she provoked him. That had been their thing all along, the one and only social interaction she allowed to transpire between them. A battle of wit and ego, deciding who could insult or ignore whom the best. It was time the tables turned. He’d finally