Free Relentless (Shattered Hearts) by Cassia Leo Page B

crash and body parts are going to fly—in particular, hearts. I can feel it.
    But I don’t care.
    I grab handfuls of his hair and pull his face toward me, mashing his lips against mine as I climb onto his lap. His tongue searches my mouth as his arms wrap around my waist pulling me against him. I reach down to pull my dress up and he grabs my hands.
    “Wait,” he whispers as he rests his forehead against mine and pulls my hands together in front of his chest. “I don’t want you to do this if you’re not ready.”
    “I’m ready,” I respond quickly, but he doesn’t let go of my hands.
    “No, you’re not.”
    “Yes, I am.”
    “Claire, I’m stoned and even I can see that you’re not ready.”
    He lets go of my hands and my fists fall softly against his chest. He kisses the tip of my nose and I press my lips together to hide my smile.
    “This is pretty,” I say as I bring my fingertip to the top of his tattoo and trace the circular compass.
    He draws in a sharp breath as his skin prickles with goose bumps. “That’s what I was going for. I told the tattoo artist, ‘Give me your prettiest tattoo,’ and it was either this or a pink butterfly. The butterfly’s on my ass.”
    “I want one.”
    “You want a tattoo or a tattoo artist?”
    I rake my fingers over his chest and up to his collarbone before I wrap my arms around neck. “Can you take me to get one?”
    “I don’t know. I think I’ve already been a bad enough influence on you.”
    “Please. You have this cool little mantra right over your heart. I have a mantra, too.”
    He cocks an eyebrow as he leans in to kiss my jaw. “What’s your mantra?”
    “You’re not going to like it. Nobody likes it. I got it from a book on Buddhism. Not that I’m Buddhist, I just read a couple of books and this one sentence sort of stuck with me.”
    His lips trace a light trail down to my neck and I have to stop myself from grinding against him. “Just spit it out.”
    I draw in a sharp breath as his tongue slides across my collarbone and he lays a soft kiss on my shoulder. “I am in training to be nobody special,” I whisper.
    He freezes for a moment then looks up at me. “What does that mean?”
    “It means I’m not fighting the tide trying to be something great or memorable. I am in training to be nobody special. I go with the flow or, as you might say, I’m riding it out.”
    He chuckles as he shakes his head. “You’re right. I hate it.”
    “Hey! I didn’t talk trash about your mantra.”
    “That’s because mine’s awesome,” he says as his fingers roam over my back.
    “Ride it out? Oh, how profound.”
    “And aiming to be nobody special is profound? It’s not profound, it’s depressing. Besides, you could never be nobody special.”

Chapter Ten
    Relentless Laughter

    Adam stops by the café every single day this week on his way to work, as if to prove that ignoring me all last week was just a fluke and that he’s taking his stalker gig seriously. The best part of his visits is how much Linda and my coworkers like him. He actually convinced Linda to let him give her a lesson in how to dance Gangnam Style in front of six other customers. Watching Adam and my boss groovin’ out in the middle of the café caused major swoonage. Despite these picture perfect morning meetings, I have yet to see Adam after work.
    “I’m telling you, he’s a male stripper and he doesn’t want you to see him come home covered in kiss marks and the stench of cheap perfume,” Senia says, twisting open a bottle of Coke for us to drink with the pizza we ordered.
    “He’s not a stripper. He works for his dad’s construction company,” I say as I grab a slice of cheese pizza and the glass of soda Senia just poured for me. I lean back on the sofa and take a sip before I continue. “Then again, he does seem to be a good dancer.”
    “You know what they say about good dancers.” She wiggles her eyebrows and I try not to blush.
    “I may never know if