Read Until I Break for Free Online Page A

that makes me like him
that much more. It also makes me that much more intrigued.
    I wonder that he doesn’t seem surprised at
the lack of family resemblance. Our coloring, our features, our
build—nothing is even slightly similar. We couldn’t be more
different. He seems not to have noticed, and if he did, must not
think anything of it. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s equally
blasé about the differences between me and my parents.
    “A drink?” Alec asks.
    “Yes, please. I’ll have a rum and Coke.”
    He nods once and turns to Chris. “Would you
like a refill?”
    “Rum and Coke for me, too, please,” Chris
says, holding up her half empty glass.
    With another nod, he moves away toward the
bar. I worry my bottom lip with my teeth as I watch him go.
    “What is it? What’s wrong?” Chris asks. “Are
you trying to find a way to sabotage yourself, just like you always
do?”
    I turn a frown on her. “I don’t sabotage
myself.”
    “Yes, you do. You let your past screw up your
present all the time!”
    “No I don’t.”
    Chris shakes her head. “We’ll see.”
    “Just because I prefer not to subject myself
or anyone else to certain…shortcomings, that does not mean I’m
letting my past screw up my present. It simply means that I can use
wisdom and discretion.”
    “Well, I’m glad that, for the moment, you’re
turning off ‘wisdom and discretion’.”
    I glance toward Alec again. He’s walking back
toward us with two drinks in one big hand and one in the other.
“Boy did I ever,” I say softly.
    “Well,” Chris begins, taking one of the
drinks from Alec’s hand when he extends it toward her. “I suppose I
ought to go rescue Greg. He’s been captured and is currently being
held against his will.” She tips her head to indicate a group of
blue-haired elderly ladies encircling one handsome, blond Greg on
the other side of the room. “Don’t you know he’s got some powerful
pheromones to penetrate that kind of cobweb.”
    I grin. I’ve long since given up on trying to
curb Chris’s colorful commentary.
    She turns to Alec. “It was great seeing you
again, Alec.”
    “The pleasure was mine,” he says
politely.
    “I hope to see you again,” she adds
pointedly. I feel my face go up in flames. “You know, Sam here is
pretty irresistible.”
    Oh God, oh God, oh God!
    I hold my breath, hoping she’ll stop there.
Chris has a nasty habit of embarrassing me.
    Alec glances at me, his expression
unfathomable. “I get that feeling.”
    Chris’s face splits into a broad smile. Her
eyes flicker to me and I know what she’s thinking. I wait
anxiously, praying she’ll hold her tongue.
    “Well,” she begins. My heart stops. “I’m off
to play heroine.” Chris winks at me and I exhale.
    Crisis averted.
    As she walks away, Alec turns toward me.
“What did you think she was going to say?”
    “Pardon?”
    “You held your breath. What did you think she
was going to say?”
    I stammer for a moment, a bit disconcerted by
his perceptiveness. It gives me a little thrill that he’s paying
such close attention to me that he can hear me breathing. “I, uh,
she, um. With Chris, it’s hard to tell.”
    “Were you afraid she’d divulge some deep,
dark secret?”
    I would say that I don’t have any, but I’d be
lying. And I’m a terrible liar. Instead, I go with silence.
    “A woman with secrets. I’m even more
intrigued,” he says softly, his eyes dropping from my eyes to my
mouth. “Maybe I can work my magic on those lips of yours, make them
open up a bit.”
    My lips tingle as if he were actually
touching them. Or kissing them.
    “Alec Brand,” a voice booms from the right,
breaking the spell of the moment. “Glad you could make it.”
    “ Glad you could make it”? He was already
invited?
    A white-haired bear-of-a-man stops in front
of us, clamping one meaty hand on Alec‘s shoulder and grasping his
hand with the other. The man’s chest is barreled and his face is
red as he