‘Don’t get me wrong, I love New Zealand, but I really wanted to come abroad. Especially to New York. It’s a big city, you know? This is my first time—’
‘First time, huh?’ he interrupted and his mouth twitched.
He was mocking her. A flush crept over her skin. ‘Nothing wrong with that.’
‘Oh, no. Not at all. Everyone needs a first time and it should always be special.’
She paused, suddenly tossed back into that tumult of attraction. She desperately tried to stop herself thinking things he sure wouldn’t be. This rapid descent into desire—into craving someone she’d barely met—was insane.
‘You’re not from here either,’ she said pointedly. He couldn’t be, if he never rode the subway.
‘Actually, you’re wrong. While I’m originally from upstate New York, I live in Manhattan most of the time.’
How did anyone live in Manhattan ‘most of the time’ when they had at least one other place to live some of the time? Fallen Angel here was no cash-strapped tourist like her. Fallen Angel wasn’t wearing a costume. He was wearing a suit that had probably cost more than six months’ salary. He was...not someone she’d usually be talking to unless he was buying something in her macaron shop. Which he wouldn’t, because she just knew he was more exclusive than that. And then, to her intense disappointment, he stepped back a couple of inches and lowered the wings to the ground.
‘What are you going to do with them?’ she asked.
‘I haven’t thought that far ahead. I just...’
‘Wanted them as a last-minute costume because you forgot?’
‘No.’ He gave a wry sigh. ‘They were left in the middle of the floor in the atrium of my building. There’d been a Halloween function earlier and there was a mess. Turns out they’re really heavy, and I didn’t want the cleaner to have to haul them away and try to find somewhere to put...’ He drew a breath and shook his head. ‘I have no idea why I’m telling you all this.’
‘Because I asked,’ she pointed out reasonably.
‘Yeah, but I don’t normally—’ He broke off.
‘Talk to random strangers on the street? Or women like me? Or...’
His lips twisted. ‘I don’t normally have random strangers on the street offering me assistance.’
‘Everyone needs assistance sometimes. Even fallen angels in suits.’
‘Fallen...?’ His jaw dropped again. ‘What assistance do you really thinkIneed?’
She gazed up at him. He was serious. Gorgeous. Serious. So very serious.
‘Light relief?’ she ventured. ‘Something to make you smile?’ She cocked her head to study him impishly. ‘Have you actually smiled today? Before you met me, that is.’
He didn’t just smile this time, he actually chuckled. ‘You think that’s your specialty? Light relief?’
‘Not just speciality, super-power.’
‘Is that right?’ He stepped closer. ‘You thinkyou’rethe hero now?’
‘Sure.’
‘Then why did you need me to save you from being trampled by speeding zombies?’
‘Who says I did? You moved before I—’
‘Before you got trampled because you hadn’t even noticed them. You know it’s okay to acknowledge that. It’s also okay to say thank you.’
She didn’t want to say thank you. Perversely, she felt likenotdoing as he suggested. ‘I didn’t need you to rescue me.’
‘Maybe that’s not what I’m doing now.’
A sizzle shimmied down her spine and she didn’t quite know how to respond. ‘Why aren’t you going to go to your Halloween party?’