None of it was normal.
And it was another thing that painfully set Kallie apart from Ash.
She found herself in the kitchen, eyeing the beautiful granite countertops. Nothing looked as if it had been touched. Used. Opened. Everything glistened in the moonlight streaming through the windows. Kallie was afraid to touch things. To dirty them up with her lower-class flair.
“Care for a drink?” Ash asked.
She whipped her head up and saw him holding out a glass of wine. But she didn’t feel much like drinking. She’d had enough with Eris and the idea of having any more alcohol turned her stomach.
“Could I have some water?” Kallie asked.
“You can have anything you want. All you have to do is ask,” Ash said. “Do you prefer a specific kind?”
“Of water?” she asked.
“Yep. Clear. Osmosis. Perrier. Sparkling? Any preference?”
Kallie stared at Ash with a dumbfounded look on her face before she watched a grin slide across his cheeks.
“You tease,” she said.
Ash threw his head back and laughed as he reached for a bottle of water. He tossed it to her and she caught it effortlessly, catching a glimpse of the island man she’d become infatuated with. She cracked it open before wandering back down the hallway, taking in the very high ceilings of his home. She could hear Ash’s footsteps behind her. Falling in rhythm with hers as she took in his home. Kallie had been a bit excited to see the inside of where he lived when he was in the States. But hearing that it used to be his father’s made her wonder if any of this matched Ash’s personality.
Because it didn’t seem to suit him at all.
She walked over to the massive windows that looked over the lights of the city around them. She sipped her water, taking in the incredible view. It was amazing. Spanned in excess of miles while the city twinkled below with its endless lights. The view alone was worth several million dollars, and for a split second everything seemed surreal. Just her and the night sky with its multiple twinkling stars. The glow of the land below with her suspended somewhere in between.
It was magical.
Ash walked up behind her and she could feel the heat of his body. Hovering behind her. Robbing her of his touch. Her hand began to tremble as she took another sip of her water. She needed to steady herself. She couldn't give in so easily to what her body wanted. This man looked like Ash and talked like Ash. Felt like Ash and sounded like Ash.
But she wasn’t sure if he was Ash.
The Ash she’d come to enjoy anyway.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“How I ended up here,” Kallie said.
“Care to talk about it?”
Kallie took another sip of her water before she drew in a deep breath.
“How I ended up here. In my life. I can still feel the ghost of my engagement ring around my finger. I can still feel the pain of my betrayal. But I can also still feel the pressing of your lips against my neck. The way you comforted me during that storm. And now I’m standing here in your penthouse apartment overlooking the lights of New York City and I wonder how much of this is really you. This apartment doesn’t seem like you. Not the you I know. It seems like James. I’d definitely attribute this to my ex, James. But not you. Not the you I found on St. Barts.”
Kallie felt Ash slide his hand underneath her elbow before he beckoned her to turn.
“You’re here because you feel that pull, Kallie.”
“What?” she asked.
“That pull that yanked me all the way from the island.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can phrase it anyway you want, but I know you feel it,” Ash said. “We’re attracted to each other helplessly. Like magnets. I felt that pull all the way in St. Barts when you ran back home. That’s why I came back to a city I can’t stand. A city I told myself I would always stay away from. Because it held the one thing I knew could draw me back. And I don’t regret it for a second.”
The intensity in his eyes is what won Kallie over. The sincerity of his words. The palpable heat in his voice. She’d longed for him. Yearned for him. But she wasn’t angry at him for being him. She was angry at him for being rich. There was a difference. She relaxed her hold on her water bottle and Ash took her in his arms, and she was helpless against his touch. She couldn’t fight him, and even if she wanted to, she wasn’t sure if she could.