Ryan trusted Ash. If it weren’t for that, she wouldn’t have ridden in a vehicle with him. Now she regretted it. She’d made a point to keep her distance from guys she worked with, and while she didn’t work with Ash, he definitely came under the work-related heading.
In the close confines of the car, he was so big. Huge. Not merely tall but broad, though there wasn’t an ounce of fat on that long lean frame. She’d seen that when he’d stripped off his coat and offered to let her pat him down. The leather pants and T-shirt had been skintight, so tight she’d seen the ripple of his abs under the thin cotton. And very nearly spontaneously combusted.
Maybe this aneurysm thing was messing with her brain. Sending messages to the rest of her body that her rational mind wasn’t involved with. The doctor had said that one of the later symptoms might be hallucinations. But surely not yet.
Ash hadn’t answered her and she risked a peek at his face. She’d been trying to avoid that because the mixture of amusement and masculine curiosity in his dark eyes was doing strange things to her insides.
And his mouth, with that amused quirk and those full lips. His hair, which she’d though short at first was actually shoulder length and pulled into a tight ponytail. And dark as midnight. It looked silky soft and she clenched her fists tight to stop their instinctive move to touch him, see if he was as soft and hard as he appeared.
Time to get the hell out of there.
She shifted back in her seat, reached out, and pressed open the door, almost falling from the vehicle in her haste to get out. She grabbed her bag and hunted for her keys. Ash had followed her and she hated the little skip her heart gave, the way the muscles clenched tight in her belly.
“You don’t have to see me to the door,” she snapped suddenly angry with herself. “This isn’t a date.”
“No. But I’ll see you to your door all the same.”
From his tone, she had an inkling he was far from impressed with her neighborhood and that ratcheted her anger another notch. “Hey, we can’t all afford swanky pads in the middle of town, you know.”
“You could if you came to work with us,” he replied.
“And what would I have to do for it? No, thank you.”
He fell into step beside her. And she didn’t say anything else. Her apartment was on the ground floor and opened into the street. She halted by the front door.
“Thanks for the lift,” she said.
He stared down at her, and took a step closer so he was almost touching. A shiver ran through her, but pride stopped her from stepping back. She wouldn’t let him see she was intimidated.
Though she was kidding herself. She didn’t feel any fear of him, which was strange in itself, because he was one of the scariest-looking people she had ever come across.
She stood motionless as he leaned down and kissed her lightly on the cheek.
“To answer your earlier question,” he murmured against her skin. “Yes, I would like to find out more about you. A lot more.”
Then he was gone.
Chapter Five
Faith woke the following morning to a sense of anticipation.
She lay in bed and stretched. Physically, she felt good. Since the blackout, the first few moments after waking, she always lay still, waiting for the headache. She had to force her lids open, in case the world was blurred. But today she seemed to be functioning perfectly. Perhaps the doctors were wrong and there was no blood vessel slowly swelling in her brain, waiting to burst and this time, finish her off.
As she sat on the train, heading into to work, she tried to tell herself the anticipation was all down to feeling well and nothing to do with the image of Mr. Tall, Dark, and Dangerous that kept popping into her mind.
There were so many excellent reasons why she should never see Ash again. For one thing, he wasn’t her type. Not that she had a type. She hadn’t dated since she’d been promoted to detective and that was…Jesus, she hadn’t dated in over two years. No wonder she was feeling horny. But if she did have a type, he wouldn’t be it. She liked nice men who wore smart suits and worked in offices. She was a sucker for a man in a tie and she was betting Ash had never worn one in his life.
No, black leather was more his thing. Tight black leather that molded his thighs and clung to his lean hips.
Crap, he’d been hot. She wouldn’t have been a woman if she hadn’t noticed that. Add with a voice like velvet and barbed wire, he was bound to have an effect on her hormones.
He’d said he wanted to get to know her better.
But that wasn’t going to happen. Because no way was she taking a job with CR International. And Ryan had sort of made it clear that if she didn’t take the job, he would effectively cut her out of his life. He’d actually already done that. If she hadn’t arrived on his doorstep and pretty much demanded to see him, she doubted he would have come in search of her.