Kiss Across Chaos (Kiss Across Time #10) - Tracy Cooper-Posey Page 0,9

showed.

No wonder she had pegged him as the powerholder in the room.

Jesse abruptly rose to her feet, before even she was aware of what she was going to do. “I have to…I’ve got to go. I just saw the time on your watch and I have… I’ve been here too long.” She already had the tablet and her phone in the backpack. She picked it up and slung it over one shoulder, as Aran got to his feet, which was when she realized her mistake.

He was so much taller than her. She was five eight, but he had over four more inches and at least a hundred pounds on her, most of that pure muscle.

And he stood far, far too close.

She swallowed. “I’m sorry. This is…I wish I could stay…” And she really wished she could, but just a few minutes with him in front of her was unsettling. What on earth was wrong with her? She gripped the strap of the pack as he studied her and made herself smile at him. “I’ve been away from the house for too long. I should get back.”

Aran didn’t say anything.

She gave him another stiff smile and skirted past him.

“‘bye, Jesse,” he said softly.

She picked up her pace and burst out into the cold December air and breathed with the gusty inhalations of someone who had just escaped death by a bullet-width.

His coffee was cold and the croissant had lost all appeal. Not that it had held much in the first place. Kyle was the one who liked to head out here where they could talk without half of Washington stopping by their table to shore up favors or freshen the contact.

Aran stared at the foam on the cappuccino, frowning. What had just happened there? Apart from the shock of seeing Jesse in the first place? She had been on edge and he didn’t believe the “I gotta go” either.

But she was always uptight. White knuckles were her status quo. All that military training and preparedness kept her constantly braced for trouble. She was like her books—the plot never stopped for a moment. A new body would drop through the roof, bullets would fly, the story would twist on its stalk, even before you caught up with the last fantastic development.

Not that he’d read any of her books for…years. Life had just got too busy for reading.

Although she wasn’t really uptight, anymore. Not on the surface, at least. He’d spoken truthfully when he said that all the military patina she’d once worn was gone, now. She was…well, softer than he remembered. She’d let her hair grow even longer and wasn’t wearing it in a tight knot at the back of her head, either. It was thick, rich dark brown, not quite black, curling over both shoulders and down the front of her jacket. The jacket was some leather thing that cinched in around her waist and made her legs in the tight jeans seem even longer than they were.

The throaty note in her voice was unchanged, though. So was the frank, in-your-face plain speak.

He recalled the expression on her face when he’d claimed Kyle was just a friend. She’d batted that aside almost impatiently and just…looked at him.

Washington was a dangerous place to let such associations become well known. Kyle understood that as well as Aran did and was just as circumspect, but there were benefits to the mutual understanding. They had remarkably similar tastes, especially when it came to women.

A collection of snapshot moments rifled through his mind. Carnal moments, soft feminine flesh against him. Harder male hands on him. There had been many interesting times with Kyle, enough to keep the friendship going, even though Kyle was a politically risky friend to have. If anyone knew Aran was fucking a journalist at the Washington Post, his career in Washington would be deader than the undead. That was another reason they headed out here to buy croissants instead of the bakeries in Georgetown.

Jesse had seen through the mask instantly and it had felt good to just admit it and move on.

Plain speak. He’d forgotten what it was like. Even her unfinished question—had he told Kyle about time travelling—had been refreshingly direct, addressing a part of him that no one else knew about in his increasingly complicated life.

He glanced out the window at the thick grey clouds coming in from the east. More snow was on the way. And Jesse stood at the bus stop, two hundred yards up the road, the