Free Hold Me Tight: Heartbreakers by Cait London

expression as he’d kissed her hand, how her eyes had rounded, and the scent of her had filled his senses.
    He looked out at the huge waves, the layer of clouds obscuring the horizon. Jessica Sterling was exactly the kind of woman who could tear him apart—and Alexi didn’t need a second go-round in that painful arena. He pushed back his hair and shook his head. But Jessica was nothing like Heather, not beneath the surface. There was too much heat, too much caring, too much sensuality. Or was that just one more deceitful example of how a woman could twist a man’s insides?
    And he knew he couldn’t leave her alone. Not until he’d reached all the depths of her, explored them….
    Alexi sat on a driftwood log, watched the seagulls forage amid the strands of seaweed and tiny shells. He poured the coffee from the thermos that Mary Jo had sent. He lifted his face to the wind and thought about the ancient Hawaiian’s curse upon Amoteh, damning it for eternity because he’d been shipwrecked and stranded in a land that wasn’t his.
    Maybe the chieftain was lucky to live without the nettling presence of women, Alexi thought darkly.
    And if Alexi had a curse, it was Jessica Sterling—as she had been this morning, sweet, vulnerable, a kitten at play. Alexi had seen his ex-fiancée at the same game—but with Heather, it was usually followed by a costly demand.
    Jessica Sterling wanted something, too, but not for herself. She was all woman, soft and fragrant, and she knew how to bite back, how to defend herself, just the kind of woman who could tear a man’s pride into shreds.
    “Alexi?” Willow’s soft voice interrupted his dark thoughts. “Mind if I share your log? You look so lonesome sitting here. The ocean makes this a peaceful spot, doesn’t it?”
    Alexi nodded, but he doubted that with Jessica around that he would be having “peace” anytime soon. Jessica had stirred his deep need for sex, and he wasn’t a casual man, accepting one-night affairs to feed that elemental passion.
    Moisture had steamed Willow’s glasses and made her hair stand out in a huge ball around her head. “Do you like it here? I do. You seem to like the ocean. I’m surprised, really. I’d think you’d miss the mountains. I really didn’t expect you to stay too long. The Stepanovs could have repaired that old house for your father.”
    “I like the mountains. I was raised in Wyoming. But I like it here, too.”
    “Good. I can’t wait to meet your father. It’s great that you’re remodeling his place, though…I’m worried about Jessica. She seems upset about something today, all off-center, and that’s not like her at all.”
    Alexi turned to the slight noise of someone walking over the wet sand. Jessica was marching toward them, her expression disdainful as she picked her way over the clumps of seaweed. One strand caught her shoe and she paused, lifting her foot to pick it away. She released the seaweed to the sand with a look of distaste and impatiently brushed her hands.
    A rich woman, Jessica was out to make trouble for him, determined to get her way, no matter what the cost.
    “Oh, hi, Jessica. Sit down with us.” Willow looked up at Jessica, who was now scowling at Alexi.
    “Are you sure I won’t be interrupting?” Jessica said tightly as Alexi blandly met her furious stare.
    In an upscale fleece jacket with a hood and designer jeans, she had replaced her cosmetics and her steely veneer. Her eyes blazed at him, her mouth tight within its gloss. Those silky waves weren’t framing her face, an indication that she’d drawn it back into that sleek knot.
    The sensual image of releasing that coil of hair into his hands stirred Alexi—just as he wanted to undo the woman, strip away all civilization between them, leaving nothing but heat and passion and pleasure.
    Every instinct within Alexi told him that this woman could arouse and fascinate him like no other….
    On the other hand, he’d already been torn apart by a