Breathing Shallow by Stephanie Adkins

From the Publisher

How does a woman get past the shock of her fiancé leaving her at the altar--for a man? For Kristen Carter, it involves throwing herself into her job as a journalist, and justifying that her life is much better without a man in it. Period. That is, until sexy and seductive construction worker Ayden McKenzie moves in next door. From the first moment she spies him naked through his bedroom window, she is instantly drawn to him like a moth to a flame. But Ayden's been around the block--several times. Now he's craving the stability that a steady relationship can bring, and once he meets his next-door neighbor he feels he's finally met his equal. The problem lies in turning Kristen into a believer--even after an unexpected visitor turns their world upside down.

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Chapter One

On the first ring, Kristen Carter knew who would be on the other end of the line before she answered her cell phone. She covered her head with a pillow and considered ignoring it or even turning it off; however, she knew what the repercussions would be.

Fumbling for the phone on the nightstand, she did the inevitable and flipped it open as she drew a deep breath.

"Good morning, Mom," she answered.

"Good morning, honey. How are you?"

Kristen sat up in bed, propped the pillow behind her back, and rubbed her eyes against the glare of the midday sun shining through her bedroom window.

"I'm doing great. How are you? How's Dad?"

It should have been a simple conversation, really, the kind most mothers and daughters share on a lazy Saturday morning. But no, there was never a simple conversation to be had with this woman.

"We're worried about you. I know it's the one-year anniversary of that day, but I don't want you sulking around the house. You should come spend the day with us. Besides, there's someone I'd like for you to meet."

And it starts, she thought.

"Remember Louise, my friend from work? Well, her son Devon is in town for a couple of weeks, and he is the sweetest man. He's handsome, too. Great job. No children. Never been married. I bet you two would really hit it off."

Kristen rolled her eyes and set the phone down on the bed while her mother rattled on. As always, she wondered how she got herself into these situations. For months now her mother had tried to set her up with every eligible bachelor within a fifty-mile radius. She loved her dearly, but she never knew when to take a hint.

"Why don't you takea few days off of work and come stay with us? We could go to the lake house and invite Devon along. Maybe we could even convince Lucas to come too. You know, make it one big family reunion."

The woman sounded almost giddy.

Kristen sat upright and waved her hands in the air as if warding off the Devil himself.

"Whoa, Mom! I'm fine. Really, please stop worrying about me. Honestly, I haven't even considered what today is, and I don't plan on moping around the house. I have a date tonight."

The lie sounded convincing enough. Or at least she'd hoped so, because there was no way in hell she was going to spend a few days holed up in the lake house with some man she didn't know. Not to mention her brother, his snooty wife, and four bratty kids.

"Yes, I've heard about the men you've been seeing lately," her mother said disapprovingly. "You could do so much better, honey, and Devon would be such a great catch. Why don't you at least try? You never know what might happen."

With an exasperated sigh, Kristen rose from the bed and walked over to the window to try to shut out the sunlight. She'd been fighting a losing battle with her slowly dying air conditioner for several days, and the harsh rays from the sun weren't helping matters.

The window was raised halfway, but it only helped during the night when it was cooler. During the day it was no relief at all. Once again she berated herself for not calling a repairman when it first started giving her trouble.

Before she closed the curtains completely, something across the small side yard caught her eye.

After realizing what it was, she tried hard to stifle a gasp, and moved quickly to the side of the window. Braced against the wall, her heart pounded against her chest and she hoped and prayed she hadn't been seen.

"Mom, I have to go," she said quickly. "It's almost noon here and I need to go to the grocery store before my date tonight. I know you're worried about me and I love you for it, but I'm fine. I don't need you to fix me up with anyone. Okay? We've gone over this a thousand times."

Leaning forward ever so slightly, she looked out the window again to make sure her eyes hadn't deceived her.

"All right," her mother remarked, defeated. "Just remember, he'll be here two weeks in case you change your mind."

"Okay, Mom. Love you. 'Bye."

She tossed the phone onto the bed and carefully pulled the curtain back to peer into her neighbor's second-story bedroom window again.

Although she shouldn't have been surprised at the view, it took her breath away. Her neighbor, Ayden McKenzie, was sprawled across the bed with a gorgeous blonde. Both seemed unconcerned with the bedroom windows, where the curtains were flung open for all to see.

Well, at least from the vantage point she had. His bedroom windows were directly across from hers and the distance between the houses was so small it made her feel as though she were standing right there in the room with them.

Heat spilled across her cheeks the instant she saw their naked bodies, and for a split second she considered turning away, but something kept her feet nailed to the floor.

Ayden, his body taut and muscular, towered over the woman as she spread out on the bed, his tanned skin a vivid contrast to her milky complexion.

The woman reached down and grasped his cock in her hand. Kristen swallowed in anticipation and watched him close his eyes as he moved with her strokes. Like a panther stalking its prey, he crouched over her with his hands placed on either side of her head. The way his muscles flexed and tightened as he rocked between her legs made Kristen's knees weaken, and she silently cursed the glass between them.

Ayden claimed the woman's mouth in one fluid movement as she let go of his cock and dug her fingernails into his back. At once, Kristen's legs instinctively pressed together as she stifled a moan. He was big. She could tell even from where she stood.

Down his back and up again the woman snaked her hands. Lacing her fingers through the light brown hair curled at his neck, she pulled roughly several times. When he turned slightly, Kristen caught a glimpse of the blood trail on his back, and she smiled. It was obvious the woman liked it rough.

She watched intently as he let go of the woman's mouth and started his journey down her body. He was in sync with her, giving it to her just as savagely as she was doing to him. He took a dark, taut nipple in his mouth and sucked it. Hard. The woman arched her back and balled her hands tighter in his hair as he tugged on her nipple with his teeth.

After he punished one, he moved to the other, and she continued to squirm against him like an animal in heat. The more she begged, the more he tormented her, and yet it was obvious she enjoyed the pain. He left visible imprints on her pale breasts. Downward he traveled as Kristen felt the dampness begin to pool between her legs.

Forcefully, he spread the woman's legs apart and kneeled between them. Kristen moaned softly at the sight of his long, stiff cock, and her lips ached at the thought of tasting him. She couldn't remember a time when she envied another woman more than the blonde steadily losing control mere feet from where she stood.

Ayden wrapped his arms around the woman's thighs and jerked her to the edge of the bed in one quick downward pull. With her legs spread wide, Kristen could see her smooth pussy was completely shaved and perfect. With one hand between her thighs, and the other pressed down onto the bed, he taunted her with his thumb. Slowly and skillfully he circled her clit while she writhed beneath him, bucking against his hand repeatedly.

Kristen could very faintly hear her calling out his name while she gripped the bedsheets and flailed her head from side to side. As he slid two of his fingers deep inside her pussy, she pushed down with her feet and lifted her hips off the bed. With a wicked grin, he pushed her back down with his hand against her lower stomach, prolonging the torment.

Kristen winced when he removed his fingers and licked the juices from them slowly, just before lowering his head and closing his mouth around her. She watched, transfixed, as he slipped his tongue between her swollen nether lips and sucked her clit into his mouth.

It was almost too much. She debated closing the curtains and stepping away from the window, but she couldn't. She just couldn't tear herself away.

"Oh fuck! Yes!" the woman screamed.

Kristen's loins ached as she swayed in rhythm with their movements. The woman wound her hands in his hair, jerking roughly for what seemed like an eternity until Kristen noticed her body begin to stiffen.

She was close ... very close.

"Oh, Ayden ... Yes! I'm ... I'm..."

As the woman began her descent over the edge, her body started to convulse wildly. Kristen's panties were soaked wet as beads of sweat rolled down her face. Trying hard to breathe normally, she watched him let go of his relentless hold once her trembling subsided and crawl stealthily over the woman's limp body.

Ayden whispered something to her and she turned over onto her stomach. Kristen sighed as he left a trail of kisses on the back of her neck, down her back, and over her buttocks. He gripped her hips, pulled her up onto her knees, and rose to stand behind her.

The upper part of her body still rested on the bed, and Kristen smiled as the woman moved her body in front of him, playfully taunting him. Grinning wickedly, he slapped one of her cheeks and she winced, moving more frantically.

Ayden grabbed her hips to still her and pressed his cock between her buttocks, rubbing the length of it between them again and again. The woman tightened her hold on the sheets and moved heatedly with his playful torture. Kristen's breath caught and held when at last he wrapped his hand around his cock and guided it to the woman's waiting pussy. In one swift movement, he shoved it inside her.

The woman quickly rose up on her hands, the enormity of him making her cry out. With his hands still anchored on her hips, he started his assault, pulling her back onto his cock continuously. Like an animal set free, the woman pushed back with her hands and met his every thrust as her long blonde hair flew wildly about her with his every push.

"Fuck me hard! Yes! Oh fuck!" she begged.

Ayden's moans became louder, and she could see the veins in his neck protrude as sweat dripped from his forehead onto his chest. A small yelp escaped her mouth as he slapped the woman's buttocks again, this time even harder. She could almost feel the sting. Wild and uninhibited, the blonde's teeth gnashed together as strands of hair stuck to her forehead and neck.

"Yes! Yes!" she screamed.

Her buttocks were now a bright shade of red. Ayden grabbed the woman's hair with one hand and pulled her head back aggressively as he drove into her harder and faster.

After several agonizing minutes, he clenched his teeth together and, with one more powerful thrust, he came. His moans were deafening, reverberating against the window as his body began to shake.

It had been several days since Kristen had had sex, and after watching this scene unfolding before her eyes, she was beginning to feel the need. She wasn't about to give in and let her mom fix her up with Devon, though. She didn't care how handsome he might be.

Yes, it was the one-year anniversary of that day, but she had no intention of dwelling on it. From the moment her ex-fiancé Randy had left her standing at the altar on their wedding day--for a man--she had been determined to put it behind her and move on.

It was also the last time she had spoken to him. Like a coward, he had called her on her cell phone one hour after the ceremony was scheduled to begin, to tell her that he'd met someone new. Shocked and humiliated, she had listened numbly as he told her about his new lover, Trenton, and how they had given their notices at the law firm where they worked and were moving elsewhere to begin their life together.

In the days that followed, her family and close friends had rallied around her. With their love and encouragement, she slowly managed to put the pieces of her life back together again. Still, there were also those who wasted no time in spreading rumors. A trip to the grocery store became a circus event as people stopped in the aisles to whisper to each other and point at "that girl." Everywhere she went people avoided her, as if she was somehow responsible for Randy's betrayal.

Holding her head high, she had refused to wallow in self-pity. She could have easily succumbed to the gossip that spread through her small Savannah suburb during that time, but she refused to. Instead, she had turned the other cheek, and Randy's deception had actually made her stronger in ways she never thought imaginable.

Throwing herself into her work, she had managed to turn her once flailing journalistic career into a profitable and successful one. If there was a major story to be told, Kristen Carter was the one sought to do it. Newspaper owners had clamored for her until ultimately the owner of the Savannah Sentinel approached her with a job offer she couldn't refuse.

With the ability to choose which events she wanted to cover, she had been given the leeway to weave magic into what could have been just mere words on a page. The walls in her office bore the evidence of many hours spent laboring on her craft, covered as they were with numerous certificates and awards. Each one served as a reminder of just how far she had come since that fateful day when one part of her life had ended ... and another one had begun.

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she looked out the window. Ayden had crumbled onto the bed beside the stunning blonde, both of them vividly spent. After a few minutes she thought they might have fallen asleep.

Just then, he turned on his side, leaned up on his elbow, and looked down at the woman lying beside him. With his fingertips, he caressed her back, and ran his hands through her blonde curls.

His voice was soft and inaudible now as he spoke to her. Rising up on her forearms, she leaned over and kissed him tenderly on the lips. It was a gentle move that made Kristen smile, and far different from the wanton scene from just moments ago.

When the woman rose from the bed, Kristen closed the curtains. However, she remained against the wall trying to regain her composure. She should have felt guilty for spying, but if they hadn't wanted others to watch them, then they would have guarded themselves against it. Sure, that sounded believable enough.

Pulling away from the window, she walked into the adjoining bathroom. Sitting on the edge of the bathtub and turning on the spout, she let the warm water run through her fingers as she thought about her neighbor.

Ayden McKenzie had moved in next door two months ago and she could still recall the first time she'd seen him. She'd stepped out her front door onto the porch when she noticed him standing in his driveway, loading his company truck. Tall and muscular, his skin was painted a deep bronze. His shoulder-length hair swung about his face in an endearing way that made her want to brush it back with her fingertips and tuck it behind his ears.

He was very handsome. There was certainly no denying that. His jeans and T-shirt hugged his body in a way that stole her breath. From what she'd gathered from the other neighbors, he was in his late thirties, a construction worker, and had never been married. She had spoken to him a couple of times in passing as they each got into their vehicles in the mornings headed for work, but that was just a simple hello and wave. They had never had an actual conversation.

Kristen undressed and slid down into the water. Resting her head against the back of the tub, she took a deep breath, and thought back to what she had just seen. Her body began to ache in deep and knowing places. She had been with several men--and women--since Randy. They had all been very satisfying experiences, and at the present time she wasn't looking for anything more. She didn't want to get involved in another relationship. She enjoyed the single life too much. Her work, her family, and her friends fulfilled her and made her happy.

Maybe the day would come when someone would cross her path and change her mind, but she rather doubted it. Either way, she wasn't going to let it bother her, especially today. There was too much to be enjoyed and so much living to be done.

Closing her eyes, she thought about Sam, one of the bartenders from her favorite nightclub. They had been on several dates, and he was just the kind of uninhibited lover she needed today.

As soon as she stepped out of the bath, she would definitely give him a call.

Reaching out, Ayden grabbed Tracey's hand as she jumped from the bed. Every time was the same, and it was starting to wear on his nerves. Yes, she was one of the greatest lovers he had ever known, but afterward she was also quicker to dart than anyone he'd ever seen. He couldn't remember the last time they had fallen asleep in each other's arms or spent quality time talking.

"Where are you going? Why the rush?" he asked.

Removing her hand from his, she walked around the room, picking up her clothes from the floor. Sliding into her skirt, she looked over at Ayden as he lay on the bed, a frown stretching across his face.

"Please don't start this again, Ayden. You know how busy I am. The caterers will be at the Johnson's in one hour to set up for the wedding reception, and I still have to round up more staff since two called in sick. These clients are very important to me. You know that."

Falling back onto the bed, he ran his fingers through his hair as he watched her finish dressing. It was useless to try to have this conversation. It was the same one he had been trying to finish for four months now.

"You're always busy doing something," he remarked.

After slipping on her shoes, she walked over to the bed and leaned over to kiss him lightly on the mouth.

"I promise, after this wedding is over we'll take off somewhere, just the two of us. We'll hole up in some cabin and spend a couple of days doing nothing but having unadulterated sex, like a couple of heathens," she said with a gleam in her eyes.

Sitting up on the side of the bed, Ayden pulled her into his arms. Resting his cheek against her stomach, he caressed her back and hips, pulling her close.

"What about after that? Will you stay in bed with me all day? No cell phones. No e-mails. No client talk. Just us?"

With a roll of her eyes, Tracey pulled away from his embrace and leaned over to kiss the top of his head.

"Yes, I promise. Now, I've got to get going. I'll come over tomorrow night and we'll talk more about it. I'll even stay the night if you want me to."

Letting his arms fall to his sides, he nodded and watched helplessly as she picked up her purse from the dresser and walked out the door. He could hear her heels clicking against the hardwood floor as she made her way downstairs. The front door opened and closed.

And just like that, she was gone ... again.