Read Heartbreaker (The Warriors) for Free Online

man of character, strength, and purpose, Micah Holbrook, which is why your work in Naval Intelligence is respected by men like my father. And your success or failure in your current situation is largely dependent on your willingness to accept a challenge."
    "Now you sound like him," said Micah, his voice like an endless stretch of gravel road.
    Bliss flinched. Micah felt the sharp movement as it winnowed through her slender frame.
    "For the record, I’m nothing like Cyrus," she said. "I just want to help you."
    He jerked on her wrists. "Try again, damn it!"
    "You’re hurting me."
    Stung by her comment, he instantly freed her.
    She straightened and moved to his side. "The household staff has instructions not to deliver any meal trays to your suite without my permission. You have three options. Come with me now, find the kitchen yourself, or go hungry. It’s your choice."
    "God damn you!" he shouted.
    She slipped a circular object, heavy and cool to the touch, into his open palm. Micah closed his hand around it, his curiosity piqued despite his frustration with her mulish determination to bend him to her will.
    "You’re holding a pocket watch. Press the stem at the top to open it. It needs to be re–wound once a day."
    "I… cannot… see." He ground out the words through clenched teeth.
    "Don’t be obtuse, Micah. It doesn’t suit you." Bliss walked away, but she paused in the doorway to the patio. "Last chance for the evening meal."
    He sat still and silent until she slipped out of his suite. He listened to her departing footsteps as they faded away. Only then did Micah open the watch and smooth his fingertip across its face. And for the first time in almost five weeks, he knew the exact time.

3
    Bliss hated losing her temper, and she sternly reminded herself that Micah’s needs took precedence over her own inner emotional turmoil. Although she ate a solitary meal in the dining room and spent the remainder of the evening in her studio, she continued to feel his presence.
    She chided herself several times that she had to get beyond the magnetism storming her senses, but she suspected she was destined to a tightrope existence for the duration of their time together. She doubted that her heart would allow her to ignore the feelings Micah evoked in her. It never had during the preceding eleven years.
    Although still restless and on edge, Bliss returned to her suite well after midnight. As she showered and dressed for bed, she realized how easy it would be for her to fall in love with Micah again. But she would risk far more as a grown woman than she’d risked as a teenager in the throes of her first crush. She realized, too, that secret dreams and private yearnings wouldn’t satisfy her this time. She would want more—need more—if Micah responded to her.
    Afraid of her vulnerability, Bliss absently studied her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She saw brilliant blue eyes that were shadowed by fatigue and haunted by memories of abandonment by the people she’d trusted. Her chin trembled until she clenched her teeth and glared at her own image, proclaiming herself a fool for wanting a man she couldn’t have.
    Emotions submerged for many years beneath an independent lifestyle, inherited wealth, creative success far beyond anything she’d ever anticipated, and her hunger to be loved without motive strained to burst free. Bliss swore, the word a hushed, wretched–sounding whimper in the silence of the night.
    Turning off the light, she walked into her bedroom. Moonlight spilled through the open patio doors and across the marble floor. Hearing footsteps, Bliss paused halfway to her bed and then detoured to the open French doors that led out onto the patio.
    She assumed it was probably one of the security guards checking on Micah, but she decided to be certain. Cyrus had voiced his concern about Micah’s safety, and she didn’t plan to ignore the situation when his threat perception skills and overall awareness of his