Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,5

formally published, but her name was in the credits as editor.

He raised a brow. “Thank you for that. It’s a good time to get it out there among everyone, while this quiet spell lasts.”

“Brody was just talking about how the peace never holds.”

“You’re writing up a storm yourself, Jesse,” Brody said. “How many novels, now?”

“Twenty,” she admitted. “Only, I slowed down a bit because of…well…” Her tongue was loosened by the wine. Most normal peoples’ eyes glazed over when she talked about her writing. But neither man was looking at her with anything but deep interest. She was family, she reminded herself, and mentally shrugged. “I wrote a different sort of novel. I’m releasing it in January, under a pen name.”

“Genre?” Brody, the creative, asked.

“I don’t know where the story came from,” she confessed. “I wrote it in seven days in marathon stints. It just fell out of me…” She drew in a breath. “It’s an alternative history.”

Veris and Brody exchanged glances.

“Like the Allies losing the Second World War and what that would look like now?” Veris asked.

Wariness touched her. Only now did she realize that ‘alternative history’ to the reading public would feel like ‘messing with time’ to these real time travelers. Veris was rabid about preserving history and not messing up one’s own future.

“Or, if the Roman Empire had never collapsed,” Brody added.

“Or if Arthur hadn’t lost to the Saxons,” Veris said, his gaze on Brody.

Brody grimaced.

Veris looked at Jesse. “May I read it?”

“Buy a copy, you lout,” Brody shot back.

“I don’t know the title or the author,” Veris pointed out.

“It’s just a stupid little story,” Jesse said quickly, feeling like she wanted to squirm. As far as she knew, neither of them had ever read any of her military thrillers, and she suspected that was because they’d seen more than enough of war in their very long lives. But this story was very different. “It wouldn’t hold your interest,” she assured Veris.

Veris considered that seriously. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“He reads everything,” Brody said. “So does Alex. And Taylor.”

“The whole family reads everything they can get their hands on,” Jesse pointed out dryly.

Brody chuckled. “True. At least tell us the pen name, Jesse. Then we can get a copy…or not. And you needn’t know either way.”

She couldn’t argue with that. “Jerry Hale.”

Veris nodded. “Thank you.”

Jesse blew out her breath. “Well, I warned you.”

“Are you staying the night, Jesse?” Veris asked.

She shook her head. “I think Alannah has a date tonight.”

“Taylor can take you back tomorrow,” Veris replied.

“Thank you, but I gotta get some writing done. I’m behind,” Jesse admitted. “The three-day break between houses has jammed up my routine.”

“Where is the next house you’re sitting?” Brody asked. “And when?”

“Arlington,” she said. “I start tomorrow. They’re going to London for Christmas and won’t be back until after the New Year. A good long one, this time. Alannah said she’ll drop me there. She’s got a vacation day tomorrow.”

Alannah worked in Hollywood, doing something that Jesse wasn’t entirely sure about, except that it was something to do with the production of movies and seemed to involve a lot of drinking, parties, meetings and phone calls.

Brody lifted his brow. “Arlington. You’ll be right across the Potomac from Aran.”

Jesse’s breath caught. Her heart jolted. She hadn’t even thought of that.

In fact, she had completely forgotten that Aran lived and worked in Washington now. If she thought of Aran at all, she tended to remember him from Martha’s Vineyard, when she had first met him, which was ridiculous, because that was years ago. Even Harvard was years ago. He was a political lobbyist now, working for Abel & Toloni, one of the most prestigious consulting firms in D.C.

Her throat grew warm and the skin over it prickled, rising up to her chin. Her heart wobbled. She breathed shallowly, feeling a little ill. She had been looking forward to this very long housesitting assignment and getting a lot of writing done. The house could have been in Tacoma for all she cared. She had barely processed that it was just across the river from the Capitol.

Now the housesitting job felt…tainted.

Veris made a low sound in the back of his throat. “Across the river could be across the universe as far as Aran is concerned. He’s too damn busy for anyone.”

There was an odd note in his voice.

Brody watched his lover with a non-judgmental expression. “He’ll find his way back,” he said gently.

Jesse fought to control her breathing and wished she could order her heart to