what he'd expected he was getting any more than he'd been what she thought he was. But he'd been so nasty about the whole thing that it felt good to vent her feelings. "That's all past," she said firmly. "I've no intention of making another mistake like that."
"No more marriages?"
"Something of the sort. Men are--unpredictable."
"Men are?" He turned to look at her, eyebrows raised. "It's women who hold the honors in that field."
She frowned and pulled her hand free of his. "Do you find me unpredictable?"
"Haven't been around you that long," he said.
"Cop-out and you know it."
"Okay, so it is," he said. "Let's take when we were kids, that night I came over to your house. You don't think the way you acted was unpredictable? It sure felt that way to me."
"Only because you didn't know what I'd overheard. And misinterpreted, as it turned out. What had you predicted? That I'd let you kiss me?"
"Hell, I can't remember. I did want to kiss you, though."
"And I'll bet you figured once that was accomplished I'd fall at your feet and become your willing slave?"
He grinned. "Hey, I was a hormone driven teenager." Vala couldn't help but wonder if the scenario she'd presented could actually have happened if she hadn't overheard the Ice Maiden conversation. She'd been totally fascinated with Bram as a teen. Of course, her parents probably would have put a stop to any relationship between them before things got to that state.
"We'll have to throw out the teen years," she admitted. "No one that young is totally reasonable."
"No one caught up in infatuation is reasonable, no matter how old they are," Bram countered.
She couldn't argue. Hadn't she made the mistake of marrying Neal in just such a state? And wasn't she well into such a state again now? Bram had only to look at her and she tingled.
"I like to think the years have added a little sense," she told him.
"My grandmother, my father's mother, lived well into her nineties," Bram said. "Sharp to the end. Before she died, I went to see her. I made the mistake of asking her what she'd learned from life." He shook his head. "I should have remembered about the Ndee. As Davis complained, Mokesh never explained. That's definitely a Ndee trait. Grandmother looked me in the eye and said, 'Boy, you ask a foolish question. The older we get, the more we understand we know nothing.'"
Vala took time to think that one over.
"So," Bram went on, "why are we sitting here arguing when we actually know nothing, but just think we do?"
She smiled at him. "Because we're not yet ninety, I guess, so we don't believe it."
He was going to miss Vala. Every other time he'd been involved in a relationship with a woman, sex had been the center and the talk had been trivial.
Vala didn't spout trivia. She was a woman you could actually talk to and enjoy the conversation. What she said even made him think.
He'd be lying to himself if he didn't admit sex was also involved. Involved? A wimpy damn word for what was between them, physically and otherwise. He'd never gotten in this deep before, never felt the overwhelming urge to protect a particular woman from any possible harm. Hell, he was even tempted to take on that bastard of an ex-husband and punch his lights out.
Insanity.
"You look positively ferocious," Vala said. "Since you're not aiming it at me, who's the scowl for?"
"That damned Trickster," he muttered. "He can't stand to see a man get his life where he wants it without jumping in to interfere."
"If I were as old and wise as your grandmother," she said, "I might be able to answer that. In fact, I'll give it a whirl, anyway. Stasis."
"Stasis?"
"The Trickster doesn't like stasis, so he devises ways to force change on us poor humans who keep struggling to maintain the status quo."
Bram nodded. "I'd say that's an answer worthy of a Ndee."
Vala felt absurdly complimented. She also felt sleepy. "It must be getting late," she murmured.
"You could bring your sleeping bag out here next to mine," he said. "Nothing wrong with sleeping under the stars together."
Though tempted, Vala shook her head. To preserve her sanity, she was better off sharing the tent with Davis. Because of her constant need to touch and be touched by Bram, lying next to him at night was just not a good idea. Even though that was exactly what she longed to do.
"Not tonight, but maybe once more