Hans (Alliance #4)

And I haven’t fucked anyone since.

If I don’t push her out of my brain soon, I’m going to lose it.

I reach out and tap the button to switch on more monitors.

Four across and two high, all eight screens flicker to life, their displays divided into four quadrants, giving me views of the whole cul-de-sac.

The house at the end is abandoned. And sincesome corporationbought the property for tax reasons, it’ll probably sit abandoned for the next twenty years. And if Cassandra hadn’t swooped in on 1304 Holly Court, I would’ve—I mean,that same corporationwould have—bought that house too. And then they probably would’ve rented it out to Karmine, letting her use it as a sort of forward operating base for her self-built army.

But that didn’t happen, and I don’t have complete control of my little street because of Cassandra.

The curvy little vixen who just turned thirty, twelve days ago—making her nine years my junior and too young for me—and has been doing her best to kill me with food poisoning through her little deliveries.

Maybe it’s actually been working. Maybe she’s been microdosing me with some sort of secret government toxin. Maybe that’s why I can’t get her off my mind.

From the camera positioned on the top point of my garage, I watch her shadow move behind her thin living room drapes as she turns the lights off on her main floor.

Her form disappears, but then the windows on her upper floor light up, and I know she’s going to bed.

CHAPTER2

Cassie

I tug backthe paisley shower curtain and grab my facewash off the tub’s ledge, squeezing a careful amount into my palm.

The citrus scent is usually enough to lift my mood, but not tonight.

Sighing, I turn back to my sink, the running water finally turning warm, and lather my hands together.

“You gotta give up one of these days,” I reprimand myself before tipping my face down and scrubbing the bubbles into my skin.

Every couple of weeks, ever since I moved in, I deliver cookies or breads or desserts to the incredibly hot man across the street.Hans.

He’s… I don’t know how to explain it. He’s just different. And I shouldn’t even have an opinion on him because I’ve only seen him up close that one time. That first time I saw him.

And if his track record since is any indication, I only got that close because I caught him off guard. Because he hadn’t known I’d moved in.

I had begun to wonder if I even had an across-the-street neighbor, but the realtor promised the single-story home was occupied. And I asked no less than three times because I was a little creeped out by the empty house at the end of the street. So I kept an eye out for my supposed neighbor.

Even though the lots here—on the edge of this little town—are large, our driveways are perfectly lined up. It made me feel a weird sort of companionship with the neighbor I hadn’t met yet. Like we were in this together, with the other houses in our neighborhood out of sight around the corner, feeling a world away.

It was three weeks and four days after I spent the first night in my first home that a plain white pickup truck pulled into the driveway across from mine.

I was so excited that I didn’t even check what I was wearing, didn’t take even a moment to dust on some bronzer. I just leaped off my couch and walked as fast as my legs were willing to go out my front door, down my cracked driveway, and up his. I was already at the back bumper of his truck when he climbed out.

And then my breath caught. Because he was… handsome. Likesohandsome, but also intimidating. And strong. He looked so freaking strong.

My neglected libido tumbled out of hibernation like a hungry bear rolling out of her cave, dried leaves shaking off with each roll, until she splashed headfirst into a lake that smelled ofman.

I snort at myself, causing water to splash over the edge of the sink, as I remember the way I acted that day.

My palm was probably sweaty when I stuck it out between us.

His long dark blond hair was pulled back into a bun, with a few pieces escaping and falling across his eyes. And it did things to me. Because they weren’t just eyes. They were intense, and his irises are such a deep brown they almost looked black. And his jaw line… I could faint now just thinking of it. It’s chiseled, and it was covered in this stubble several shades darker than his hair.

It was too much.

Hans was too much.