She glanced at his muscular body. "I would say you definitely succeeded."
"Thank you for noticing."
Her face heated with a blush. "How did you get injured?"
He grew silent, frowning at the tile floor.
"Sorry." She propped the bat against a wooden column of the grape arbor. "You don't have to talk about it..."
"It just happened. My job can be dangerous."
"What do you do?" When his frown deepened, she felt a sudden need to comfort him, to make him smile again. "I know! You're a bullfighter."
He gave her a dubious look. "A Scottish bullfighter?"
"Yeah, with a red plaid cape. And little sequins on your kilt. Drives the Scottish bulls crazy."
He chuckled. "Nay."
Her heart expanded in her chest. It felt so good to chase away his frown. She wandered toward the whitewashed wall to stand next to him. "Then you're a lion tamer?" When he shook his head, she continued. "Rodeo clown? Snake charmer?"
"Nay." He grinned, his green eyes twinkling.
"Okay. I'm thinking Navy SEAL."
"I'm thinking seals are black."
She snorted. "You know what I mean. You could be a member of a special, macho, elite force, protecting mankind from insidious evil in all forms, including the triple-decker bacon cheeseburger."
"I can safely say I've never battled a cheeseburger."
"Sure, but have you battled evil?"
He stiffened and looked toward the sea, frowning again.
The skin on the back of her neck prickled. "You are some kind of soldier."
His chest moved as he inhaled deeply. "Aye."
"Top secret?" she whispered. "Are you fighting terrorists?"
He hesitated a moment before answering. "Ye could say that."
She nodded. His reluctance to speak on the subject made her fairly certain he was telling the truth. "You're on leave now?"
"Aye." He planted his hands on top of the wall, then drummed his long fingers on the plaster for a while before continuing. "My boss insisted I take some time off."
She blinked. "You're kidding. That's why I'm here. My boss wanted me to take time off, too."
He turned toward her, regarding her curiously. "Why? What do ye do?"
She didn't want to discuss her work with criminals. She was here to get away from all that. And besides, she enjoyed making this gorgeous man smile. "You were right from the beginning. I'm a Greek goddess. Zeus told me to take off a millennium or two."
His mouth tilted and his eyes twinkled. "I knew it. One look into yer eyes, and I could fall at yer feet."
Her cheeks grew warm. She didn't usually flirt like this. Normally, she was too busy analyzing people's feelings. With a jolt she realized she'd always been an observer before, not a participant. This was new and scary, but so much fun.
She lifted her chin. "No groveling allowed. Goddesses find that very annoying."