HER RUSSIAN SURRENDER by Theodora Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

secure.” He threw a disparaging look toward the slender windows on either side of her door. “If you don’t count those break-in windows on your cottage. I’ll come by this weekend and maybe see about boarding them up—just until we get a bead on whoever killed the kid’s father.”
    Her heart warmed at his words and many of the bad feelings she’d been having about him began to evaporate.
    “Thanks, Marco,” she said. “Thanks for your understanding.”
    He unfolded his arms and came closer in a move that brought to mind the hockey player who had kissed her two days ago.
    “So I’m doing you a solid…” He flashed his dimpled smile. “Maybe you should reward me with a kiss?”
    Unease crawled its way up Sam’s back, and she had no idea why. Marco was a good guy. A good, solid guy who didn’t send emissaries with balcony invites, who’d never hit her with a lewd double entendre, or even try to steal a kiss from a woman he’d just met.
    Sure, he could stand to be more open-minded about the alternative healing therapies she was using at Ruth’s House, and sure she didn’t love that he was acting like he deserved a gold star for agreeing to let her show a little boy some compassion—
    Sam stopped herself with an inner ugh of disgust. Why did she always have to psychoanalyze the guys who showed any interest in her? That was probably why she was still single at the age of thirty-four. Single and childless. Two things she needed to focus on correcting sooner rather than later, if she ever wanted her dreams of finally being a part of a loving family to come true.
    She pasted a smile on and said, “One kiss coming right up.”
    Standing on her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to his.
    The kiss was… nice. Really nice. Just like Marco.
    He grinned at her when it was finished, “I’m gonna get started on finding some great parents for Pavel first thing tomorrow morning.”
    She grinned back and waved as he got in the car.
    Marco was a terrific guy, she thought as she watched him ease around the shelter’s corner and drive away. A really terrific guy.
    So why had she been thinking of the Russian hockey player the entire time she’d been kissing him?

7
    “M ount, wait, wait! Don’t—”
    But it was too late, Brian Atwood’s back hit the plexiglas wall so hard, it rattled the entire structure surrounding the ice at the Polar training facility. Introduction courtesy of Nikolai “Mount Nik” Rustanov.
    “What were saying about wanting special treatment?”
    Brian panted, trying to catch his breath after that hit. “We went pretty hard at your last game party last night. I was just making a suggestion…”
    “You suggest we end practice early so you can sleep away your bad decisions. You think easier to ask permission for naptime now I am owner?”
    “C’mon Mount, man, that’s not nearly what I was trying to say,” Brian said, looking both hurt and offended by Nikolai’s assessment of the situation. “I’m just saying—”
    Nikolai slammed the blond player into the wall again, wishing that the hockey uniforms weren’t so well padded. But from the grimace on their star left winger’s face, he needn’t have worried. He’d most certainly felt that.
    “All right, all right, I get it,” Brian said through the pain. “We’re not leaving early.”
    “No, we are not,” Nikolai agreed. “In fact, we will stay extra twenty minutes because you wasted our time with your request. ” He all but spat out the last word before letting the entitled hockey player go with one last shove into the plexiglas.
    Behind him, Gary Burton, the Indiana Polar’s head coach, blew his whistle. “All right, line em up right over here. Side-to-side drills, starting now!”
    Brian edged out from between Nikolai and the plexiglas, but Nikolai’s dark, hooded glare followed him all the way back to the drill line-up. He hadn’t been a fan of the diva hockey player with the long blond hair before he’d bought the team.