World Enough and Time Read Free

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