Eve Langlais Read Online Free Page B

the boundary and emerged in an alleyway, not too far from the burger place Hunter had staked out the night before.
    Sniffing the air, he smiled. A cold, calculating smile. The kind of smile that said bad things were about to happen.
    Finally, I am free again. Free to finish what I started several years ago. Free to make pay those who had dared thwart me. Free to fulfill my destiny.
    Soon now , the man thought as his predatory eyes took in everything around. He would take back what had been stolen from him. And when he did, the whole world would pay.
    10

Chapter Three

    The next morning, after Suzie had cleared the dishes from breakfast, she heard a knock at the door.
    Braless, in a T-shirt, and barefoot with tousled bed head, Suzie answered the door and felt her jaw drop. Her gorgeous neighbor had returned.
    Unable to speak—somehow Hubba Hubba didn’t seem appropriate—she just gaped at him till he lifted a tool box up in front of him and shook it.
    “Hey, I figured you’d probably be awake, what with the children and all. I noticed yesterday that you had some things that still needed putting together and a couple of things in the house that needed tending. So I thought I’d come over and give you a hand.”
    He did, did he? Suzie, still speechless, just stepped aside and let him saunter in.
    The twins on the floor in the living room turned to look and dropped their blocks to dive on Hunter.
    “Hunta! You back!”
    Suzie left them talking to Hunter at a mile a minute and went to get another cup of coffee. Maybe a jolt of caffeine would give her back the ability to speak. To say he’d surprised her showing up like he had was an understatement. If someone would have told her that her hunky neighbor would be back to play Mr. Fix It, she’d have peed her pants laughing. Didn’t he have anything better to do? Or did he have some ulterior motive? Maybe he had designs on her body. Ha! Nope, there had to be a better reason than that. Could she have found the rarest of specimens? A nice and helpful man? Suzie envied his girlfriend—a guy like him had to have one, maybe even two.
    Hunter walked into the kitchen like he owned the place and set his toolbox on the counter.
    “I’ll get to work on the stuff I noticed yesterday. If you make a list of things you’ve seen, then I can repair them for you while you do other stuff.”
    What, did he think her incapable? Just because she didn’t know one end of a hammer from the other didn’t mean she couldn’t do it. She wanted to be pissed at his high-handed manner, but instead, she leaned back, sipping her coffee, and watched as he turned off the water to her sink and unscrewed the tap to fix the leaky cold water.
    Why protest? He seemed determined, and truth was, it would cost her more than she could afford to hire a handyman to fix all the little things that needed looking at. If he wanted to waste his day helping out, why not? So long as he didn’t think he’d be getting anything out of it, because she definitely had no intention of getting involved with any man, no matter how attractive he looked or how much she craved to touch him.
    Once he fixed the tap, he re-attached some loose trim and assembled her desk, all while keeping up a running commentary with the kids.
    “What dith?” asked Jared, holding up a wrench he’d pilfered from the tool box.
    “A wrench, it’s for tightening things.”
    “What dith?” Jared asked, holding up something Suzie had never seen.
    “A level for making sure things aren’t at a tilt.”
    And on it went. He even let the kids help him tighten bolts, guiding their hands to turn the screwdriver, and getting them to hand him tools as he worked. The kids had taken to him like a fish to water, and Suzie watched, amazed. They didn’t even squabble once! A miracle on its own.
    Suzie knew she should be getting more done, but found herself mesmerized into watching him, instead. Like a new breed of animal she’d never seen, she studied him,