Breaking Stone: Bad Boy Romance Novel Read Online Free PDF

“What’s with the phone, Poppins? You going to film me or something? Make a hell of a cute video for Facebook: Stone Logan’s latest manuscript going up in flames.”
    Oh, shit. Day one, epic fail. “Put down the papers, please?” Even I could hear the panic in my voice.
    “Sure,” he said, and dropped the handful into the fire. He took his whiskey again, another swig, another splash into the fire. “You’d think this shit was flammable enough to burn on its own,” he muttered. “But, nope, it needs a little help from Jack to make it flame.”
    I knew this job would entail putting out fires, but this was ridiculous. “You need to stop doing that right now. Step away from the fire, please, Mr. Logan.” I sounded like a poor impersonation of a police officer.
    Stone just continued feeding in the pages.
    I took another step forward, coughing as a lift in the breeze caused the smoke to envelop me. My eyes stung and my throat burned, but seeing that manuscript go into the fire was like watching my future go up in flames.
    “For God’s sake, Mr. Logan, you’re acting like a child.”
    He stopped and considered me through the haze. I’d won. I’d stopped him. We challenged each other, neither daring to look away until I could stand the smoke no longer.
    “I guess that’s why they hired me a nanny,” he said.
    I rubbed my smarting eyes, stepping away from a fresh plume of smoke to secure the remaining papers. Stone was quicker, though, and he grabbed them up before I got there.
    “Keep your hands off my words, Poppins. I get to say what happens to these. Not you. Not Sarah Bitch-Duncan. Not the fucking publishers, but me. Say bye-bye now.”
    Together, we watched the papers singe, curl, and come to life for a short moment in the orange flame before they turned into dancing black wafers. They lifted, floating on the hot thermal air, then settled to the bottom of the trash can.
    “All gone. I think that deserves a celebration. Care to join me?” he asked, pushing the bottle at me.
    “I don’t drink at this time of the day, and I don’t think you should, either.”
    “They’re not paying you to judge me.”
    I ignored him. A man who’d been drinking and burning manuscripts clearly wasn’t in any sort of mind to be reasonable. Sarah would stroke out if she knew what we’d been doing. The best idea would be to encourage Stone back to the house before anyone caught him out here drunk, setting off a new scandal. Then I’d get hold of a copy of the manuscript for safekeeping.
    Time to take charge. “If you’ve finished cooking the book, we should get back to work.”
    “Are you going to hold my hand to make sure I don’t run off?”
    “If you insist on behaving like a child, I’ll treat you like one.”
    “Fighting words, Poppins,” he said, reaching out his hand. “Take me home. I need to be punished. Did you bring your birch?”
    For the love of God. In half a day, we’d been reduced to this. Maybe it was because the cocky guy for the moment seemed lost and vulnerable, but against my better judgment, I took his hand. Warm and dry, it completely engulfed mine, and he gave my hand a gentle squeeze as we set off back to the house.
    Along the way, he took another swig from the whiskey bottle.
    “At the risk of becoming a nag, you need to give me the bottle.”
    “I knew I could corrupt you, Poppins, but I didn’t realize it would happen so soon.” He pulled his hand out of mine. “Here, let me clean the top. We don’t want you catching boy germs.”
    I shook my head as Stone used the bottom of his shirt to wipe the mouth of the bottle. Again, the appearance of the ripple of muscle exposed on his lower torso caught my eye. He might be a drunk today, but he obviously took better care of himself at other times.
    “Hold this.”
    He handed me the bottle and lifted his shirt, displaying the total package. Rigid abs, heroic chest and broad shoulders…hell.
    “Noticed you watching the sneak preview.