Free Kiss Me Book 1 by Chloe Parks

to
jump.
    “ Shit,” she said, clutching
at her chest. Pushing her wild and tangled hair out of her face,
she stood on her tiptoes to see who it was. Relief as well as
disappointment washed over her as she disarmed the security system
and slid the locks free.
    She opened the door,
screwing on the best smile she could muster.
    “ Hello,” she said,
squinting as the sun assaulted her sensitive eyes.
    “ Hello Amy. How are
you?”
    Amy sniffed and forced her
emotions down. “I’m good. I’ve got the key to your car in the
kitchen. I was just about to make some coffee. Would you care to
join me?” she asked. She didn’t particularly want to talk to Amar,
but he’d been surprisingly nice to her, so she felt somewhat
obligated to return the favor.
    He smiled a smile that was
a lot like Christian’s. She backed away from the door and allowed
him entrance.
    “ You’ve got a lovely home,”
Amar said, looking around.
    “ Thank you. This way,” she
said, beckoning him to follow her down the hall and into the
kitchen.
    “ Did you decorate
it?”
    “ I did. I had some pieces
imported from Italy,” she said as she moved around the counter and
filled the carafe with water.
    “ Yes, I noticed the
banisters when I walked in. Very finely sculpted and designed.
Beautiful wood that can only be found over there.”
    Amy’s eyes met his blue
ones. She couldn’t hide the shock she felt. “You know about
décor?”
    He chuckled and removed
his suit coat and draped it over the back of a chair. She noticed
he was impeccably dressed in an expensive suit. “Our mother was
Sophia D’Ltera.”
    Amy’s mouth fell open and
her eyes bugged out. “Your mother was Sophia D’Ltera?” she asked,
repeating what he’d just said.
    “ Yes,” he said with a
chuckle.
    She could hardly believe
what she was hearing. Sophia was world famous in the interior
design field. She’d often catered to A-list celebrities and leaders
all over the world up until she passed away five years before with
a rare form of Leukemia.
    “ Sorry, I’m just. . . wow!”
was all she could manage as she continued to prep the
coffee.
    “ Yeah. We all took her
death pretty hard, but Christian took it the hardest.”
    At the mention of
Christian’s name her gut clenched. Her hands began to tremble. She
tried to calm her nerves. “I was deeply saddened by her death. I am
so sorry for your loss,” Amy said.
    “ Thank you,” Amar said with
a single nod.
    She could tell he wanted
to say something, but she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.
Even though he and Christian had been fighting the night before,
and Amar had accused him of lying to her, she couldn’t deal with
anything Christian-related.
    “ So, Amar, what is it that
you do?” she asked as she plucked a blueberry muffin from the
cabinet. She offered it to him, but he waved it away.
    “ I am a defense attorney,”
he said simply.
    “ Which would explain why
you’re dressed like you’re ready to hit the runway,” she said
playfully.
    “ I have a certain image to
uphold, but honestly I’d much rather be on the beach,” he said
honestly.
    “ The beach?”
    “ Oh yes, I love to
surf.”
    Again her eyes widened.
They lived in California, so it wasn’t all that uncommon for an
older man to surf. She just didn’t expect it to be him.
    “ That’s nice,” she
said.
    Silence grew between them
as the coffee pot puttered and sputtered as it brewed. It was Amar
who finally broke the silence.
    “ I owe you an apology,” he
said.
    When she looked up, she
realized that he looked a bit sheepish and found it endearing.
“It’s truly okay,” she said. She couldn’t hold what he’d said
against him, even if she’d wanted to. He was trying to protect his
brother. She understood.
    “ It’s okay,” she said,
patting his hand.
    He shook his head. “No. I
was out of line when I abruptly interrupted your . . . well, I was
unnecessarily rude to you. It was Chris who I was pissed at,