Chapter 6
Knock, knock.
Knock, knock.
Knock, knock, knock…
Callie groaned. She had the very tempting desire to pick up her pillow, cover her head with it, and pretend like she couldn’t hear the constant rapping coming from her front door.
It was a brisk knock with a bit of force behind it. Not quite a banging, but tell that to the pounding of her skull as it beat in rhythm to it.
Quirking open an eye, she peered at her alarm clock.
It hadn’t gone off yet, so she knew she wasn’t late, and when she saw that it said seven, she scowled.
It was one of her two off days, and while Callie was a morning person, she did like to sleep in until at least eight or nine when she didn’t have to be at Buster’s by six.
Who the hell was knocking at her door at seven in the morning?
Throwing her blanket away from her, she got up.
If she could hear the rapping all the way in her bedroom, then so could her neighbors.
One of the downsides of apartment living.
Unless she wanted the Johanssons giving her the stink eye or Mrs. Moseley stopping over later to bitch, she might as well take care of this now that her headache made it impossible to go back to sleep.
It had to be her, Callie remembered. Last night over pizza, Mitch had gone into detail about the big meetings he had set-up for that morning. They were a huge deal and he was pretty nervous over them.
Mitch really was working hard toward that promotion of his, promising her that he’d be around a lot more once he got it. For now, his hours were long, he often took work home with him, and even though it was seven, he had to have left the apartment already.
As she shuffled toward the door, she thought she might’ve figured out who was out there. Despite her suspicions when it came to the fae male, she couldn’t quite blame Mitch’s missing watch on Ash when her roommate had a bad habit of misplacing his things pretty frequently.
How much did she want to bet that he came back to the apartment because he lost something else?
As she reached for the doorknob, she called out, “Mitch? What’s up?” She swung the door in. “Did you forget your key or something—”
Not Mitch. It wasn’t Mitch.
And Callie reeeeaally should’ve looked through the peephole first.
Before she could slam the door in his face, Ash swept into the apartment as if he had every right to be there.
Once he was standing in the middle of the living room, he spun on his heel, the same arrogant expression back on his handsome face as he took the entirety of her apartment in.
Mitch wasn’t there. It was a good thing, too, because as much as she had believed that she hadn’t seen the last of Ash yesterday, she’d never expected him to show up early the next morning.
And what if it hadn’t been her day off? On a normal morning, Callie would’ve already been at Buster’s while Mitch would’ve been having a morning cup of coffee before heading into his office at nine.
How the hell would she have explained his appearance at the apartment then?
Sure, Ash was layered in a thick glamour while he stalked around the human world, but still. Mitch would have questions.
Shit, she had questions.
“What are you—”
Ash cut her off with a clicking of his tongue. Finishing his quick perusal, Ash turned her way, looking down his perfect, perfect nose at her. “You didn’t get rid of the other male, Callie.”
Pop!
She sighed as the light bulb in the living room lamp exploded. This time, she didn’t duck. It was only the one, and she was beginning to guess what was causing it.
So, instead of being scared, she just got annoyed.
“Can you stop destroying my apartment? That was the last bulb I had, you know.”
“Then you should’ve done as I told you. I don’t want him here with you.”
“That’s funny. Because I don’t want you here with me, either.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. Callie didn’t know what it was that she said or did to get that sort of reaction out of him, but maybe her approach was working.
After all of the thinking she did while she was sweeping up the kitchen last night, she had come up with a kind of game plan in case Ash did return.
Acting as if she couldn’t be bothered by his presence was right there at the top.
He was fae. A cocky, smug, pretentious being who thought he could tell her what to do if only because he was fae and she was human.
If she let him steamroll over her, she’d only prove him right.
She had no idea why he demanded an invitation to her home yesterday—just like she didn’t understand why he was back—but she figured that, if she made every moment with her difficult, he’d get the hint and fixate on another human.
And, if she was lucky, he’d forget all about how he saved her and how, to one of the faerie folk, that meant something.
Callie wasn’t from Faerie. She didn’t have to abide by their ancient traditions or their set of laws so twisted, even a lawyer would find it difficult to keep them straight.
And if she kept telling herself that, maybe she’d believe it.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, finally remembering to close the front door before she stalked toward him.
“Did I wake you?” His eyes took in her sleep-tousled hair, the probable crease from the pillowcase across her cheek, and her disheveled nightshirt.
His burning gaze dipped from top to bottom, head to toe, lingering on her bare thighs before locking on her chest. He spoke to her tits when he murmured softly, “I waited until well after sunrise to return.”
Callie followed his stare. Crap. It was bad enough that the shirt she slept in last night barely fell past her ass, but the material was worn and thin. While that made it super comfortable as a nightshirt, she just remembered that the white was nearly see-through—and she never slept in a bra.
“I asked you what you’re doing here,” she said again, barely resisting the urge to cross her arms over her chest. And then, when all he did was continue to keep up with that heated stare, she said, “And I don’t just mean my apartment. The park. Yesterday. What do you want with me?”
He quirked one immaculately shaped eyebrow. “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
Ash had the most beautiful voice. She assumed it was another tool in his arsenal, another lure. When even the timbre of his voice had goosebumps sprouting along her arms, Callie was finding it harder and harder to stay unaffected.
Haven’t you figured that out yet?
Welp, she hadn’t. Not really. At least, not last night.
But now, with Ash standing like a shining beacon in her drab city apartment, too dazzling to be real even though her sight said he was, Callie had to admit she had an inkling of an idea.
She might only be twenty-two, and she could only guess how old an immortal creature of Faerie might be, but she’d been an early bloomer.
Since she was a young teen, she’d gotten used to older men—and she was pretty sure Ash definitely qualified as an older man—seeing right through any clothes she was wearing, basically fucking her with their eyes.
Just like Ash was doing right now. His sun-colored eyes had darkened slightly, turning to a shade like molten gold; she could just about feel the heat stretching in the space between them.
He wanted her.
Why?
No clue.
Was it possible?
Callie wouldn’t have guessed since, despite twenty-two years of the sight, none of the other faerie creatures had ever looked at her as anything other than a curiosity—or, on a few terrifying occasions, a snack.
And, oh, Ash looked like he wanted to gobble her up just then, but not in the way some of the creatures like that kobold had.
Flustered. Callie was suddenly flustered. Figuring it was too late to hide out in her room or run and grab a robe or something, she decided to own her sleeping attire at the same time as she pointedly ignored his blatant attention.
Change the subject, she told herself. She cast her glance around the room, looking behind her, focusing on anything and everything that wasn’t Ash.
When she saw the side table by the door, she had it.
“Hey. Did you...”
Hmm.
Changing the subject was a good idea.
Flat out accusing one of the fae of taking something from her apartment might not be.
Too bad that Ash wasn’t about to let it go. “Did I what?”
Oh, well. In for a penny, in for a pound.
She shrugged, only too aware of the way his eyes followed the motion of her tits bobbing up and down. “Mitch is missing his watch. I was just wondering if you know what happened to it.”
Ash blinked. For the first time, he looked her in the face. “Are you accusing me of stealing from a human?”
“Not accusing you, no. But you were here, so was Mitch’s watch, then you were both gone. I just thought I’d ask and— oh.”
He was so very quick. Ash’s moves were deceptively graceful, turning him into an even more elite predator.
In the blink of an eye, he crossed the distance between them, coming within inches of her.
He didn’t touch her, not quite, but they were so close that if she just breathed wrong, her boobs would graze the front of his white uniform-like shirt with the array of golden buttons keeping it fastened.
She noticed the shiny buttons mainly because, as soon as she blinked and saw him right there, she squeaked and dropped her gaze as if unprepared to see the lust in the depths of his matching eyes.
Then her eyes dropped further and, all of a sudden, she paid attention to the sword hanging in a white leather sheath at his hip.
That did it. Callie backed up hurriedly.
Unlike the fae, she wasn’t graceful in the least. After a few frantic steps, she lost her footing in a bid to put more of the hall between them. The apartment tilted sideways and, the next thing she knew, she was flat on her ass.
And Ash was right in front of her again.