Page 24 of Stars At Dusk

The air shifted, and there he was.

Leaning back against a wall, just like the first time, she’d met him with one foot bent and braced behind him. Arms crossed over his broad chest. A shit-eating grin on his face.

She felt a kick to her plexus.How did a man she met during a 12-hour encounter ten months ago still have this much power to affect her?

Of course, it didn’t help that he looked even more devastatingly attractive than he had those many months ago. Less tired, more chill. Still dangerous.

‘Hey,’ he murmured, his eyes raking over her leisurely, from top to bottom, then travelling back, lingering on her soft curled locks in their new darker shade of purple. ‘Like what you’ve done with your hair.’

‘Nice civvies,’ she shot back, running her eyes over his impossibly broad shoulders under a thin henley and dark waist-length jacket. His thick thighs were encased in cams tucked into his combat boots.

Damn this man.

‘Fancy seeing you here,’ she feigned nonchalance, hiding the sudden shakes she’d developed by clutching her comm tab tightly. ‘I don’t think I called for an emergency airlift.’

He pushed off the wall and stalked towards her.

‘You could have fooled me with that lost damsel in distress act you were pulling,’ he taunted.

She raised a middle finger slowly to his face, then retracted it quickly, remembering their soon-to-be working relationship.

He smirked, drawing to a stop before her, with a fierce, bold glint in his silver eyes.

She took a step back for her sanity. ‘What did you do with your armoured suit? And why is it that you, without it, are undetectable?’

‘My ego couldn’t handle how easily you busted me last time. So I came back and fiddled with my metanoids until I smoothed the edges of the fractal shielding, and now it works seamlessly without the suit. I think I got it down perfectly. Don’t you think?’ Kage said with a low chuckle.

‘Not bad,’ she conceded. ‘Seriously though, why are you here?’

‘Thing is, Harlow, you’re heading to one of our most secure facilities and will stay at a Sable Group complex. You’ll need high-level clearance - which I possess. Thus my escort duties.’

‘Do I have to be saddled with you again?’ she teased, deflecting her heart-racing reaction to him with humour. ‘You were such a hangry, salty pain last time.’

He grinned with amusement. ‘Fraid so, Harlow. I’ll work on minimising your pain.’

She blinked at him, slowly serving him some fake annoyance. Yet inside, she felt a great pull to him. Plus a wild pleasure that he’d come out to fetch her. He hadn’t needed to.

She decided to address the latter subject head-on. ‘You could have sent someone on your team. Coz aren’t you the top dog at the shop I’ll be working at over the next few months?’

Kage raised an eyebrow. ‘You did your homework?’

‘I did,’ she said drily. ‘Chief Engineer and CEO of Sable EII Heavy Industries. My new boss.’

She sensed his energy shift.

‘In my world, titles don’t mean shit,’ he drawled after a beat.

She gave him a long look. ‘But don’t titles help provide context and structure? Especially in a working relationship?’

His eyes darkened and intensified.

‘Maybe that’s it, Harlow. Maybe I don’t just want a working relationship with you.’

Her eyes widened, and her chest spasmed.Damn, damn, damn, this man.

Not even five minutes, and he was back to cranking her heart. Unless he was a consummate player, his words suggested that she, too, had been in his thoughts these past few months.

She wasn’t ready for it.

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