Bleeding Heart. AM Hartnett

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СКАЧАТЬ could stand if she tried, and she was slippery everywhere. Leaving the vibe on the bed beside her, April closed her eyes and shuddered with the aftershocks.

      The vibrator had given her the biggest bang for her bucks, but it was the thought of being exposed like that for Seth Axworthy that made it that much more delicious. Even as she sprawled there like her bones had been liquified and the thrum of her climax could still be felt along her inner walls, she couldn’t wait to have a second round with both her vibe and the fantasy that went with it.

      With a great sigh, April pushed up onto her elbows. That’s when she saw her voyeur.

      The black cat, Marco, sat prim and proper on the window sill staring at her.

      ‘You little pervert,’ she called to him as she swung her legs off the bed.

      The previous tenant must have let him in, she thought, as she went on wobbly legs to the bathroom. She cleaned the vibrator and left it to dry on the edge of the sink, then drew a bath.

      ‘Well, that was something else,’ she said out loud as the tub filled. She washed her face and clipped her hair up, then pulled out a lone strand.

      ‘I wonder what I’d look like as a redhead,’ she said out loud, and, as soon as the tub was ready, she cut off the water and quickly called the salon for an appointment while she waited for a second cup of coffee.

      Back in the bedroom, the cat still peered inside. He stood on his hind legs and pressed his paws to the glass, and April was won over.

      ‘Just for a minute,’ she said as she pushed the window open.

      The cat wasn’t shy. He butted his head against her palm a few times, then stepped up onto her knees. One quick sniff at her coffee cup and he made another sound, then leaped past her into her apartment.

      ‘Make yourself at home,’ she called after the cat as he strutted through the small labyrinth of cardboard boxes and plastic bins left to unpack. She continued to sip her tepid coffee while keeping an eye on the cat, and contemplated the possibility of getting one her own, some unwanted gentleman from a shelter or a kitten with the energy and ambition to shred her brand-new sofa.

      The cat paused at the foot of her platform bed, then stood on his hind legs for a better look. The thought of a stray rolling around on her clean sheets would have sent her scrambling as soon as the cat leaped up, but her earlier spying told her that this cat was Seth’s little prince, used to the luxury of a soft bed like the one he had found.

      After a quick exploration of the mattress and an approving twitch of his ears, the animal turned and strutted back to the window.

      She stroked him from head to tail. ‘I hope you’re not the first of many men to go running from my bed once you’ve had a roll around in it.’

      The cat curled onto her lap, and April settled back. She was down to her last mouthful when the sleeping beauty in her arms lifted his head and pricked his ears.

      A moment later, April heard a whistle.

      ‘Marco! Going out! Window’s closing!’ came a husky male voice.

      April jostled the cat, but he simply looked up at her and blinked.

      ‘Go on. I’m not fighting for custody.’ When the cat still didn’t move, she emptied the cup and set it aside, then scooped the cat up into her arms and set him down. ‘Go home.’

      Another whistle, this one more insistent than before. ‘Marco! Get your hairy balls in the apartment or else I’ll wax them when I get a hold of you!’

      April giggled. ‘Scoot!’

      Another blink, another mournful meow, and Marco sat on her foot.

      ‘For fuck’s sake!’ came the exclamation from downstairs. Accompanied by irritated muttering, the fire escape shuddered with the extra weight. ‘Marco! Come!’

      ‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ April exclaimed as the cat made his way back to her window. She scooped him up and cradled him in her arms, then carefully stepped down to meet his owner.

      As the bulky figure loomed up like a movie monster from the level below, April stopped in her tracks.

      He wore nothing but low-hung pyjama pants. His chest and shoulders went on and on, and all that bare skin was splashed with patterns of dark ink that made him look unearthly.

      He looked from the cat in her arms to her hot face. ‘Hey.’

      ‘Hey,’ she managed to get out breathlessly. ‘Um, I think this belongs to you. He crashed my party-of-one.’

      ‘Yeah, he’ll do that,’ he replied, and took the last step to bring him to her level – or, to be more accurate, a good foot and a half over her level. As he closed the gap between them, April found herself wanting to retreat, cat and all, into her apartment and away from this intimidating brick wall of a man.

      He quickly plucked the cat from her arms and turned his stare upon her.

      ‘Sorry about that. If you don’t want him hanging around your window, wipe some Pine-Sol on the sill. He can’t stand the smell.’

      ‘I don’t mind, really. I…’ she began, but her barbarian landlord was already on his way back down the fire escape. The backside was just as intimidating as the front and went on and on.

      The fire escape stopped juddering and then she heard the scrape of a window being closed. She blew out a deep breath and leaned against the brickwork.

      ‘Welcome to Winsloe Court,’ she muttered, then turned to head back inside, a second session with her new vibrator a definite possibility.

       Chapter Three

      One had to expect hearing the sounds of other tenants when living in an apartment building. God knows he had heard enough of Evie and Ryan’s when they lived there, and in the end he had contributed to those sounds. Then there was Mrs Boyd’s ringer turned up all the way because she could barely hear a thing, and the woman who lived alongside him who worked from home and shouted into her laptop all day in whatever language she happened to be doing business in that week.

      But he’d never get used to Katy Perry. God, he hated Katy Perry, and that’s exactly what was coming from April’s apartment, along with the shrieks and laughter of what he could only assume was a girls’ night in.

      He sat in front of his computer. His new computer. He’d gotten it the same day as that damned phone and, even though he knew nothing about computers, he knew he had bought himself one hell of a machine. Over a grand, sleek and thin, with keys that lit up when he turned it on. As the sales kid had explained to him the various operating systems, he’d almost felt his mind physically stretch. So he asked for something as close to his old one as possible: just a computer with no touch screen, no navigating through pages of apps, and generally idiot-proof.

      He’d walked out of the store with a Macbook and an iPhone. The wireless printer was still in the box, a massive thing that looked like it was more at home in an office than in his apartment. He could claim it all as a business expense in СКАЧАТЬ