She’d scared him. Some big, bad demon, he was. It had been so long since he’d kissed a woman that his immediate thought had been he was doing something wrong. Or that he’d sprouted horns, or something equally demonic. Jesus. At least his dick had stopped throbbing. His erection hadn’t survived the shock.
It had been going so well. At least it had seemed to be. She’d been responding. She’d wanted him, he was sure, and he’d been all ready to let her have him. For such a prickly woman she’d gone all soft and pliant in his arms, and she’d tasted so sweet. He’d been planning to taste her all over. At the thought, his dick gave a little twitch.
Thank God.
He picked up his half-empty glass of wine and gulped it down in one go, then poured the rest of the bottle into his glass and studied her.
As though she could sense his scrutiny, she blinked open her eyes. “If I forget to tell you,” she murmured, “you’re a great kisser.”
“Thanks.”
Her brows drew together. “Which is sort of weird, because you’re really not my type.”
Her words were slightly slurred—he presumed the drugs must be taking effect.
“You have a type?”
“I do. Men in suits and ties. Nice men, with short hair…” She thought for a moment. “And definitely no tattoos.”
Ash rubbed Lucifer’s sigil wound tight around his upper arm. “Well, the tat I can’t doing anything about, but it so happens that tomorrow I’m due a makeover.”
This was his and Ryan’s I-will-if-you-will makeovers, ready for the first of their meetings tomorrow afternoon.
“You are? That will be nice.”
She closed her eyes and eventually, her ragged, little breaths evened out until she was breathing smoothly and he was sure she was sleeping. He rose slowly, leaned down, picked up her bag, and headed into the kitchen, closing the door softly behind him.
Humans were so fragile, but was this normal? Was she ill?
He pulled his cell from his pocket and punched in Ryan’s number.
Ryan answered after the first ring.
“Is Faith all right?” Ash asked without bothering with a greeting.
“Ash?”
“Yeah. Is Faith ill?”
“Where is she?”
“At her place and she had this headache.”
Ryan snorted. “Are you sure it wasn’t made up to get rid of you?”
“No, and she didn’t—get rid of me I mean—I’m still here. I gave her some pain killers she had and she’s sleeping.”
Ryan was silent for a moment. “My last night on the force, she had some sort of blackout. I didn’t think it was serious. She went to the hospital, but they said it was just for observation. Maybe it’s something to do with that.”
“Thanks.”
“You sound a little shaky.”
“It was a shock.”
“It can’t be anything serious or she wouldn’t be back at work. They’d make her get the all clear. Unless…”
“Unless…”
“Unless she didn’t report it. It was my last night and it didn’t occur to me.”
“Maybe I’ll ask her when she wakes.”
“Good luck with that.”
Ash ended the call and turned his attention to the contents of Faith’s bag. He examined the pill bottle first and took a note of the drugs. They were prescription—that was more serious, wasn’t it?
Humans were so fragile. The idea had never bothered him before, but strangely, he found himself wanting to protect her, keep her safe. A definite first for him.
He found the ID badge. Detective Connolly. MI13. Military Intelligence. He’d been reading up on them prior to his meeting with Ryan. But he’d never come across an MI13 before. They could look into it tomorrow.
There was nothing else of any interest. A purse with a couple of credit cards and her driver’s license. A comb but no makeup, not even lipstick, and he realized she wasn’t wearing any. Hadn’t been on either occasion he’d met her.
He had a quick nose around the house. As she’d said, it was functional at best with very few personal effects on display and spotlessly clean. Finally, he returned to the living room, sat back down, and watched her. Somewhere before dawn, he fell into a light doze.
…
“Thank you.”
Ash blinked open his eyes at her softly spoken words. Faith was sitting up opposite, the cover still wrapped around her, but at least her face had some color again.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Headache all gone. Thanks for looking after me, but you didn’t have to stay.”
“I couldn’t leave you alone.”
“Of course you could. I’m a big girl, and you owe me nothing.”
“What about family? Is there anyone I can call who can come and stay with you?”
Annoyance flashed across her face. “I told you—I’m fine.”
“Ryan said you’d been ill.”
“Ryan had no fucking right. And you had no right to call him and talk about me.”
“I was worried.”
She ran hand across her face and he watched as she brought herself under control. “Sorry. It’s a touchy subject. I blacked out one night. But they’ve done a whole load of tests and there’s nothing wrong with me.”
“Except the headaches.”
“Yes, and they will go in time.”
“Good.”
She pushed the blankets away. “Well, I’m going to shower and head into work.”