“You make him sound almost boring. Does he carry a gun?”
His lips twitched as he thought about the double shoulder holster, the sawed-off shotgun, and the knives. Christian had been a little jumpy about the whole angel thing. Not surprising; Tara was vulnerable, or had been before he had given her the talisman. She was half demon but had grown up believing herself human and had no clue how to use her demonic powers or any other weapons to protect herself.
“Sometimes,” he replied. “He does business in some dangerous places.”
“What sort of business?”
“All sorts. Investment, property, security—that’s the section Ryan and I work for.”
“Ryan said they were recruiting?”
“Some. We have a major initiative going down. For the right sort of person it could be a great opportunity.”
“And do you think I’m the right sort of person.”
He pulled up at the side of the road. They’d arrived. He shifted in his seat to face her. In the light from the streetlamps, her skin glowed. She’d been chewing on her lower lip and it was red, her eyes silver. He wanted to close the distance between them and taste her, but he reckoned she’d run.
“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “But I’d like to find out.”
She licked her lips and a stab of lust shot through him.
“You would?”
…
Why the hell had she said that? She was fucking flirting. Flirting with Mr. I-Carry-a-Huge-Gun-Gang-Leader type. She never flirted. And if she had, it wouldn’t have been with someone like him.
She’d spotted the edges of a tattoo when he’d taken his coat off and had been trying to see if it was gang related while appearing not to stare.
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