Cassie

How do you get the attention of the handsome, brooding man across the street?

Step one: Leave baked goods on his porch. Even if he never answers the door and always returns the containers when I’m not home.

Step two: Spend a whole year trying―and failing―to accidentally run into him.

Step three: Have my boudoir photos accidentally delivered to his mailbox. Have him open them. Have him storm into my home and deliver the most panty-melting scolding of my life.

Step four? Still working on that.

Hans

I’m a dangerous man. The kind who’s taken more lives than he can count. The kind who belongs in the shadows, not in the soft, golden glow of a woman like Cassie.

I should stay away. I have stayed away. But I can’t ignore her anymore.

Not when I’ve seen her bedroom, inhaled her scent. Not when I watch her every night like she’s already mine.

But no amount of cookies will change what I am. Love was never meant for men like me. I’m only meant for violence.