“Fuck you.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“To hell with you, then. Isn’t that what you said to me last night? And exactly how am I supposed to be? Oh, it all comes clear now. You’re an asshole. Let me go before I start screaming.”
“It’s not what it looks like, I promise—”
Her blood rushed in her ears. “Hmm, let’s see. You don’t have a sister, or any hot female friends or relatives that I’m aware of. This is someone I’m not aware of, and someone I seriously doubt you just met today, so… I’m just doing the math, here.”
He blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair, watching the distant traffic on the freeway for a moment. She locked her gaze on her shoes. “And you brought her here,” she finished quietly.
“I thought you were off tonight. And this is where she wanted to go.” She sensed him flinch at the admission without actually seeing it.
Her instinct was to launch at him with her fingernails, but she might actually do him physical damage. So she stood rigid as a statue, afraid if she so much as twitched a muscle it would undo all of her hard-won control. “How long, David? And who is she?”
Now she was only torturing herself, but she had to know. Had to.
“She works in my building. I’ve known her two months. But I swear I never cheated on you, Maddie. Tonight is the first time we’ve ever been out together.”
“Bullshit.”
“What reason do I have to lie to you at this point? What would I gain? If I’d been fucking her, I’d tell you. But it really doesn’t matter if you believe me or not, does it?”
“So you weren’t fucking her, but you wanted to. Well, I feel much better about this whole thing.”
“If you can’t be adult about this—”
“And you are? You don’t know how bad I want to slap your face right now. I thought you were better than this, I really did.”
His eyes narrowed, twin pools of darkness barely catching the dim light from the overhead lamps. “You didn’t seem too broken up about the whole thing last night. At least not enough to stop you from spreading your legs to some fucking stranger. Yeah, I watched you leave with him. I even followed because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Thought maybe you were just giving him a ride for some reason, thought surely you wouldn’t do something like that. I tried to call you because I was worried about you—you don’t even know that guy.” His mouth twisted bitterly. “I guess your mouth was too occupied to talk.”
She wanted to retort to that, but choked on the words. He wasn’t choking on his; he aimed them at her like darts, and her heart was the bull’s-eye. “So don’t stand there all insulted because I decided to move on, baby. You’ve got me beat by a mile.”
“That’s great, judge me when I’m sure you couldn’t wait to get into her pants while we were still together. That is, if you’re telling the truth, which I doubt.”
“At least I ended things with you first.”
“Yeah, you’re a real gentleman. Get out of my sight, David. And if you wouldn’t mind, stay the hell out of my restaurant.”
A smirk marred his features. She’d once thought he was damn good-looking, and yeah, she guessed he was. But now the very qualities that had drawn her to him turned her stomach. Nothing about his face was interesting. Cookie-cutter handsome. Like a thousand other guys. Now Ash, on the other hand…
“Well, after that episode tonight, it might not be yours for very long,” David said.
It took a moment for the words to register because she was actually caught up in a mini-fantasy about the tiny, almost imperceptible dent in Ash’s chin. Once they did, she couldn’t bring herself to do much more than frown at her ex. Now he was being deliberately hurtful for no good reason.
Wow, how things could change over the course of a day. If not for Ash, and the way he’d made her feel last night, she would probably be a sobbing mess hanging on to David’s leg right now, begging him not to leave her. But she’d never been more serious in her life when she looked him in the eye and said, “You’re obviously proud of what you’ve accomplished with this whole situation, so run along and revel in it. And give my regards to what’s-her-face in there. She probably did me a favor.”
“You’re kidding yourself if you think she’s the only reason we’re here right now. You’re a mess, Madeleine. A fucking mess.”
She was opening her mouth to reply when a new voice spoke up, one that sent shivers up her spine and set her pulse throbbing between her legs. “I believe I heard the lady ask you to leave her alone.”
Ash emerged from around the other side of the car adjacent to Maddie’s Jeep. She’d have run from the look on his face if it had been aimed at her. Since it was directed at her ex, the urge to end up a grateful heap at his feet was almost too much to resist. What was he doing here?
David didn’t look nearly as happy to see him. He drew himself up to his full six feet—Ash was taller, she noticed with no small amount of glee—and squared his shoulders. God, please don’t let them start brawling here. “This is a private conversation, if you don’t mind.” His voice lacked the confidence to make the words much of a menace.
“I mind. The conversation is over.”
That voice, on the other hand…
Maddie watched David’s reaction, anticipating the worst possible outcome from this scenario. He didn’t respond well to threats and he hated to be the first to back down. Judging from the malice rising off Ash in waves, she suspected the same of him. Even though his expression remained calm, almost dispassionate, it was the frightening nonchalance of one who didn’t doubt his strength or abilities for a moment. She needed to step in now, or this could get ugly fast.
“He’s right. I’m done speaking with you, David. I can’t imagine there’s anything else that needs to be said. Right? It’s through, we’re over, and keep in mind that was your choice. So just…leave me alone.”
He finally tore his intense gaze from Ash’s face and fastened it on her, but thankfully the rigid line of his jaw relaxed a bit as he looked at her. “Yeah. Right. Fine.” With one final searing look at Ash, he turned and strode toward the restaurant. She watched his retreating back for a moment, feeling numbness settle in the pit of her stomach. That was good. Numb was good. Her old trusty defense mechanism coming to her rescue yet again, just as it had so many times throughout her life. She only wished she didn’t need it so damn often.
“Another embarrassing moment you’ve witnessed,” she commented, feeling Ash move to her side. She tipped her head back slightly to look at him. “What are you doing here?”
His delectable lips quirked at one end. “Obviously, I’ve been following you.” She cocked an eyebrow at him, and the tilt of his mouth turned into a full smile. “Kidding. Just happened to be leaving from over there and saw you.” He indicated the bar next door, its parking lot separated from the restaurant’s by only a curb with a strip of greenery. “Does seem pretty weird, huh?”
“More than a little. You weren’t with a date, were you?”
“After you? No one would compare.”
Maddie rolled her eyes, but a piece of her turned cartwheels from the sweetness of it. “Oh, that was good.”
“It was, wasn’t it? Good enough to…” He frowned, staring at something over her left shoulder. She looked behind her, but couldn’t see anything except the usual scene: the bar, the parking lot, the freeway.
“What is it?”
His face had undergone a transformation, from good humor to a glower she couldn’t even begin to interpret. She waved a hand in front of his face, and finally he snapped out of it and looked down at her. “What?” he asked.
“What, what? What do you see?”
“Nothing. So where are you going now?”
“Home.” Do you want to come? She didn’t want to ask that question, not at all. She didn’t need to get in any deeper with this guy, because the day of weirdness she’d spent unable to exorcise him from her every thoug
ht had unnerved her. Her intense reaction to his mere presence now scared the hell out of her. Already, she was wet, clenching her thighs together against the emptiness burning at their apex. Her breasts felt heavy and needy beneath her bra, her nipples chafing against the simple cotton.
She should be mourning a lost relationship, but she hadn’t given it much thought at all until she’d walked into the restaurant tonight. She should still be upset, numb—and maybe she was—but she wanted to drag Ash into her Jeep and fuck him raw right here.
God, he was so good. It was knowledge of that goodness that kept her from stopping him when he suddenly slammed her back against her car with a kiss that scrambled the last of her coherent thoughts into mush. “Shit,” she gasped against his lips, and he chuckled. His mouth burned against hers. She’d forgotten about the freaking heat he generated. Instantly, her skin warmed everywhere he touched her, and she thought she might be sweating from mere contact with him in no time. When they got back to her place—and there seemed to be no question now that was where they were headed—she was going to stick a thermometer in his mouth.
The thought forced a wild giggle from her throat. His hand tugged her shirt from her pants and, before she could gather her wits enough to warn him people were going to see, her breast filled his palm. Which was the only place it really wanted to be. She giggled again.
“What’s with you?” he asked, laughter in his own voice.
“You just…make me happy. At a time when I really need it.” He paused, then slowly released her. Hell. She shouldn’t have said that. “I mean, for…oh, damn. Please don’t take that the wrong way, I know this isn’t—”
Ash lifted a finger to her lips. “Shh. It’s all right.” His eyes were like twin chips of the night sky, but with no stars. She fell silent, but couldn’t resist giving his fingertip a nibble. “It’s all right,” he repeated. “It’s just the first time anyone has ever said something like that to me.”
What was wrong with the women he’d known? And what could she say? Granted, she’d known him only for a day. But everything she’d seen so far intrigued her. Even the thought of the intricate tattoos swirling across his back set a slow burn through her veins now. She liked imagining how they’d move over his flexing muscles as she dug her fingernails into his flesh…
“Are we going to stand here all night, or are we going to go do something about this?” she asked throatily, slipping her fingers through his belt loops and grinding her hips into him so she could feel his erection against her stomach.
His hands traveled up to her face, capturing her cheeks. She sucked in a breath as he stared into her eyes, her legs melting from under her. “Now there’s an invitation I can’t resist,” he said.
Her lips turned down, bitterness still too close to the surface. “Even though I’m such a fucking mess?”
“But such a pretty mess. I do have to take care of something first, though. Why don’t you head to your place, and I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes or so.”
“Oh. Okay. Are you sure? If it’s bad timing—”
“It is, actually. Dreadful timing.” He smiled. “But I’m still going to be with you. What does that tell you?”
It told her…this was in serious danger of going exactly where she hadn’t wanted it to go—straight to the heart. But God help her, she wasn’t about to stop it.
Chapter Nine
Once he’d tucked Madeleine into her car, given her one more lingering kiss and shut her door, he waited until the Jeep’s taillights were out of sight before turning to face the angel who’d so rudely intruded. The same one who’d caught him on the street last night.
“Well?” Ash demanded.
“You have an appointment.”
“You’ve got that right.”
“With the mediator.”
Fuck! How had the bastard wrangled that? This thing was so cut-and-dried, it couldn’t be any simpler. “Why are you even bothering?”
“You know, I asked myself that question, given the circumstances. But I figured better safe than sorry.”
“I’m moving on her tonight.”
“No, you’re not.” The angel reached into his robes and pulled out a scroll, which he tossed at Ash’s feet. “You’ve been stayed pending our meeting with Nicolae. Until then, you are barred from claiming her.” As Ash glared in speechless outrage at his plans being thwarted before his very eyes, one corner of the angel’s mouth hiked up. “Again, not that I really think I needed it. But you are hanging around quite a bit, so I figured your superiors would eventually start to get antsy, and you’re all so…unpredictable. I’m just covering my bases, you understand.”
“You are one cryptic bastard. What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You are one delusional demon if you can’t figure it out.” He turned to go. “We’ll be seeing you two weeks from tonight—Nicolae has other engagements for a while. Be there or be prepared to forfeit.”
“Other engagements,” Ash grumbled. “Hopefully death is one of them.” He watched as the winged figure arrowed toward the heavens, swift as a shooting star.
The scroll lay at his feet. He picked it up and unfurled it, giving it only a cursory glance. All looked in order—he really couldn’t move on Madeleine pending the outcome of the meeting.
Damn angel was talking crazy, though. He’d often thought they were whacked out of their heads anyway, thinking there could be any good left in this world worth fighting for. This one seemed especially mad.
The mediator. Shit. It wasn’t that Ash was concerned, really…but sitting in that study with his careful work under scrutiny was a place no demon wanted to be. It was rare, but there was always the chance for disaster if Nicolae saw something in the contract that made his gray mustache twitch.
But…this gave him a reprieve, too, at least for a short while. He didn’t have to worry about taking Madeleine right now.
Wait, what? Since when was he worried?
The sudden absence of a weight in his chest proved to him he had indeed been worried about it. Even more troubling, the thought of spending tonight with her, unhindered by the duty that must be done, was…thrilling. No cares. Just him and Madeleine.
Such a simple concept, but the enormity of it rocked him to the core. How would it feel not to have that damn contract looming over every moment he spent with her? He felt almost peaceful.
Snap out of it, idiot. The contract was the reason she would be with him, for eternity. Not an eternity she would enjoy, but one in which he could do with her soul as he pleased. She wouldn’t be here, walking this earth beyond his reach, tormenting him any longer. The moment he claimed her would be the moment he’d find true peace. He should be angrier, far angrier, about what had just been done to him. But, try as he might, he couldn’t muster more than mild annoyance at the angel for being one step ahead.
How could he, when he knew Madeleine was probably arriving at her little apartment at this very moment, thinking of him, waiting for him, anticipating the night ahead? Everything else faded into the far distance. He didn’t understand it, but neither was he fighting it.
The promise of one night of peace for his kind, with no scheming or agendas—just pleasure—was far too precious to question.
It was all he could do to kill time, to allow enough of a delay in his arrival that she’d believe he’d run his imaginary errand. His shields were still raised from his conversation with the angel, so prying eyes were no concern. He paced the parking lot, he watched the people coming and going from the restaurant. Couples arm-in-arm. Laughing and snuggling, driving off into the night.
For the first time in his entire existence—far longer than even his earliest memories allowed him to contemplate—he knew exactly how they felt.
Her door flew open after he’d barely tapped on it, and she stood there looking up at him with an eager wide-eyed expectancy he found fucking adorable. “Okay,” she said before he could make a move. “You can totally say no if you want. Totally. But
my friend called, and when I told her I was off early and, um, seeing you…she asked if we wanted to meet her for a few drinks at this club downtown we like to go to. I just thought, maybe it would be fun to hang out, dance…if you like that sort of thing. If not, that’s cool too. I said I’d ask. That’s all.”
He couldn’t stop grinning at her nervous excitement, at her babbling, at the way she practically bounced from one foot to the other. He so did not dance. But if it meant that much to her, hell, he could pretend. “Sure. We can do that.”
“Awesome! But will you tell me one thing first?”
“Anything.”
“Um…what the hell is your last name? I’m sorry, it’s just…I’d like to know.”
“All you had to do was ask.” He thought fast. “It’s Emmons.”
“Emmons. Ash Emmons. Great. And I’m Madeleine Dean, in case, you know, in case you were wondering.”
He clasped her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “Charmed, Madeleine Dean.” Oh, was he ever. She beamed at him, her blue eyes bright, her white teeth sinking into her plump lower lip.
“So, um…will you tell me some more about you?”
Great. She tugged him into her apartment and closed the door behind him, shutting out the rush of traffic and a gaggle of voices from the parking lot. “What do you want to know?”
“Like…do you live here?”
“No. I don’t.”
“Oh.” He saw her face fall even though she obviously tried to maintain an air of cheerfulness. “Where are you from?”
“Here and there. I move a lot.” Dammit, he had to do better than that. But she was already moving toward her bedroom, having accepted his nonanswer with good grace.
“Must be interesting. I’m going to take just a few minutes and change, okay?”
“All right.” Now he felt like an ass…and, in the grand scheme of things, that was ridiculous. “I live in Houston right now.” He’d been there on enough assignments to know it was a nice comparison to his true place of origin. He quite liked it.
“Wow!” she called from her room. “I never would’ve thought. You don’t sound like— But then, I guess you wouldn’t, since you move a lot. Duh. Are you here on business or pleasure?”