World Enough and Time (2 page)

“Yeah, I’ve worked with her for a few months. I’m—”

His eyes started to glaze. I wondered how much Susan had gabbed about our line of work if every man in the room was instantly bored when it came into a conversation.

So I changed the subject. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

“Oh, right, sorry.” He extended his hand. “I’m Kyle. Susan’s my sister.” I shook his hand, noting with some amusement how that simple movement made his balance waver.

He leaned casually against the bar, probably trying to keep himself upright. “So can I buy you a drink?”

I tried not to groan. Just what I needed: Knocked back by Mr. Perfect, hit on by Mr. Drunk. I gestured with my glass, which was still half full. “I think I’m good for now. In fact I—”

“Well, when you finish that one.” He winked.

“I, um, I think this is enough for me for tonight,” I said. “Still have to, you know, get home.”

“Don’t worry about that.” He grinned. “There’s always taxis.”

“I’d rather not leave my car in town. Thanks, though.” I smiled, then sipped my beer to get the taste of this conversation out of my mouth. The truth was I had every intention of taking a taxi home. A taxi that didn’t contain Susan’s drunk, persistent brother.

“Well, if you change your mind—”

“You know, I’m probably going to take off after this one.” I started to take a step back.

“But it’s still early.” He clapped my shoulder playfully, then held on, walking the very fine line between persistent and creepy. “Party’s just getting started. You can’t leave yet.”

“Well, no, I—”

“So, how long have you been here? In Seattle, I mean. Not the bar. I saw you walk in.” He laughed heartily, like he was certain he was the funniest man alive.

I laughed, but didn’t put a lot of effort into it, concentrating more on casually freeing my shoulder from his hand. “I’ve been here a few months. Anyway, I need to—”

“Oh, so you’re really new to town,” he slurred. “You know, I could show you around the city one of these days.”

“Oh, I’m…” I cleared my throat. “I’m learning it okay on my own. I’ll manage.”

“You sure? It can get pretty confusing.”

I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to keep smiling. “I’m okay. In fact—”

“Well, if you’re sure.” He gestured toward the beer taps. “So can I buy you a drink?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
Dude, you are plowed, aren’t you?
Taking a deep breath and surreptitiously looking for Susan or any other convenient method of escape, I said, “I’m okay, thanks.”

“Aw, come on, just one beer. Really, I insist.”

I started to speak, but movement beside me caught my eye. I turned, expecting to step aside for a moment to let someone get to the bar.

I wasn’t expecting
him.

Nor was I expecting him to stop and look Kyle right in the eye.

“Can I help you?” Kyle growled.

“You know the definition of insanity, don’t you?” The newcomer’s lips curled into that hint of a grin and when his eyes darted toward me, he winked.

Kyle narrowed his eyes. “Um, no, I—”

“It’s defined as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.” He raised his beer to his lips, casually taking a sip while his eyes once again darted to me, then back to Kyle.

Kyle sucked in a breath that was made of pure indignation. He opened his mouth to protest, hesitated, then cursed into his drink and stalked off, leaving me alone with…
him
.

I laughed and shook my head, watching Kyle disappear. “Damn, I’ve been trying to get rid of him since he started talking to me. And you just…” I gestured toward the empty space Susan’s brother had occupied.

“Guess he just…” The quiet stranger glanced in Kyle’s direction. When he turned his head, the earring—a diamond stud—caught my eye again. “Well, anyway, you looked like you could use some help.”

“Much appreciated.”

He switched his drink to his left hand and extended his right. “Connor Graham.”

“Dani Blake.”

His palm was cool from holding his beer, but all that registered was heat. When I made eye contact with him again, his eyes were even bluer up close than they’d been from across the room.

He cocked his head. “Either I’ve been completely oblivious, or you’re new to this group.”

I started to speak, then realized he hadn’t yet released my hand. We both looked down and at the same moment, pulled our hands away. Avoiding each other’s eyes for a second, we sought refuge in our drinks.

Then I shifted my weight. “Yeah, I’m… Susan and I work together, but I’m still fairly new to the area.”

He rested his hip against the bar and his eyebrows lifted slightly. “You work together?”

Inwardly I cringed. Twice tonight I’d managed to make guys’ eyes glaze over by mentioning my job. This time, I shrugged dismissively. “Yeah, nothing too exciting.”

“Come on, now.” He grinned and turned my knees to water. “It’s got to be more interesting than pushing a desk all day long.”

“I’m sure Susan’s told you everything about it.”

“Not really, no.” Even as he took another drink, his eyes were fixed on me, the slight tilt of his head bidding me to continue.

I fidgeted a little, pretending to just casually shift my weight again. “Well, like I said, it’s nothing too exciting. We train dressage horses and jumpers. Give lessons to kids and adults. Break young horses. Things like that.”

“Sounds pretty interesting to me,” he said. “My sister’s got a couple of horses. Hell if I know a thing about them, but I wouldn’t mind learning.”

Like old friends, we fell easily into conversation. No matter what we talked about—my job, people we knew, the baseball games on the screen—he hung on my every word. It was the same way he’d interacted with the others when he didn’t know I was watching, so I had no illusion that this was specially for me, but it was still refreshing after Troy and Kyle. Even some commotion behind me warranted nothing more than a brief flick of his eyes before his attention returned to me. Otherwise, he stayed focused on and interested in our conversation. Focused on me. I was surprised it didn’t make me uncomfortable, but then again there was no rational reason it should have. He wasn’t scrutinizing, just interested.

“So anyway,” I said after explaining some of the finer points of my job, “that’s what I do for a living.”

He smiled. “Sounds like you’re doing what you love.” Raising his glass, he added, “More people should.”

I wondered when he’d moved closer to me. Or I’d moved closer to him. I could have sworn we were standing farther apart but somehow, perhaps through a series of motions so minute I hadn’t noticed, we’d narrowed that space. He was near enough to touch, and touching him was oh so tempting.

When our eyes met, the hint of a grin and the sparkle of mischievousness in his eyes dared me to do it. Instead, I muffled a cough behind my hand and said, “So, what do you do?”

Setting his beer on the bar, he rested his elbow beside it. “At the moment, I’m a desk jockey, but that’s just to pay bills until I graduate.”

“What are you studying?”

“I’m finishing my master’s in linguistics.”

“Linguistics?” I couldn’t help but grin. “So that would make you a cun—”

“A cunning linguist, yes.” He rolled his eyes and laughed.

“Can’t say I’ve ever met a linguist before.”

He grinned. “Not even a cunning one?”

“
Especially
not a cunning one.”

He lifted his beer again, his eyes narrowing and his lips curling into a smile that made my knees tremble. “What a pity.”

Chapter Two

Lost in conversation with Connor, I didn’t realize just how late it was until I noticed that the pub was getting progressively quieter. People migrated toward the door. The bartenders spent more time cleaning than pouring. The baseball games on TV were long since over.

Connor glanced at his cell phone. “Wow, it’s almost one.”

“Already?” I said. “Time flies, I guess.”

He smiled. “So it does.”

“I should probably go.”
But damn, I don’t want to.

“Yeah, me too,” he said. “Another hour and they’ll throw us out anyway.”

“Bastards.”

Connor chuckled. “Probably just as well. Or we might end up here all night.”

It took me a second to realize why that would be in any way undesirable. I could think of no place I’d rather be, but the night had to end sooner or later. We couldn’t stay here all night, so it was, as Connor said, just as well.

He looked at the door, then at me. “Do you mind if I walk you back to your car?”

“I took a taxi.” I gestured at my empty glass. “I was planning to have a few more of those than I did.”

The smile on his lips was caught somewhere between devilish and shy. For a moment, he avoided my eyes. “If it’s not too forward of me…” A pause, possibly gauging my reaction before he’d fully asked the question. “Could I give you a lift home?”

Had it been anyone else, I’d have balked at the offer. After all, he was a complete stranger. Did I really want to get into his car and show him where I lived? But Susan knew him, and even if she knew such impolite cretins as Troy and Kyle, I doubted she associated with psychos.

“You don’t mind?”

The shyness faded. “Not in the least.”

“What if I said I lived a few hours away? Like, say, Bellingham?”

His expression was all devilishness now, and my knees shook when he said, “Then I guess we’d be in for a long drive together, wouldn’t we?”

I suddenly wished I lived in Bellingham.

“Let me take care of my tab and we can go,” he said.

I nodded and he disappeared into the thinning crowd.

Out of nowhere, Susan was suddenly by my side giving me a good-natured glare. “Dani Blake, if I didn’t know any better, I’d be sure you were just flirting with Connor.”

“Define ‘flirting.’” I batted my eyes.

She rolled hers. “After all the trouble I went to setting you up with Troy.”

I snorted. “Please. I don’t think he was interested, considering how quickly he made his escape as soon as you were out of earshot.”

Susan blinked. “What? Oh, I’m going to kill him, that—”

“No, no.” I put a hand up and shook my head. “Trust me, it’s for the better.”

Her eyes flicked toward the bar and she smiled. “Well, if Connor’s a suitable consolation prize, don’t let me get in your way.”

“Consolation prize?” I glanced at Connor. “You won’t hear me complaining. Besides, he’s just taking me home.”

“Taking you home?” Her eyes widened. “Doesn’t that—”

“As in driving me back to my apartment, Susan.” I eyed her. “So I don’t have to pay for a cab. Nothing like
that
.”

She laughed. “And I suppose you have some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell me while you’re at it?”

Though I tried to laugh it off, I could only half-heartedly deny what my intentions were. One night stands weren’t for me, but I hoped the next half hour or so would at least warrant a “can I see you again?”

Connor’s voice came from behind me: “Susan, you’d better not be filling her head with lies about me.”

Susan put her hands up defensively. “No lies. None at all.”

“Or truth, for that matter,” he said. I turned to see him giving her a look that might have been intimidating had it not been for the mischievous sparkle in his eyes.

After some playful ribbing, we said our goodbyes to Susan and headed out of the pub. It was a warm night, considering it was only early spring, but the occasional gust of cold wind off Puget Sound made me wish I’d brought a jacket. Or a shirt that served as a somewhat better defense than this thin blouse. At least I was wearing jeans. Susan would be miserable when she stepped outside in her super short skirt.

About three blocks from the pub, Connor indicated a black parallel-parked Jeep. He unlocked it and opened the passenger door to let me in before going around to the driver’s side.

He slid into the driver’s seat. “So do you really live in Bellingham?”

I wish
. “No, my apartment is in the U-district.”

“Not far at all then,” he said quietly.

“You sound disappointed.”

He shrugged and buckled his seatbelt. “I have to admit, I was hoping for a longer drive.”

My heart skipped. That was probably the least subtle thing he’d said all night, and I so,
so
hoped he wasn’t just saying it. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted from him, what I wanted out of this, but whatever it was, I hoped he wanted it too.

Connor shifted gears and pulled out onto Pike Street, following it in the direction I indicated. While he drove, he said, “You mentioned that you’re not from this area. Where are you from?”

“Wyoming. Moved here about seven months ago.”

“What brought you out here? Work?”

Before I could think twice, I said, “Boyfriend.”

He glanced at me, eyes wide.

I laughed. “Ex-boyfriend now.” The momentary panic faded from his expression, but unasked questions hid in the furrows between his eyebrows, so I continued, “He wanted a change of scenery, so he moved. About four months after we got here, he decided to change
all
the scenery.”

Connor shot me an incredulous look. “Are you serious?”

I shrugged. “Eh, he was a jackass. It’s better this way.”

“Still,” he said. “I can’t imagine packing up your life, moving halfway across the country, then having someone turn around and pull a stunt like that.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” I said dryly. “But, it’s done. I’m here.”

At that, Connor smiled, but said nothing.

“What about you?” I asked. “Are you from this area?”

He nodded. “Born and raised.”

“Seems like a lot of people who are born here, stay here.”

“It’s a great place to live,” he said. “Well, I might be biased. All I know is that no matter where I go, this city will always be home.”

I could have sworn my apartment was further from the Pike Street Pub, and I cursed every green light that whisked us closer to the our destination. I wasn’t ready for this night to be over. There had to be some unscheduled middle-of-the-night road construction somewhere. Or a fender bender. A damned red light. A riot. Something.
Anything
.