“Change your code,” Chase instructed.
Ashley spun around, ready to take all her frustration out on him si
mply because he stood there. He didn’t approach to console her, which pissed her off. And he appeared completely calm and relaxed, which annoyed her even further.
But he was right, and that irked her even more. She needed to reset her password on her home security immediately. If Danny, who was a numbskull, could figure out how to get into her home when she’d paid damn good money for a home security system, a real thief with a lot more skill and determination could also. Her heart still pounded in her chest when she fisted her hands and marched over to the panel alongside her door.
“Make it 1275.” Chase moved in alongside her and leaned against the wall next to the panel, crossing his muscular arms over his steel chest. “No one will guess that. It’s my birthday. You can change it again later so I don’t know it if you wish.”
“I don’t remember how to change the password,” she grumbled, having stared at the panel for a moment and knowing that if she messed with it and pushed the wrong button, it would contact the ser vice with the security system. She didn’t want the embarrassment of telling them she didn’t need the police called. “The directions are in my filing cabinet.”
She thought about telling Chase to leave, and more than likely, after the incident that just happened, he probably would. In spite of anger still trying to make her grouchy, the swelling between her legs hadn’t subsided. She was acutely aware of him following her silently into her bedroom where her filing cabinet stood next to her computer desk.
“Is this how you get into your attic?” Chase asked.
Ashley pulled open the top drawer to her dresser and reached to the back where the keys to her filing cabinet were. Glancing at him, she saw he stood just outside her bedroom door pointing at her ceiling.
“Yes,” she said, finding the keys and locking her cabinet. She flipped through her files until she found the one labeled “own er’s manuals.” Thank God the instructions to her security system were where they belonged. Chase would take over and secure her house for her if she wasn’t able to do it herself. And she wasn’t some weak female who needed a man making sure the boogeyman couldn’t hurt her.
“I thought I heard him tell you on the phone he crawled around looking for the pool stick and got dirty.”
“That’s what he said.” She walked toward him, flipping through the pages until she found password reset instructions.
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s been up there.”
Ashley had to stand within inches of Chase, since he didn’t back up when she walked out of her bedroom, to look at her ceiling. The panel that would need to be pushed to the side definitely looked untouched. There was a chair in her hallway, which was there specifically so she could stand on it to get into the crawl space she used for storage. Stepping around Chase, she dragged her finger across the leather seat cover. Chase found a light switch in her hallway and flipped it on, making it easy to see the line she created from moving it over the layer of dust that had built up on the chair.
“How hard is it to see things up there?” he asked, returning his attention to the attic door.
“I keep a large flashlight right inside the entrance up there. If I need to get anything down, or put something up there, it’s pretty easy to do.”
Chase dragged her chair under the panel and stood on it. Ashley swallowed when she stared at his cock, which appeared semihard in his blue jeans, and was now at eye level. His legs were muscular and brown cowboy boots added to his bad-boy appearance. Ashley let her gaze travel up his body as he reached and moved the door in the ceiling to the side. Roped muscle flexed in his arms as he exerted a bit of effort before the door gave way. Again she swallowed, her mouth going dry at the incredible view he offered of his damn near perfect body.
But as easily as he re-created the need that surged to life and pumped through her eagerly, Ash didn’t miss the obvious. Danny hadn’t been in her attic any time recently.
Chase stuck his head in her attic, finding her flashlight and turning it on. A minute later he stretched, his shirt rising up his torso and revealing a taut stomach with a line of dark hair that disappeared under his shirt and into his jeans. God, she loved chest hair.
“Is this your ex’s?” he asked, lowering a pool stick, in its case, down to her.
Ashley took it and leaned it against her hallway wall. “Yup. I forgot it was up there. But why would he tell me he was up there when he obviously wasn’t?”
“He’s an idiot?” Chase suggested, replacing the crawl space door, then jumping to the floor.
Ash stumbled backward so he wouldn’t land on her. This time he grabbed her, pulling her into his arms. “Reset your alarm,” he whispered, kissing her forehead. “I’ll check your back door.”
“So you know, a man who thinks I’m helpless is a serious turnoff,” she informed him, heading into her living room and resetting her password.
Chase was right behind her as she finished and closed the panel by the front door. “And so you know,” he growled, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her back against all that rippling muscle. “A woman who grabs a gun when there is danger and doesn’t panic makes me hard as stone.”
He raked his teeth over her earlobe, creating goose bumps that rushed over her flesh. Chase brought his hands up, squeezing her breasts, then lowered her tube top, exposing her.
“I don’t want a door mat,” he growled into her ear as he pinched her nipples. “I want you, Ashley.”
CHAPTER 6
WHEN ASHLEY shivered in Chase’s arms, he knew it wasn’t because she was cold.
“Is it me you want?” she asked, her voice rough as she spoke softly. “Or is it that you want to get laid while you’re home, before heading back to wherever it is you’re going.”