Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,52

New Zealand, for a day cruise to see whales and dolphins. Dinner that night was in a restaurant overlooking the famous harbor.

Jesse toyed with her glass of wine as they waited for their meals to arrived.

“You’re like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” Aran observed.

Jesse nodded and drank. “Sorry.”

“You were fine until we reached the restaurant, so what’s biting you?” His gaze was steady.

Jesse grimaced. “It’s stupid.”

“Because I’ve never had a stupid thought in my life,” Aran shot back. “I must tell you about Božidarko one day.”

“You had a stupid thought in Božidarko?”

“I had a stupid idea and acted on it, and Božidarko was the result. Stop trying to side-track me. I’m not giving you that very long story right now. We’re talking about you.”

“We don’t have to. Tell me the story. It sounds interesting.”

“Stories with body counts always interest you.” Aran’s brows came together. “You really are trying to wiggle out of telling me. Spit it out, Jesse.”

She put the glass back on the table and pushed her hands between her knees, feeling suddenly cold. “It’s just…well…” She took a deep breath. “I saw an ad for handmade chocolates this morning, on Facebook.”

Aran tilted his head. “That’s the stupid bit?”

She shook her head. “They were advertising for Valentine’s day.”

Aran sat back. “Okay, now I’m the one who feels stupid. You’ll have to connect the dots for me.”

Jesse could feel her cheeks warming. “Well, it would be kinda natural to figure that you and I, for Valentines, should…I don’t know…mark the occasion in some way. Only I don’t know that either of us should,” she ended lamely.

“You don’t want dinner and roses and chocolates for Valentines?” Aran said.

She couldn’t figure out what his tone meant. Aran was often unreadable. Still often unreadable, despite having examined every inch of him up close and in a very personal way. She didn’t know him well despite hours of conversations that rambled every which way and all through history, too.

If she’d ever had a relationship that had lasted longer than the next morning, Jesse would have expected that the longer the relationship continued, the better she would get to know the man. Only, Aran still baffled her.

She would sometimes catch him watching her, with the intent stillness and endless patience of a cat watching a mouse. The second he realized she was looking at him, the expression would vanish. Very soon after that, Aran would distract her with one of his jumps to somewhere exotic, unexpected, or just plain fun. Or he would pull her against him, or pin her to wall and kiss her until she was hot and aching for him to take her. Always, something would happen which would make her forget about those moments until later and by then, it was too late to ask him about them.

Not that she was sure she had the right to ask, anyway.

It was those great shut-away swathes of his life, the moments she caught him staring at her in that intense way, and the feeling that she had no right to probe, that made her say now, “No, I don’t think doing anything for Valentine’s Day is right for us.”

Aran’s expression didn’t change by a millimeter. He just nodded. “Then let’s do something really, really inappropriate, instead.”

Relief touched her. At the same time she felt let down. Hastily, she grabbed the glass of champagne and drank. “What would be really, really inappropriate?” she demanded.

“I don’t know.” He sat back and rubbed his jaw. “Mud wrestling in the Amazon basin?”

Her jaw dropped. “That’s a thing?”

“I have no idea.” Aran smiled. “We could find out. Or…” He paused. “How would you like to see where those uncut stones come from? I mean, the actual patch of dirt. Maybe do a bit of digging ourselves.”

Jesse frowned. “Can you do that? Just go have a look around with a shovel under our arms? I’d have thought those territories would be like the gold mining claims. Staked out and highly controlled and secure.”

Aran glanced around, a casual flicker of his eyes, but she knew he was checking for anyone who might be taking too close an interest in their conversation. “Depends on when you go there,” he said, lowering his voice.

“Oh…” He meant travelling back in time to a moment before the diamonds had been discovered. “I’m still not used to thinking of that aspect as naturally as you do.”

“I’d be astonished if you did. I’ve had a lifetime of thinking that way.” He didn’t