She knew that Kashena was his best friend, and that they’d been partners in law enforcement since they’d gotten out of the service. As a woman, she’d be threatened by what was obviously a very close association, except that she also knew that Kashena Windwalker-Marshal was gay and married to a woman. Ashley found it endearing that Sebastian was best friends with a lesbian. For all that, he looked like he’d be very macho. He definitely had a soft side when it came to his best friend. Ashley had seen Sebastian with Kashena at Skyler and Devin’s wedding six months earlier. It was obvious they knew each other well, and that they were very close. Ashley liked that a lot about Sebastian.
When she turned to look at Sebastian she saw that he was watching her now.
“What?” she asked self-consciously.
“I’ll just be a couple of minutes, okay?” he said, his gray-green eyes on her.
“Okay,” she said, smiling at him.
At that point a man walked in, his eyes on her appreciatively.
“Did you need something Jacobs?” Sebastian asked, his tone sharp.
“Oh, sorry, sir,” the man said, grimacing.
The man walked over, handing Sebastian a piece of paper. Sebastian narrowed his eyes at the man, his look stern. As he read the paper, the man’s eyes strayed back over to Ashley who was watching Sebastian with fascination.
“Uh,” Sebastian said, setting the paper down, and tapping a part of the wording.
“What?” the man asked, startled, and then looked down at the paper. “Oh shit… Sorry boss.”
“Language,” Sebastian snapped.
“Sorry,” the man grimacing again, he looked at Ashley. “Sorry, ma’am.”
Ashely’s eyes flickered with mild amusement, she’d heard worse out of Sebastian in more formal situations. She tended to think he was giving the guy a hard time.
“Fix it and bring it back, and it better be in the next five minutes, or you’re gonna be out of luck,” Sebastian said, looking at the silver watch he wore.
“Yes, sir,” the guy said, nodding as he picked up the paper and walked out of the office.
After he left, Ashley gave Sebastian an assessing look.
“What?” he asked, a guilty grin already spreading on his lips.
“Don’t ‘what?’ me,” she said, her tone chiding. “You were giving him a hard time.”
“Maybe,” Sebastian said, grinning.
“You were,” Ashley said, canting her head to the right. “Why?”
Sebastian’s lips twitched, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
“That’s really not an answer,” Ashley said.
“I know,” Sebastian said, moving to stand.
He stretched and then began to roll his sleeves down to button them at the wrists. Then he reached behind him, picking up his jacket and pulling it on. Ashley watched with appreciation. She had already noticed the shoulder holster he wore and found it outrageously sexy.
It had been six months since their date at Skyler and Devin’s wedding. They’d talked on the phone a couple of times, but hadn’t managed to schedule another date until a month before, and Sebastian had to cancel at the last minute because a search warrant he’d been waiting for had come through. It had taken that long to reschedule their date.
“Jacobs!” Sebastian yelled, winking at Ashley as he did.
Ashley shook her head, pressing her lips together in amusement.
The man came running in. “Sorry, the printer was out of paper!” he said, furtively glancing at Ashley again.
“Focus, man,” Sebastian said.
Sebastian read the paper again, and this time nodded and signed it.
“What’s your budget for this?” he asked then.
“Uh,” the man stammered.
Sebastian looked back at him, his look quite serious. Then he sighed.
“Pull your numbers together and send them to me,” Sebastian said. “If I go over budget again this month, Jericho’ll skin me alive, so I need those numbers. Don’t make any plans till I have the numbers, Jacobs, I mean it. If I have to pull someone’s overtime, it’s coming out of your check.”
Jacobs looked sufficiently cowed by that and he nodded.
Sebastian looked over at Ashley then, “Ready?” he asked her.
“Yes,” Ashley said, grinning as she walked over to join him.
They left the office a few minutes later.
“Would you really take money out of his check?” Ashley asked.
“If I was allowed to do that, yeah,” Sebastian said, grinning. “He probably knows I can’t, but he also knows I’m serious. So he’s more likely to do what I told him.”
Ashley nodded, trying to understand how Sebastian’s job worked.
She’d learned a few things about law enforcement in the time she’d been in Los Angeles, but she knew there was still a lot she didn’t know.
“So you’ve been over budget?” she asked as they got out to his Hummer.
He opened the passenger door, and held out his hand to help her into the vehicle as he usually did. It was one of the very gallant things she liked about him.
Ashley had originally come to Los Angeles while working on a story for the newspaper she had worked for and had met up with a friend from high school. That friend was Jet Mathews, who she’d always worshipped for her outgoing personality, or so she had thought. She’d found that being around Jet, who was a very gallant butch lesbian, had been a very exciting experience. In the end, she and Jet had ended up in bed together. Ashley was, at that time, married to a man who was far from gallant, or even really very masculine at all. In the end, she had decided to leave her husband. She had known very early on that she had no future with Jet, as Jet tended to keep things very casual with women. That changed when she’d gone back to Iraq to rescue a woman who’d saved her life the when she’d been serving there. Jet was in love with the girl, Fadiyah, and it had made it difficult for Ashley to be fooled anymore that Jet would ever love her.
In the end, Ashley had helped Jet and Fadiyah get together, and then made a point of staying out of the way. Even though she was still living at Jet’s house, she did her best to make herself scarce as often as possible.
One of the other things she’d done for herself was to ask Sebastian Bach to be her date for Skyler and Devin’s wedding. She’d always found Sebastian extremely handsome with his strong build, sandy blond hair and gray-green eyes the color of a stormy sea. He also had all the gallant qualities that Jet possessed that she’d fallen for. She still wasn’t sure if Sebastian was a better option than Jet had been, since he was also known for moving from one woman to the next like Jet. Regardless, she was taking a chance.
If nothing else, it was a good opportunity for her to test her dating powers. Jet was forever telling her that she had a great body and was incredibly beautiful, something that was a huge change from her high school days. Ashley was still trying to adjust to that idea. Dating a man like Sebastian Bach was a way to test that.
“Yeah,” Sebastian said, “we’ve been going gangbusters on a few of these old cases, and they’re adding up in man hours.”
Ashley nodded. “But it’s good that you’re clearing up old cases, right?”
Sebastian nodded. “Yeah, but until Jericho sees those numbers, I just look like I’m over spending.”
“You can’t just tell her?” Ashley asked.
Sebastian grinned. “Yeah, I can tell her all day long, but…”
“But she needs to see the numbers,” Ashley said, nodding.
“Right,” he said. “So I made a reservation at a place called The Craft, it’s supposed to be pretty good.”
“Okay,” Ashley said, smiling.
They talked about various topics on the drive to the restaurant. She found that he was very intelligent and could speak well about lots of topics. They got into a discussion about politics, and while she found out that he was very hard core Republican about a lot of things, he was also reasonable when she pointed things out.
&
nbsp; “I think that people should be held responsible for their actions, it’s as simple as that,” he said at one point.
“Well, I agree with that, but sometimes people come from situations they can’t control.”
“Right,” he said, nodding. “But they can control how they handle themselves in those situations.”
“But don’t you think that sometimes people get put into situations where they have a natural reaction and are punished for it?” Ashley asked.
Sebastian looked over at her, narrowing his eyes slightly. She could tell he was considering what she had said.
“I think that it does happen,” he said. “But I also think that when offered a chance to change the course of their life, people have to make the right choice.”
Ashley looked at him, and saw the tightness in his jaw. “Is that what happened to you?” she asked, her voice soft.
He was looking out the windshield, and he narrowed his eyes, his lips pursed in consideration. Finally he nodded slowly.
“What happened?” she asked him.
“Long story,” he said, as he pulled into the restaurant parking lot.
“I got all night,” Ashley said, smiling.
He looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. “If we spend all night together honey, it won’t be talking about my childhood.”
Ashley’s eyes widened at his statement and felt her pulse quicken at the thought. Oh lord this man was indeed dangerous.
“What is it that I heard they called in you the Army?” Ashley asked.
Sebastian grinned, rolling his eyes, as he got out of the vehicle and walked around to open her door. Ashley turned, putting her hands on his shoulders and starting to climb out. To her delight, he put his hands to her waist and lifted her slightly to lower her to the ground. She came down right in front of him, and she found herself staring at his lips as she did. When she looked up into his eyes, he grinned.
“Maestro,” he said.
“Oh my…” she said, widening her eyes.
He waggled his eyebrows at her, grinning.
“Is that because you’re so talented?” she asked him.
He looked considering for a moment, then said, “Sure, let’s go with that.”
Ashley laughed, as he took her hand in his and turned to lead her toward the restaurant.
Once they were seated, Ashley folded her hands on the table. “Now tell me why they called you Maestro,” she said, her eyes sparkling.
“I can’t repeat it in a lady’s presence.”
“Oh my God!” Ashley said, giving him an exasperated look. “I promise not to be offended.”
Sebastian curled his lips in a wry grin. “You say that now…”
“I swear!” she said, holding her hand up.
“Why couldn’t it just be because of my name?” he asked her.
“Is it?” she asked, her eyes sparkling.
Once again he grinned, shaking his head.
“Then?” Ashley said.
Sebastian sighed. “Kash said it was because I could play women like they were violins.”
Ashley’s eyes widened. “Wow…” she said. “You’re that good, huh?”
Sebastian licked his lips and shrugged, looking away with what Ashley could only call a shy smile.
“Did I embarrass you?” she asked.
He looked back at her. “I don’t usually talk about that stuff with women.”
“Why?” she asked.
“It’s a bit crass,” he said, feeling embarrassed.
Ashley looked at him for a long moment, trying to equate the man she’d heard about, with the man sitting with her at the table. She looked around the restaurant, it was a nice place, quiet, elegant, but not fussy. Then she looked back at him, and she could see that he was watching her.
The waitress came up to the table then, her blue eyes all over Sebastian, barely sparing a glance for Ashley.
“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked, smiling sweetly at him.
Sebastian pointedly looked over at Ashley. “Honey, what would you like to drink?” he asked, his voice dripping with affection.
Ashley suppressed her grin. “I’d like a white wine, please,” she said, smiling at the waitress and batting her eyelashes.
The waitress blinked a couple of times, but then seemed to recall where she was and wrote down the order. Then she looked at Sebastian again.
“I’ll have a beer, something on tap?” he said.
“Domestic or craft?”
“Craft, whatever’s good.”
“Hefeweizen okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, that works,” he said, smiling.
The waitress nodded, and walked away, though not without a lot of hip swishing, Ashley noticed.
“That was pointed,” she said, looking over at him.
“She was being rude,” Sebastian said simply.
Ashley nodded, once again surprised by his actions that seemed quite contrary to everything she’d heard about him.
“So are you going to tell me about what happened?” she asked, once again her voice gentle.
“I guess I should expect you to follow a story, huh?” he asked, grinning.
“Kind of the reporter in me, yeah,” she said, smiling.
“My childhood sucked,” he said, his look mild. “It’s not really much of a story.”
“Will you tell it to me anyway?” she asked.
“Classic story, honey, abusive father, and my mother and little sister to protect,” he said, shrugging.
“And you protected them?” she asked.
“When I was old enough to, yeah.”
“And how old was that?”
He pressed his lips together. “About eleven.”
“Oh my God, Sebastian…” Ashley said, looking pained.
The waitress arrived with their drinks, and Ashley wanted to smack the girl for being in the way.
“Are you ready to order?” she asked.
“Give us a few, will you?” Sebastian asked politely.
After she walked away, Ashley reached over touching his hand. “If this is really hard for you to talk about, I don’t want to push you,” she said, sounding sympathetic.
Sebastian looked back at her. “It’s not exactly date talk,” he said, his voice indicating that he felt that he wasn’t meeting her level of expectation.
“I don’t care about that,” Ashley said, shaking her head. “I just don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
Sebastian smiled at her. “You don’t make me uncomfortable, Ash,” he said, his tone warm.
“Good,” she said, smiling.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “Let’s order and have a nice meal, and if you still want to have this conversation we can do it somewhere else, okay?”
“Okay,” she said, nodding.
She liked that he wasn’t telling her not to ask him questions. Some part of her knew that he probably didn’t want to share this much intimate detail with someone he barely knew, and she knew that she should respect that. There was a part of her that craved a connection with someone, but she was also afraid to let that part have its way. She’d had a connection with Jet, and in the end it had really hurt her that it hadn’t been mutual.
They ordered dinner, and had a nice relaxing meal, once again talking about easier topics. After dinner, Sebastian took her hand and walked with her out to his vehicle. They drove for a while, and he ended up taking her to a small café where they had coffee, and talked for hours. It was close to two in the morning when he drove her back to Jet’s house.
Sitting outside in his vehicle, Ashley found that she really didn’t want the night to end, but she didn’t want to seem desperate.
“How’s that going?” he asked, gesturing to the house.
Ashley shrugged, knowing exactly what he was referring to without needing to ask.
“It’s okay,” she said.
Sebastian looked at her for a long minute. “It’s tough, huh?” he asked then
, seeing right through her words easily.
“Sometimes,” she said, her tone sad. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Jet and I’m really happy that she’s finally got someone she loves.”
Sebastian nodded looking sympathetic. “But you wish it was you.”
Ashley winced at the words; it was hard hearing it said so plainly. She sighed, then nodded slowly. Sebastian surprised her by reaching out to touch her hand. She looked up at him and she could see the sympathy in his eyes.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I knew going in with Jet, how she was. I slept with her anyway, and was dumb enough to fall for her. It doesn’t mean that love will never happen again.”
Sebastian nodded. “True, but it doesn’t make it hurt less right now, does it?”
“Not really, no,” Ashley said.
Sebastian moved to get out of the vehicle, coming around to her side to open her door. Once again he lifted her out, bringing her down in front of him. This time, however, he lifted his hand to her cheek, and then brought his lips down to hers.
Ashley was surprised and thrilled by the gesture, and further thrilled when his lips moved so confidently against hers. She found herself reaching up to pull him closer, causing him to groan softly against her lips. That sound shot right through her, and she pressed closer to him in response. Their lips met over and over, his arms wrapped tightly around her. Ashley couldn’t begin to think about anything other than the sensations his lips were causing inside her. Whereas previously she’d thought maybe she was gay, and that she’d end up with a woman, she found out that evening that she was still very attracted to men, at least this particular man.
When their lips finally parted, both of them were feeling very heated. Regardless, Sebastian took her hand and walked her to Jet’s front door. Turning, he touched his finger to her chin, tilting her face up to his and kissed her sweetly on the lips once more. He stood waiting for her to go inside, and then walked back to his vehicle. Once inside, he lit a cigarette and thought of the cold shower he needed to go home and take.
Inside the house, Ashley leaned against the front door, and wanted to scream in joy. If nothing else came of this night, she had learned that a man like Sebastian Bach, could definitely excite her senses like Jet had. Maybe there was hope for her love life after all. She went up to her room and found that she was still quite excited by the kissing. It took a long time to fall asleep that night, but she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
Water under the Bridge Page 2