CHAPTER ONE
“I like your apartment,” Slate said after Ashlyn had shown him around. She was giddy with nerves. He’d never been to her place before, even though they’d known each other for over a year.
“Thanks. It’s not super fancy, but I like it,” Ashlyn said.
She’d met Slate when Lexie had started dating Midas. At first, she hadn’t liked him all that much, but the more time she spent hanging out with him and his team, the more he grew on her. He had a tendency to think bad guys were waiting around every corner to pop out and attack not only her, but all of her friends as well…which she couldn’t blame him for, since a lot of bad shit had gone down with Monica, Lexie, Kenna, Carly, and Elodie.
But unlike those ladies, Ashlyn’s current boss or her ex-boyfriend weren’t going to be an issue. She’d moved to Hawaii because of a guy, yes, but Franklin had turned out to be a lazy mooch. She couldn’t see him summoning the energy to bother her for any reason. As for work, Food For All was a dream job. She met a ton of interesting people and wasn’t tied to an office from eight to five every day. And she loved the people she worked with. Lexie was amazing, of course, and Elodie was a genius when it came to creating dishes from the donated food.
While Ashlyn might’ve developed a small crush on Slate over the last year or so, she also never really expected anything to happen between them. She wasn’t the kind of woman that tall, gorgeous, badass Navy SEALs looked twice at. She wasn’t hideous, but she also wasn’t anything special, in her opinion. Her best feature was her long, straight, sleek brown hair. Her eyes were a more boring shade of brown…her face didn’t really boast any standout features.
She was tall at five-ten, but continually struggled to take off the extra fifteen to twenty pounds she carried on her frame. Long, curvy legs, not much ass, a little too much extra padding around her waist…
In short, she wasn’t hideous, but she also wasn’t the kind of woman people turned around to watch as she walked by.
And beyond her ordinary looks, Slate frequently seemed to be annoyed by her.
Despite that, a short while ago, when he’d brought her home from one of the many barbeques his SEAL team had thrown, he’d shocked the shit out of Ashlyn by asking her out. She’d immediately said yes, of course, but with the caveat that she didn’t want anything serious. Slate had agreed…so she’d invited him up to her place to test out their new friends-with-benefits arrangement.
Ashlyn hadn’t been nervous when she’d invited him up, but now, standing in her small apartment with Slate, she suddenly wasn’t so sure. She’d just given him the two-cent tour, which included showing him the extra bedroom she used for doing step aerobics, and which held a hodge-podge of stuff that didn’t fit anywhere else in the apartment; the master bedroom; the small half bath in the hallway; the functional kitchen; the laundry room, which was more like a closet; and now they were standing in her surprisingly spacious living room, which included a tiny balcony she never used, overlooking the parking lot. The living room was what sold her on the apartment. She liked how open it was to the kitchen, and that she didn’t feel hemmed in.
Now, as she stood in that room feeling awkward, Slate walked toward her. Ashlyn couldn’t read the look on his face. He looked…determined. But then again, he always looked that way. He was taller than her by about four inches, his black hair was cut fairly close to his head and, since it was late in the day, he had a five o’clock shadow. His dark brown eyes were pinned on her, and Ashlyn couldn’t look away as he approached.
He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed gently. “You change your mind?” he asked quietly.
Ashlyn immediately shook her head. “No.”
“Then what’s wrong? You look like you want to bolt.”
She should be used to Slate’s bluntness by now, but somehow he could still surprise her. “I’m just trying to wrap my head around everything. Us. How we went from two people who never really got along to…this.”
Without a word, Slate wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to the couch. He sat, taking her with him and pulling her against his side. Then he grabbed the remote from the table next to the couch, pulled the square ottoman closer—she didn’t have a coffee table, preferring the big cushioned ottoman—and clicked on the television.
“Um, Slate?”
“Yeah?” he asked, seemingly unconcerned.
“Aren’t we going to…um…you know?”
He nodded. “Oh, yeah, we’re gonna, um, you know, but not while you’re freaking out about it.”
“I’m not freaking out,” Ashlyn protested.
He turned and looked at her while raising one eyebrow.
Ashlyn couldn’t help but chuckle. “Okay, I’m a tad bit nervous, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want you.”
Slate grinned. “That’s good, Ash, because I want you too. But there’s no rush.”
Ashlyn burst out laughing at that.
“What?” Slate asked when she had herself under control.
“I can’t believe the Duncan Stone just said there’s no rush,” Ashlyn teased. “You’re the king of impatience.”
The grin that crossed his face now made Ashlyn’s belly clench. The man was way too damn gorgeous for his own good.
“For stupid shit, I don’t like waiting,” he agreed. “I don’t like to be late anywhere. If there’s a plan, I’d rather just execute it and get it done. But when it comes to intimacy…I’m absolutely not in any hurry. Anticipation is half the fun. And I have to say, babe, I’ve waited for over a year to taste you, to get between those long legs of yours…so I can wait a bit longer.”
Ashlyn shifted in his grasp. Damn, this man was lethal. “I wasn’t sure you even liked me.”
“I liked you. Like you,” he said simply.
And just like that, Ashlyn’s nervousness disappeared. She was horny as hell, and the thought of Slate between her legs like he’d just described made her nipples harden. “You really want to watch TV?” she asked.
Slate didn’t take his attention from her face. “I want to do what you want to do.”
“I don’t want to watch TV.”
“Spell it out, Ash,” he demanded.
She could feel his muscles tensing. Gaze locked with his, she said boldly, “I want you. I have for a very long time. Even though you annoy me sometimes, that doesn’t mean I haven’t imagined you in my bed.”
“Lead the way,” Slate replied in a low, rumbly voice that made Ashlyn’s girl parts tingle.
She smiled and stood up, Slate at her heels, and headed for the hallway that led to her room. She supposed she should still be nervous, but she knew without a doubt that Slate was about to rock her world…in all the ways that counted.
She walked to her bed and turned to face him.
He lifted a hand and ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek. Goose bumps broke out on Ashlyn’s arms. “Nothing serious,” she reminded him. “If we do this, you can’t go all uber protective on me. Well…any more than you already are. We’re just having fun.”