Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,13
as my fathers do! When are you going to get that through your stubborn brain?”
She blinked at him. “Is that why you stayed away from me, too?”
“No,” he said shortly, then rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, no, I didn’t stay away. And that’s not what I mean, either. Fuck! I’m supposed to be eloquent!” He took her arm and steered her into the alley and far deep inside it, where they would not be visible to passers-by.
Aran glanced over his shoulder, then looked at her. “The house you’re sitting. You’ve set up your laptop on the dining table?”
That was what she usually did. She nodded.
“Not the chair at the end. Just around the corner from it. Did you leave the laptop running?”
She opened her mouth. “Wow, am I that predictable?”
Aran’s smile was very small. “To me, yes.” He leaned forward, wrapped his arms around her and jumped, stealing her breath with surprise.
She was still without breath when the elegant dining room formed around them. The table was right next to her.
Jesse gripped the thick lapels of his coat to steady herself. “You…you did that without me guiding you!”
Aran’s smile was still small. “You were thinking about the laptop. That was all I needed.”
She considered him. “You’re very good at this now, aren’t you?”
Aran pursed his lips, weighing his answer. It made the thick bottom lip jut in an interesting way. “London once hinted that Neven jumped her to when the pyramids were being built, based on nothing but a picture in a book.”
Jesse drew in a sharp breath, shocked.
Aran’s smile grew. “You have spent far too much time listening to my fathers rail on about the dangers of time travel. And to answer your question, I am good at this. Not as good as Neven must have been, but I do okay.”
She thought of the way he had jumped from the interior of the car. “You’re going to jump back into the car, too, aren’t you?”
His voice dropped. “When you let go of me, I will.”
Jesse let go of him, startled to realize that she was still gripping his lapels. She stepped back.
Aran dug in his pocket. “Oh, and here.” He pulled out a white paper bag and held it out to her. Oil spots darkened the paper.
She took it, delighted. “More croissants!”
Aran shook his head. “I’ve created a monster.”
Jesse held the bag to her chest. “Thank you,” she breathed.
“Any time.” He paused. “I mean that, Jesse.”
“At least one more time,” she replied. “You have my backpack, still.”
And this time, when her gaze collided with his, it felt comfortable.
“I’m glad I ran into you,” Aran said.
She nodded. “Me, too. Even if you do annoy me every thirty seconds.”
Aran shifted his feet. He was about to jump. “You need more people ruffling your feathers, Jesse. You’ve forgotten what it’s like to live on the edge.”
Before she could protest that she liked her life, just as it was, he was gone, with just the snap and ruffle of his coat lingering in her mind.
Chapter Four
Aran made his Capitol Hill meeting with only a minute to spare and was out of sorts and couldn’t concentrate while the house representative broke down the constituent profile in his district and why they would always vote Democrat.
He should have jumped to the washroom here in the bowels of the building and gone back for the car later. Why had he risked pissing off a senior member by jumping straight back to the car?
Because there had been admiration in her voice when she guessed you were going to do that. The soft whisper was his voice, cynical and sour.
He hadn’t seen Jesse for years, but the last time he’d seen her felt like it was just yesterday. She could rile up his anger with a single sentence. With most sentences she said, in fact. Then she would say something in that soft voice she sometimes used, and he would make the mistake of looking into her eyes and getting lost there.
He hadn’t lied about being glad to see her, but damn time to hell…nothing had changed. She still made him feel like a teenager. It was the air of old wisdom that oozed from her. The remote sense of independence that told him she needed no one but herself.
Aran pulled his thoughts together to finish off the meeting with a promise to the representative get some proper research going, and an outline for a campaign to push his wage ceiling bill through the House.