“Hey, you can have this apartment,” he said. “I can find another place.”

“No, it’s fine. I know you’re saving up money while you write. I’ll be okay.” She put her palms on the floor and leaned forward, giving him an unencumbered view of her cleavage. “But now can we do naughty things to each other and forget that my life is falling apart?” She kissed the side of his jaw. “You know, after we eat.”

He laughed. “There she is. And yes, we definitely can.”

Kincaid put on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt from the bag she’d brought while Ash put together sandwiches. Part of him, mostly the lower part, was sad she was covering up, but the other part knew he would’ve never made it through a meal otherwise.

They ate and chatted about her options for places to live and ways for her to make money until she could get the B and B open. If they could sell the bookstore, that would take care of a big part of the budget for renovations, so focusing on that was priority one.

Kincaid polished off her sandwich and took a long sip of the wine. She looked at him over the rim of the glass before setting the wine down. “You only drank half your glass.”

He shrugged and looked at his mostly untouched wine. “I’m thinking I should stay clear-headed enough to drive.”

She sat back in her chair and crossed her legs. “Drive? We going somewhere?”

He leaned forward on his forearms. An idea had been niggling at him all through dinner, and he couldn’t shake it. That Sam guy had insulted Kincaid in public, called her the name that would hurt her the most, and then topped it off with robbing her of her job and income. All because he thought he had some right to her. That it shouldn’t be her decision whether or not to sleep with him again. And what did he get for all that bad behavior? Just a punch to the face in a bar. It wasn’t nearly enough. He’d used his power to abuse her. Ash hated a lot of things in this world, but a man who bullied a woman was right there at the top. “I might be. You sold the asshole cowboy his place, right?”

She gave him a wary look. “I did.”

“So you know where he lives.”

“I do,” she said. “But Ash, don’t get that look on your face. He’s not worth it. I don’t want to have to bail you out of jail for getting in a fight with the guy. Or worse, see you get shot because you threatened him on his property.”

Ash frowned. “He shouldn’t get off scot-free. He took your livelihood from you. It’s way, way over the line. And no one’s saying boo about it.”

She sighed. “Believe me, I know. I had to stop myself from going over there. I was thinking a Taser to his crotch would be appropriate, but I didn’t feel like spending the night at county lockup. Plus, I’ll just look like the crazy woman, and he’ll look like the poor guy who got mixed up with me.”