idea kind of girl. I jumped first and worked my ass off to build the parachute before I hit the ground.
But even if I'd plotted this day down to the second, learning the sound bones and joints made when they popped into place wouldn't have hit the list. Breaking into Ash's apartment because he was too drugged to find his keys wouldn't have been on there either. Realistically, we could've asked one of his neighbors to call the property manager or returned to the lobby to find a security guard, but this guy was looped off his ass and I needed the bathroom, ASAP. Busting our way in was the fastest solution.
Once the lock disengaged, I wedged the door open with our luggage. If I'd learned anything from ushering him out of the urgent care clinic with his shoulder freshly set and cinched in a sling, it was that I'd end up supporting some of his weight and I couldn't do that while moving luggage or holding doors.
"This is where I live," Ash bellowed to the empty hallway. "And you're here too, Zelda."
I swung my arm around his waist and urged him away from the wall. "No lies detected."
"How did you know where I lived?" I deposited him on a bench just inside the door, grabbed our bags, and locked the door behind me. His head thunked against the wall and he huffed out a quiet, "Fucking ouch."
"Your address is on your luggage. Also your license, which I needed for the insurance paperwork," I called as I went in search of a bathroom. "Stay right there. Do not move."
I breathed a giant sigh of relief when I pushed open a door and found a sleek bathroom on the other side. I should've drawn some inferences about Ash or his apartment from the elegant fixtures and wallpaper that looked like real grass cloth but my bladder was too full for that kind of thinking.
Once I was finished, I washed my hands under the motion-activated faucet. Now, that required no inference. I was drying my hands on a dark green towel when the door burst open and Ash stumbled in, his feet bare.
"Do I want to know what happened to your shoes and socks?" I asked.
"Zelda, when did you get here?"
"You've been alone less than two minutes. How did you forget everything and lose your shoes in that time?" With his only free hand, he wrestled his belt open, worked his zipper down, reached into his trousers. "What—what are you doing?" I whirled around before seeing anything but I couldn't help but overhear what came next. "I don't know what you're paying me but I'd like a raise."
The toilet flushed behind me and the faucet switched on. "Name your price, Zelda. Whatever it is, I'll double it."
I peeked over my shoulder, found his trousers gaping open but the essentials stowed away. "That seems fair," I said. "Let's get you into bed, okay? You should sleep while you can't feel anything."
Ash reached for my hand, his still dripping wet, and brought it to his jaw. He was scruffy, the day's stubble thicker and darker than it was when I first sat down beside him.
"I can feel this." He dragged my palm up the carved granite of his jaw, rasping over his whiskers. He was rough and hard, and watching me. I held my breath, watched him watching me. He lifted his other hand to my face, cupped my jaw. "I can feel this too." His gaze dropped to my lips and lingered there. When he blinked up at me, he sifted his fingers through my hair. "I can feel you."
This wasn't on my list either.
"Yeah, it seems like you can but you'll be feeling something different in the morning. Something in your shoulder, that is. Not—not anywhere else." I pivoted out of this near embrace and herded him out of the bathroom, into the hall. "Where's your bedroom?"
He paused, flattened his hand on the wall, glanced around. "It's in my apartment."
"Yeah, that's a big help." As we shuffled down the hall, I spotted his shoes and socks, one of each abandoned every few steps. I almost laughed but shouldering the weight of a two-hundred-and-something-pound man required all my energy. "Here's the deal, Ashville. When we find your bed, you're going to snuggle up and go to sleep. Agreed?"
"Have you met Kirby yet? He's my pet."
"You…what?" I glanced around, half expecting to be attacked by a creature befitting my new boss. Something like a