as they drove past and his gaze darted around at the crowds whenever they stopped at intersections. Traffic was slow-moving so he caught an eyeful. Jody signaled before pulling into the parking garage where she kept her car. It allowed her to walk to her condo and her office.
“Have you ever been to the city before?” Jody tried to engage Ross once more with a more generic, casual conversation that might pop up between two strangers.
“No.”
“What do you think of it?” she inquired as she slammed her door. She waited until he pulled his bags free. Locking the car, she paused as her security detail parked and followed her. He watched where her gaze landed.
“Who is that?”
“My security, the guy you spotted at the airport. They follow me everywhere I go.”
“So meeting complete strangers at the airport doesn’t carry as much risk for you as it might others?”
“Sad, isn’t it? As a woman alone, why should I have to worry about picking up strangers, especially men? Even if society says women are equal, we aren’t. Not in that way. Not when we’re walking down city streets at night alone or on jogging trails. But yeah, I’m safer than most people because of the extra resources.”
He side-eyed her. “Uh, I wasn’t implying that I was any threat.”
“Not you, perhaps. But any woman alone can’t know for sure. Consider for just a moment how exhausting and annoying that can be.”
He nodded. “Right. I see that. I never thought about it much.”
“No. See? Your view and perspective and privilege are nothing like mine.” By then, they’d descended the parking garage stairs, a place she preferred not to be alone in, and she inquired, “Do you like what you saw of the city?”
“It’s fine. I don’t know. A lot of people everywhere.”
“Yes. But that’s what makes it so interesting. There are pockets of this town where you can’t even realize you’re inside a big city. And as for the others… well, yeah, you won’t miss being there. But you’ll find so much culture worth exploring. Especially as a musician, I would say.”
“I’m not really an explorer of culture, nor do I care. I just want to play drums. I don’t care about other people. Or other places.”
“Oh.” How do you respond to that? Talk about unimaginative. So he’s unwilling to learn about new things, perspectives, people, cultures and places? Great. The exact opposite of all the things she valued.
Jody stared at him in wonder as she tried to imagine what to do with such a rude, strange guy who was now pretty much in her personal custody.
Chapter 2
ROSS DIDN’T KNOW WHAT to make of his contact for Zenith’s Promise.
At first sight, she appeared to be a child weaving, crawling, and ducking a swath through the dense crowd at the airport. Stopping, Ross watched the head poke through first, then her body, slouching as it followed the head and she started to rise. Eventually, the head popped up at the edge of the crowd and she flipped her long, brunette hair, that nearly reached the ground, like a whip, into the face of the innocent guy standing behind her. Being slapped in the face by the dense mass of hair, the poor guy was taken aback to find a petite but fully grown woman who then stood up to flash her sign, obviously clueless that she’d caused any ruckus. After glancing behind her, she winced before she began to speak. Despite her apologies, the offended guy scowled and waved at her rudely before he turned and disappeared. He was taking it way too seriously. She glared at the guy, shrugging as she moved forward in her purpose.
It was quite a performance. Basically because of her cluelessness. She didn’t seem to realize what a kerfuffle she made despite taking up so little space. It took Ross a moment to see the white thing she held onto so tightly was a sign. A sign with his name on it. Startled, he stared at it momentarily before looking back up at her and seeing a big guy watching her closely.
Well. So this was his contact for the new gig? He gripped his bags tighter and fisted his hands. Nice.
She was hot. But really small. Like, incredibly tiny. The stature of a child, and the shoulder width of one as well. Did she even weigh a hundred pounds? He could probably bench lift her. Her hair, on the other hand, was massive, like a lively cloud around her. Considering