Rising Heat (5 page)

I shook my head and glanced in the rearview mirror. A couple of car lengths behind me was the single headlight of his motorcycle. Even so, I heard the rumble of his motorcycle engine. It was one of those chopper kind of motorcycles; low slung at the rear, high handlebars. He wore a bandanna across his face, black with a white skull emblazoned on its surface and he was wearing a shirt this time. Which was a shame. The image of his tattoos were emblazoned in my brain. I felt an odd tingling way down in my nether regions just recalling the barbed wire tattoo above and below his nipple.

Stop it.

I shook my head again, muttering to myself. I should be on my way home. I had looked forward to getting off work, going home and taking a nice long soak in the tub, then nuking a microwave dinner and vegging out in front of the TV. And here I was, after hours, going back to the pet store, and with a sexy stranger no less.

“What the
hell
is wrong with you, Kathy?” I asked the eyes gazing back at me in the rearview mirror.

I knew better than this. I watched enough crime shows on TV to know that I shouldn’t behave so recklessly. Guys like Ash Bascom had never been on my radar. I purposely stayed away from guys who smoked, drank, had tattoos, and yes, rode motorcycles. They were “bad boys,” prone to less than stellar behavior, irresponsible, and recklessness. Did Ash Bascom fit into that category?

I remembered him flipping me over his shoulder and slapping my butt. Twice. Yes, he definitely fit that category.

I sensed flippant behavior under a rough exterior. Anti-establishment, a rebel, possibly even living on the fringes of society. Hiding from something or someone?

The law?

And yet here I was, driving toward the pet store, anxious to please him.
Why?
I could have just refused his suggestion. Told him to come back to the pet store in the morning. Actually, that’s exactly what I should’ve done. I wanted to change my mind and instead of driving to the pet store, take the next turn and just go home. But I didn’t want him to know where I lived.

That gave me pause.

I hadn’t gotten any indication that he intended to harm me. He even told me that he wouldn’t. Why did I believe him? Idiot. I barely knew the guy and here I was trusting him. I was usually more cautious than this.

I dead-bolted my door every night and was careful to never park away from street or parking lot lamps if I had to go shopping after work. I reminded myself to get some pepper spray. I should carry some in my purse.

Was I over trusting? I didn’t think so. While some might question my decision to go to his house with the spare tank in the first place, I also knew that I couldn’t go through life being suspicious of everyone. That wasn’t living. That was being afraid. At the same time, I knew that the world could be cruel sometimes. I wasn’t naïve.

So why had I abandoned my common sense to help Ash Bascom?

You know why.

He was cute. More than cute. He was drop dead gorgeous and that grin of his… I felt a tingle run down my spine as I imagined those lips on mine. I hadn’t been kissed in a long time. Hadn’t had a boyfriend in a long time. Last time I had sex was… well, in the distant past. I wasn’t one to play it loose, but there wasn’t anything wrong in imagining, was there? I wasn’t going to act on it or anything. Besides, there was no way he’d be interested in me, I was the opposite of a biker chick.

While I slightly questioned my judgment — okay, so I questioned my judgment a lot — I nevertheless continued toward the pet store. After all, if he was going to do something to me, he would’ve done it in the isolation of the warehouse. I didn’t want to think the worst of someone before getting to know them. I had no intention of getting to know Ash Bascom.

I didn’t expect us to be in the store longer than ten minutes as I knew exactly where to find the small snake enclosure in the back storage room that wasn’t being used. Call it a loaner. We would go into the storage room and get it, load it into the back seat of my car, take it to his loft, and he could take it from there. I didn’t even have to get out of the car again.

I should still be incredibly annoyed that he put me in this situation. And what did that say about me? I felt like I was, in a sense, being blackmailed. If I didn’t do this, Ash would tell my boss and then I might lose my job.

I pulled into the parking lot of the mini mall and then drove slowly around the building toward the back. The loud rumble of Ash’s motorcycle followed. As I turned off the engine and stepped out of the car, he pulled up beside me. Bracing both feet on the ground, he turned off the engine, yanked down his neckerchief, and maneuvered the kickstand into place with his boot heel. He dismounted — is that what you called it when someone got off a motorcycle? — his ass nicely filling his jeans as he swung one leg over the back of the seat. Then he glanced down at me.

Before he could say a word, I spoke. “Just for the record, I want to emphasize again that I don’t find this at all appropriate.” I paused. Might as well say what was on my mind. “And I don’t think it was very nice of you to threaten to tattle on me to my manager. The only reason I’m doing this is because I can’t afford to lose this job.”

He gave a short nod. “Understood.”

No apologies, no nothing. Whatever. I moved toward the back door of the pet store, pulled the keychain from my pocket. I found the right key and then turned to unlock the door. I spoke to him over my shoulder as I pushed it open. “There’s a small enclosure that you can use until you get something better. It hasn’t been used in a while so I don’t think the manager will notice. But it would be best if you returned it as soon as possible.”

“I will, thanks,” he said. “I’ll try to find something appropriate this weekend that can be delivered. If not, I’ll have to order one online.”

He followed me into the building. I groped along the short hallway until I found the light switch. I felt his presence behind me, hovering over me. The hair on the back of my neck tingled, but not with dread. He smelled good. Despite his rough exterior, the one or two-day growth of stubble on his cheeks, he didn’t stink. At his loft, I noticed that his fingernails were clean, which I hadn’t expected, what with him riding a motorcycle. Then again, I had no idea what he did for a living.

Talk about being judgmental. He could’ve been an accountant for all I knew. Not everybody who rode a motorcycle like his was a rebel.

“In here,” I said, gesturing. As we rounded the corner of the short hallway, the animals out front heard my voice. The puppies immediately began to yip, eliciting alarmed bird calls and Charlie’s typical mantra.

I heard a low rumble of laughter from Ash. “I do believe you’ve woken the menagerie.”

I grinned over my shoulder at him. “They know me. I’ll have to go out and get them settled down. Then we can load the enclosure into my car, okay?”

He nodded and followed me into the pet store proper. I headed immediately toward the cages with the puppies, smiling and saying hello, placing my hand against the glass as the puppies scrambled to greet me. I truly wished that I could adopt all of them. It was one of the downfalls of working in a pet store. After paying attention to the puppies for a minute, I headed down the aisle and checked on the birds and the reptiles.

“Love me! Love me! Love me!”
Charlie cooed.

“I do love you, Charlie,” I replied, laughing and the bird settled down.

I quickly glanced in the aquariums to make sure there were no dead fish floating in them, then turned to check on the cats against the far wall. To my surprise, Ash hung back.

“You okay?”

He offered a lame shrug. “You don’t like snakes. I don’t like cats.”

Now that took me by surprise. Didn’t like
cats?
I was just about to ask him about it when I noticed that one of the cat cages was open. “Uh oh,” I muttered.

He stopped dead in his tracks at the end of the aisle, right in front of the shelves stocked with kitty kibble bags and an assortment of cat food tins. He warily eyed the cages holding the cats and a few kittens. I did a head count and realized that a Berman kitten I’d nicknamed Precious had escaped.

I shook my head and turned toward Ash, a fake, somber expression on my face. “I hate to tell you this, but one of the wildcats has gotten loose.”

He made a face at me and I smiled. “Turnaround is fair play, don’t you think? I helped you catch your snake, so now you get to help me catch Precious, the wayward kitten.”

I couldn’t have timed it any better. While Ash gazed at me, his eyes narrowing with disgruntlement, I saw a slight movement over his left shoulder. Somehow, the kitten had made its way up onto one of the shelves and was hovering on the edge, whiskers tentatively exploring Ash’s scent. Then, just as I was about to warn him, the kitten leapt off the shelf and landed, his upper half on Ash’s head, the lower half scrambling for a foothold on his shoulder.

Ash let out a startled yelp and dropped into a half-crouched position, arms outstretched, clearly uncertain what he should do. I didn’t want the kitten to get hurt, so I hurried toward them.

“Don’t move a muscle!”

Much to his credit, he didn’t. Nevertheless, it seemed as if every muscle in his body thrummed with tension, ready to react. I quickly reached his side, wrapped my hands around the kitten’s small body and attempted to pull her from Ash’s shoulder. The problem was she didn’t want to let go. Her rear claws had dug into his t-shirt but good.

“Wait a minute,” I said, trying to pull the kitten away. “Her claws are caught in your shirt.”

“They’re digging into my scalp too,” he muttered.

“I’m trying not to hurt her,” I told him. “Just a second.” I managed to get one of the kitten’s rear paws untangled from his t-shirt but the other one dug in even tighter.

“Ow!” he yowled. “She’s trying to scalp me!”

I couldn’t resist teasing him. “Don’t be such a big baby! Her claws are about an eighth of an inch long. She couldn’t draw blood if she tried.”

He glared up at me from his half-crouched position. “She’s trying. Get the damn thing off me.”

I spoke to the kitten, making soft soothing sounds as I managed to get both her rear claws untangled. It was only a matter of lifting her straight up to get her completely off him. The minute she was lifted from his shoulder, Ash stood, glowering down at me while I cuddled the frightened kitten under my chin, stroking her head softly with my index finger as she trembled in my hands.

“Look, you scared the poor thing,” I accused him, but he was busy scratching at the little claw marks in his scalp. I didn’t say anything more as I headed back toward the cages.

Which of the associates had been careless enough to leave one of the cages unlocked? These animals were expensive, especially because most of them were purebreds. If one of the animals got hurt or died due to carelessness, it could very well come out of our paychecks. My paycheck.

I got Precious back in her cage, and after watching her for a moment to make sure she was all right, I gestured for Ash to follow me into the back. “Come on, let’s get your enclosure.”

I still couldn’t believe that someone as big and tough looking as Ash Bascom was afraid of a little kitten. Then again, who was I to judge? I was afraid of snakes and bugs. I wasn’t going to make fun of anybody for being afraid of anything, even if it was illogical.

We turned toward the storage room, where we kept extra supplies we didn’t have room for out front. It wasn’t particularly organized, but I headed for the far end of the shelves and began to move some of the supplies. I had seen the enclosure back here only the other day.

“Here, let me help,” Ash said, stepping beside me and reaching for the twenty-five-pound bag of wild bird seed I’d just grabbed.

“Thank you,” I said and peered into the shadowed darkness against the wall but didn’t see the enclosure. I stepped around to the side of the shelving, looked up, and saw that it was on the next shelf up, just above my reach. “It’s up here,” I said, pointing. I glanced around for the footstool that we always kept back here. I got the stool, stood on it, and began to move items around to make it easier to retrieve the enclosure. While I moved items, Ash took them and placed them on a different shelf.

“You won’t need anything too tall, but you want to have an enclosure that allows your Python to stretch out once in a while.”

“Got it,” he said, taking another bag that I pulled off the shelf.

Reaching for the top of the enclosure, I pulled it closer to the edge. “This one will be okay for your snake for a couple of days, but promise me that you’ll get something that’s appr—”

I reached too far. I felt myself tipping, tried to regain my balance, but it was too late. I squealed as I began to teeter. I tried to reach for the shelf with one hand, but the other immediately reached for Ash. I fell and closed my eyes, anticipating a rather harsh impact onto the tiled floor beneath me. To my surprise, I didn’t land on the hard tiles. Nevertheless, the two strong and well-muscled arms that had caught me were definitely hard. So was his chest.

Oh my God.

“So embarrassing,” I muttered. Here I was, cradled in his arms — again — one hand grasping his shoulder, the other instinctively wrapping around his neck. After all, what was I supposed to do with my other hand? Just let it dangle there? “We really need to stop meeting like this.” I waited for him to laugh, but got nothing. I wiggled and continued, “Sorry. And thank you, but you can put me down now.”

He hesitated for just an instant, and in that instant, a myriad of emotions and sensations ran through me. His bulging biceps, his solid chest, his scent… a nice deodorant combined with the faint hint of… of motorcycle, I don’t know, oil or gasoline?

And then the look on his face as he gazed at me. My eyes automatically dipped toward his mouth. Again, I wondered how it would feel to kiss those full lips. To feel his stubble rubbing against my cheek—

My eyes didn’t leave his lips as I repeated myself. “You can put me down now.” He did, but it was a very slow and sensual descent. His left arm wrapped tightly around my upper torso, his palm clutching just under my breast. He slowly released his grip on my legs, allowing my body to s-l-o-w-l-y slide down the length of his. Every inch of my decline left me burning with sensations.