Every time they were together, this pull that she felt towards him only grew stronger and that absolutely terrified her. She couldn’t do this, couldn’t risk falling in love with him only to have him break her heart and leave her.
She just...
She couldn’t do this.
And now that she finally had answers, she wouldn’t have to. After this, she would never have to see him again. She was going to pretend that he didn’t exist, move on with her life, and bury herself in her work until she was too exhausted to do anything more than pass out every night. Eventually, the dreams would stop and she would forget all about him, Ashlyn thought when someone knocked on the bedroom door.
For a moment, she debated pretending that she was asleep only to find herself biting back a sigh as she headed for the door, unable to resist seeing him one last time. She should probably seek professional help for this, Ashlyn thought as she opened the door only to have her earlier assessment confirmed that she was indeed pathetic when she found herself biting back a whimper.
God definitely brought his A Game when he made this man, Ashlyn thought as she took in everything from his damp hair, letting her know that he just took a shower, to the light whiskers on his face that somehow made him look even sexier before noting that he was once again shirtless, revealing perfectly sculptured muscles and a thin trail of dark hair that disappeared behind the waistband of the low-hanging grey sweatpants that he was currently wearing.
Every woman’s one true weakness.
“We had a deal, lass,” Shayne said, drawing her attention to find him running his eyes over her and-
Did he just groan?
“And tonight, you fulfilled it,” Ashlyn said, watching as he took in everything from the shirt that she’d helped herself to, to her bare legs before he looked up and met her gaze only to linger on her lips.
“I believe the deal was that I’d tell ye everything that I know if ye went with me today ta check out the faire and I did that, but I wasn’t talking about that deal, lass,” Shayne said, folding his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the hallway wall, the action drawing her attention to the cut that Tristan left behind when they decided to test their new swords.
“I’m drawing a blank,” Ashlyn said with a helpless shrug that had his eyes narrowing on her.
“We made a bet.”
“By ‘bet,’” Ashlyn said, pausing to do air quotes, “are you referring to that time when you hustled me at axe throwing?”
“Is that what I did?” Shayne asked casually as he made a show of examining his fingernails.
“What would you call it?” Ashlyn asked, folding her arms over her chest as she leaned against the doorway.
“Sweeping ye off yer feet,” he drawled, dropping his hand away.
“Does that usually work for you?” she asked, feeling her lips twitch.
“It’s been a long time since I went on a date,” Shayne said, taking her by surprise.
“How long?” Ashlyn asked, knowing that most women would probably fall at his feet just for that brogue alone.
“Ye wouldn’t believe me if I told ye,” Shayne said as his gaze once again took in the shirt that she was wearing, the same one that she’d decided that she was keeping.
“Probably not without some compelling evidence,” Ashlyn said, watching as he seemed to think that over as he looked up and met her gaze again.
“I want a raincheck for tonight,” Shayne said, and was it wrong that she actually had to stop herself from saying, “God, yes!”?
“Was our date not good enough for you?” Ashlyn asked with a pitying look that had his eyes once again narrowing on her.
“We spent it hunting down a serial killer with my brother and his wife,” he pointed out.
“I saw it as a double date, where we worked as a group to solve a puzzle,” she said dryly, watching as he slowly nodded and-
“Tomorrow night.”
“I’m washing my hair,” Ashlyn said, blinking up at him.
“Looks like yer ahead of schedule,” Shayne said with a pointed look at her wet hair.
Shaking her head, Ashlyn said, “Tonight was just a test run. Tomorrow night is where all my years of hard work pay off and I break out the shampoo.”
