Firebird (The Firebird Trilogy #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

had to let it go. They’d been kids. He was better off not knowing.
    You broke my heart.
    She stared at the door, wondering if he was watching through the peephole, before she walked away.
     
    ***
     
    Aleksandr
     
    Valentine’s Day. What a trite day for a wedding. He’d expected better of her.
    Sasha leaned into the spray, hot water sluicing over his skin. He’d done the right thing. She had been careless with his heart before, and he could not trust her with it. The upcoming road trip would put necessary physical space between them, at least for ten days. The team had to win half or more of the possible points to deem their trip a success. He needed to focus on that, purge her from his mind. His desideratum. His firebird. A blessing when she’d been his and his curse when she had vanished.
    He closed his hand around his erection. He was acting like a complete lunatic around her, his emotions an unnavigable labyrinth. Before this week, life had been simple if not happy. Play hockey, drink, and fuck. Uncomplicated. Concealed in his public façade, he’d buried the pain so long that, resurrected, it was as fresh as raw meat.
    Sasha pumped his fist. He remembered their nights together with a clarity nearly a decade and myriad other women should have erased. And would have, if he’d not mythologized her the way he had so many aspects of his life.
    She’s engaged, asshole. She’d had eight years to get in touch, hadn’t she? And she hadn’t.
    His gasps echoed in the too-large bathroom. He shuddered, grunted, and clenched his teeth as he came with a guttural sound too closely resembling a sob.
    Sasha washed himself and shut off the shower, then grabbed a towel from the rack. Once dry, he wrapped himself in his bathrobe and padded barefoot into the living room, where he switched on the gas fireplace.
    She still pronounced his name the proper Russian way: “Ah-lyek- sahn -der”, not “Alexander” like everyone else. Hadn’t forgotten. He stared at his cellphone, willing her to call.
    It did not ring.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Four
     
     
    Stephanie
     
    Dave leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Steph, we need this story.”
    “I know. He’s just—”
    “Difficult. But that’s your job, to break through and uncover the real deal. Listen, Steph, you know I love having you here—”
    Stephanie’s guts clenched. Here it comes.
    “—but with your credentials, I think I expected more.”
    Funny, coming from the guy who had refused to assign her anything of substance for three years because he’d deemed her too unseasoned. “I can get this story, Dave. I just need more time to work on him.”
    He nudged his glasses up and regarded her as a teacher might a brilliant but lazy student. “You have until the end of next week. And if that story isn’t on my desk by five p.m. next Friday, our conversation will be even less pleasant.”
    Stephanie swallowed around the tears rising in her throat. Shawn would have a field day if she broke down at work. “I understand. And I’ll get the story.”
    Dave flicked his hand toward the door.
     
    ***
     
    Stephanie started the bath, then poured a large glass of wine. She could talk to Joe about most things, but tonight she felt guilty relief she didn’t have to explain her failure, that she could sulk and soak and be asleep before he left the office. She lit some scented candles, dimmed the lights, and plunked a bath bomb into the steamy water.
    Aleksandr intruded into her thoughts. She’d stopped believing in so many things by sixteen, chief among them love. There had been so little of it at home, and she’d become jaded enough to know her friends’ proclamations of such were naïve, foolish, a child’s rendering of the concept.
    And then, one August morning, the boy who changed her life.
    She hadn’t believed in love at first sight or soul mates, hated fairy tales in general and Disney in particular. She’d felt nothing but scorn for