Ash didn’t miss the note of loneliness in the old woman’s voice. She’d never been invited into her neighbor’s for tea before and she’d never really realized that beneath the crotchety exterior and all the complaints, Mrs. McGreggor was actually lonely.
“Okay. I’ll do that.” Ash opened the door wider and motioned with her hand for Trace to come in. It was a dangerous move, letting him back into her apartment. It felt like she was opening the door to more than just that. That she was letting him back into her life. She wasn’t ready for that. She wasn’t ready for any of it. She didn’t want her little happy, easy bubble to burst. She liked her life the way it was.
Only…
She opened that damn door not because Mrs. McGreggor demanded it, but because she couldn’t imagine her life without Trace in it anymore, at least in some capacity.
What that capacity was, remained to be seen. She wouldn’t let him off easy but judging by the fact that he’d pulled out all the stops and shown up dressed like the sexiest, steamiest, most wonderful villain in the history of villains, her going easy wasn’t exactly what he’d anticipated.
CHAPTER 19
Trace
He’d never seen a more beautiful sight than the inside of Ash’s apartment. Unless Ash herself counted, but that was a given. He even liked the way her grouchy old cat wound its way around his ankles, purring and rubbing and purring some more, dusting his boot in a liberal coating of hair.
He bent and scratched his fingers over the soft, furry head.
“You’re the only one he actually likes. I swear you have catnip up your ass.”
Trace nearly choked. He looked up and met Ash’s gaze, which was thankfully no longer as angry or guarded as it had been when she opened the door to find him there, the last person on earth she expected or wanted to see. “I’ve been accused of having a few things up my ass before, but catnip wasn’t one of them.”
He straightened and Ash frowned. “So, what do you have up your ass then? Any tricks to try and make me forgive you? Where the hell did you get the idea to dress up like that anyway?”
“Do you like it?” He smothered a grin.
“No.” She shook her head, but the fire in her eyes gave her away. He could tell she was trying not to smile.
“Liar.”
“I’m not.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “I’ll prove to you soon enough that you are.” Ash’s lips thinned out, like she wanted to ask him what the hell that meant, but he charged ahead before she could get a word in. “My sister, actually. She and my mom came over to tell me to get my head out of my ass-”
“So that was what you had up there.”
He nearly choked for a second time. Jeez, Ash’s wits were razor sharp, as always. He felt a little like her brother, trapped under her glare and sparring for his life. She was absolutely cut throat on the other side of a battle. He also loved that about her. Respected her for it. God, it was sexy as hell. She was sexy, dressed in jeans and a plaid button-down shirt, her hair done up in a messy bun, faint creases at the corners of her eyes and mouth, hinting that she was probably tired after a long week made longer by what happened on the weekend preceding it.
“Yes- uh…” he reached up to run a hand through his hair, something he realized he did when he was nervous, and nearly knocked his helmet off. Shit. He dropped his hand back to his side. “She gave me a little pep talk while my mom cleaned up the place.” He winced when Ash rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. I’m a grown man and I still can’t get anything right or take care of myself.”
“You said it, not me.” She leaned up against the kitchen door frame.
He peered into the kitchen behind her and saw her dinner waiting for her on the table, beyond cold. Shit. She’s probably hangry on top of everything else. “Anyway, my sister told me I needed to apologize and win you back. She said it was obvious that you weren’t like anyone else.”
“Oh yeah? How did she know? As far as I know, I’ve never met her.”
“Because she could see that I wasn’t like how I was with anyone else. She said I was the happiest she’d ever seen me. Ever. She said it was like someone had turned this light on in my eyes. She was excited. She got it out of me when I went to look after my niece that night, that I was seeing someone.”
“Even though it was supposed to be fake.”
“You said that you needed a date for your reunion. I never said it was fake. Nothing I did was fake. Did it feel that way to you?”