Art Appreciation

---

Goldie, meanwhile was laughing. The man with her and Justine was a friend, another prof at the college.

Finally the guy left and Justine and Goldie were alone. "So how you doing girlfriend?" Justine asked her.

"I feel like... I don't know. Like I haven't had a moment to think, you know? Justin is like, overwhelming. And I sure can't think when he's around. And ... and I'm worried about Daddy, of course, and.. well, I don't know, but the guys aren't telling us something." Goldie frowned and sipped her drink. "How are you?"

"I'm ok," Justine said and took refuge behind the fruit in her drink.

"Liar," Goldie replied, frowning at her. "Luc didn't hurt you did he?"

Justine thought about it. "No, he didn't hurt me," she said at last. "He's...oh I don't know, he's just the most unexpected thing I've ever encountered."

Justin, hidden behind fake palms in the mall court, unashamedly eavesdropping using his nano implants grinned. "Unexpected, huh? Wonder what that means?"

"Hush," Luc said, listening in too.

"Unexpected? Why? He's cute and all, but he hardly seems your type," Goldie replied. "I mean, not at all like any of the guys I've seen you date."

"I know," Justine said. She dipped a chip in the salsa and held it suspended in mid air for a moment. "He's definitely not the academic type. They're like the mild salsa." She wrinkled her nose. "After a while, you wonder why you bother."

Goldie giggled. "Yeah, he is definitely hot salsa."

Luc poked Justin in the side with his elbow.

"And Justin's not?" Justine asked giggling.

"Gods, we sound like a couple of teenagers," Goldie muttered. "I still want to paint them. I can just imagine them...." Goldie's eyes went all dreamy.

Justine nodded. "You should you know. Even though you're interested in Justin."

Goldie's eyes refocused and she made a face. "I've always had trouble with men who pose for me. Not a good idea. I could paint Luc though," she suggested brightly.

"Good luck with that. But what about you and Justin?"

"What about us," Goldie asked, frowning. "I like him and all, but .. okay, he sets off every nerve in my being. I need to stay away from him."

Justin stiffened. Like hell she did. Like hell she would.

"Why?" Justine asked.

Yeah, Justin echoed to himself. Why? Not that it mattered. She was his. And she's about to find that out at this rate.

"He's the old fashioned sort. Bossy, jealous, demanding. Can't you just see that kind of guy letting me paint other naked men?" Goldie demanded. "He'd have a hissy fit."

Damn right, Justin agreed. Not unless he was there, keeping an eye on who it was she'd convinced to strut his stuff.

"Paint him," Justine said. "Like all those guys in Paris, painting their mistresses. Strike a blow for women's lib."

"And then we become lovers, have a fight and he's putting his fist through my stuff. No thanks," Goldie replied as she sucked up her drink. "Been there, done that."

"I doubt that," Justine said. "I think he'd surprise you. As dominant as he is he hasn't got a thing to prove, to you or himself."

"He scares the crap out of me, Justine. Nope. Staying away."

I scare her? Justin was floored. And furious with himself.

"Scares you? You have him wrapped around your little finger, girlfriend."

"Yeah, sort of like a snake-charmer, right? I take my eyes off of him and boom, I"m done for," Goldie explained. "I'd be like my mother. Lost and helpless, unable to say goodbye." Goldie shook her head. "How about Luc? You gonna, you know? With him?"

"You know?" Luc mouthed. "What the hell is that?"

Justin shook his head.

"Every chance I get, girlfriend," Justine said, laughing. "Every chance I get."

"Uh oh, doesn't sound good," Justin mouthed back.

Luc groaned.

Goldie laughed. "Well, I wish you luck with him. He's every bit as alpha dog as Justin is. He's just sneakier about it."

Justine leaned across the table and whispered, "Yeah I know. And it makes my thighs sweat."

Goldie frowned. "It does? You like the caveman type? I'd never have guessed." Goldie had leaned forward and was resting her chin on her fist. "What haven't you been telling me, girlfriend."

"That's just the thing, he's not the caveman type."

"I'm not?" Luc muttered.

"He's not?" Goldie asked. "What is he then?"

"He's himself. Sure he's all alpha male. But that doesn't make him Neanderthal or wanting to tramp all over me. Besides, I got over all that liberated female crap ages ago. All I care about now is what works in my life, for me and the people I'm involved with," Justine said, waving for the server. "I need a another drink. You want one?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do." Goldie was frowning. "I don't know if I can trust a guy enough to.. They all lie, don't they." It wasn't really a question.

Justine whipped her attention back to Goldie. "No, actually, they don't. They aren't all like your father either."

Goldie sipped her second drink. "Yeah, so I'm told. But so far I've chosen guys just like my father. I can't trust my own taste. It's some sort of unconscious weirdness quotient, I think. I want a guy totally unlike my father, but somehow or other I end up attracting guys just like him."

"Well, sugar plum, trust me on this one. Justin is nothing like your father."

Damn straight, Justin nodded.

Goldie looked up at her friend. "I'll try to remember that," she finally said. "So, I'm starving. And don't look now but I think I see the guys hiding behind those palm trees."

"Let them hide," Justine said, lifting the menu. "Serves them right if they followed us here."

"See, why do they do that?" Goldie asked, frowning. "Can't they trust us?"

"No," Luc and Justin said in unison.

"No, they don't. At least not to defend ourselves. Or stay out of trouble." Justine set the menu down. "I'm having the fajitas and another sangria. With extra cheese, sour cream and guac."

The waiter came over and Goldie added an order of quesadillas to that, and another drink for herself. "We could," she said, waving at the guys, "let them join us."

"No," Justine said. "I thought you wanted to get away from them."

"I thought I did too," Goldie muttered. "But Justin looks pretty pathetic there."

Justine refused to look. "How about Luc?"

"Stoic. He looks stoic. And confused."

"Of course he does," Justine said. "He's a man and women will always confuse him."

"Why, we're easy to understand. Guys," she added, dismissively.

"Are not," Luc muttered.

"Men just never get it," Justine said. "I think it's a genetic flaw. But god it can make for great chemistry. I just never get the same stomach flipping turn on from women, you know?"

Goldie nodded. "Don't I just. And I'm gonna cave in a minute here and wave him over."

Justine sighed. "Oh alright. Go ahead. But I need another drink."

The guys were hurrying over the moment Goldie waved for them to join them. "One word," Goldie warned, "about what you think we should have done and you're outta here." She frowned at Justin, daring him to lecture her.

Justine met Luc's baffled look blandly. "She's talking to you two bad boys, not me."

"Well," Luc said, taking a seat and motioning to the waiter, "You might have told us so we wouldn't worry."

"Yeah," Justin said.

"You were busy," Goldie replied calmly. "Doing your cop thing. We respect that."

"Oh yeah, right," Justin said. "Our cop thing. As far as you're concerned it's just us being overbearing assholes who like making you miserable."

Goldie's jaw dropped and her eyes narrowed. "That wasn't what I meant at all. You can leave now."

Justin didn't budge. "Am I wrong, Goldie? Isn't that what you think all this is about? Me being some asshole jerk making too much out of just a little thing. I mean after all who'd want your canvases anyway? So there's no reason to worry about some one wanting to hurt you? Kidnap you? Kill you? And who'd care if they did anyway? Isn't that what you really think? Who'd really care? Certainly no one in your life before this ever has so why would I be any different?"

"Stop it," Justine hissed. "That's not fair!"

"Truth is rarely fair, Justine. And in this case considering I'll kill before I'll let anyone harm her, even if she's doing it to herself, I'm ok with a little unfairness if it means we stop playing games."

Goldie turned bright red under the accusations. "I don't want to play games with you, Justin."

Luc grabbed Justine's hand and pulled her to her feet. "Let's take a walk."

Justine looked for a minute like she was going to refuse. Then she looked at Goldie again and nodded, picking up her purse. "Screaming will work," she told Goldie as she left.

Justin ignored her, his whole attention on the woman sitting across from him. Waiting, intent, like a predator, his eyes on his prey.

Goldie watched Justine walk away with Luc then, when they were out of her sight she turned her eyes to Justin. "Why don't you try telling me what is going on, instead of keeping secrets?"

"Because I've yet to see any reason to think you'd believe me if I did. If I told you I was so in love with you that I can barely breathe because of it, or that just the thought of someone making you so much as frown is like being flayed alive would you believe me? And if you aren't going to believe that, why try with the rest?"

"You know, most guys will do anything to avoid the L word. They run for the hills the moment the woman hints she actually cares about them. Yet here you are not just using the word but daring me to believe you when you say it." She was studying him as she said this, watching his every muscle twitch, any movement he made, as if trying to read his mind through his body. "I believe you just told me the truth. Which, I have to say, scares the crap out of me."

"So what else is new?" he asked.

"What else is new is that as scared as I am, I'm .. deliriously happy."

"But scared."

"I'm sorry, but yeah. There are things you aren't telling me, and secrets scare me. Secrets were common in my family. Dad kept them, Mom kept them, and they were like daggers hanging over me my whole life. So yeah, I'm scared of what you aren't telling me."

He took a moment, sitting back in the chair before he answered. "I'm a member of the Corps, the Temporal Zones Police Corps, from about two thousand years in the future. I'm here because someone from then is targeting your work, stealing it here so they can sell it then when it's worth more than you can imagine. And for that kind of money people will kill without a blink."

Goldie blinked. Several times. "Okay, I can see why you were keeping that a secret. Luc said you guys were breaking the rules. What did he mean?"

Justin shrugged. "The rules are we come here, do our job and leave. There's no way in hell I'm leaving you. Like I told you. I'm keeping you."

"I don't understand what you mean by that, Justin. If you have to go back I can't go. If you stay here, then aren't they going to come after you? Would Luc have to track you down? Or someone like him? I'm not worth dying for, Justin."

He sighed. "I know you don't understand. But the bottom line is I'm not giving you up. Whatever else happens you can count on two things. I'll die before I let anyone hurt you and I'll kill before I let you get away." He forced himself to stop there. He figured she'd have a number of problems with him telling her she was his, period, full stop, no discussion. And that as soon as he could manage it he was going to make it a physical, indisputable, immutable fact that even the Corps would be hard pressed to deny.

"I wish I did understand," she said, holding out her hand for him to take.

"I'm not sure I do," he muttered, playing with her fingers. "You'd probably run screaming from the room and me if you did."

"If you want me to trust you, then you'll have to learn to trust me. Try me."

"This isn't the time or place," he said. "I'm not being evasive, it just isn't."

"Of course it isn't," she replied flatly. "Good excuse."

He met her eyes, his voice almost amused. "If you're an exhibitionist, then the day will come when I'll be perfectly happy to have sex in public but it won't be the first time or even the second time we do."

"Men," Goldie muttered. "Sex, sex, sex. It's all you think about. What does that have to do with explaining something to me? I'd like words here, for a change."

"No it actually isn't all we think about. We also think about things like protecting and taking care of," he said. "The thing you need to know is that this isn't a game. It's not a fling, not an affair, not a relationship until we piss each other off or one of us decides there's something better around the corner. I don't do relationships. I either fuck a woman and she knows that's what's going on before I lay a finger on her or I mate for life. A biochemical, atavistic, harking back to the predators I evolved from claiming. A marking that goes cell deep, that never goes away and means neither of us will ever be able to touch another sexually. And I already told you which category you're in."

He said it while holding her pinned with just his eyes, watching the color drain from her face as she processed each word. "A mating, one where there isn't a single doubt in your mind, your body or your soul that you belong to me. A mating where I'll go out of my way every chance I get to make sure you never forget it either, nor will you want to."

"And you would belong to me? Just the same way?"

"I already do," he said, his jaw clenching, ever part of him screaming at him to just haul her out of there and throw her down on the nearest bed and have done with it. Only he couldn't, he wouldn't do that to her. She had to choose or in the end regardless of chemistry, it wouldn't ever be what it could be between them, what he was determined to have from her. "Regardless of what you decide, it's a done deal for me."

She bit her lip. "Justin, I don't think I have those kind of genes. I mean, Mom's been married four times, and Daddy two. It'd be more except he was in jail for so much of the time. I mean, how do you know it could even, like, take?"

"I know," he said. "I know because how you taste, what your scent does to me, what hearing your voice or touching your skin lets loose inside of me. I know. Every response I have to you, every second I'm around you tells me. And be very clear here, baby girl, this isn't a marriage. It goes way beyond it. It's a mating."

"That can't be good for you, I mean, you're here on a job and you marry, or whatever, the girl you're protecting? What would your boss say? What would your family say?"

"It will likely cost me my job. But none of that matters," he said.

"Geez, Justin. Pressure much? I like what happens when you touch me. I've never felt that way about anyone. But it's an awfully big commitment. Without even knowing what happens next, especially. You no job. Well, I could get you a job as security on campus, I think," she added faintly.

He laughed. He couldn't help it. She was adorable. "Baby, all those things aren't your problem. Your only problem is deciding what you want to do."

"Of course it's my problem. If you're miserable because of me, you don't think that would rather wreck our .. our being together?"

"This isn't a rational thing, You're trying to put this in the same box as the relationships you know. You're trying to fit me into a frame of ideas and stereotypes made up of all the men you've ever known, most especially your father. It won't work, baby girl. Time to think outside the box. Time to ask yourself one and only one question. What do you want? Deep down, where you live, there's a tiny voice already whispering the answer. Listen to it. Then ask yourself what it's worth to you. Because if the answer to that question is everything, then..." He shrugged and spread his hands. "We really don't have any problems."

She watched him for a time, then looked down at his hand. "You know how crazy this sounds, right? And yet... It doesn't feel crazy. Although I'm not sure that's a good thing."

"I did mention, I think, that you wouldn't understand."

She nodded. "Yeah. You did. When do I have to decide?"

"I don't know." He grinned at her, wickedly, lasciviously, with primal intent. "Though the other thing you should know is that until you do, you need to be very careful. There's a huge part of me that doesn't want to give you the time you need, that is ready to go all caveman, I think you call it, on your ass and just take. Civilized man is holding on by a thread, angel. Don't tempt the Neanderthal."

"What a surprise," she said, smiling. "You don't hide him very well." She paused then added, "And there's something you should know too. You're offering me... Everything I ever wanted. Stability. Someone I could count on. Trust. Know you'd be in my life, know, well, not be afraid I'd wake up and find your clothes gone and you gone forever without ever saying a word. And that, Justin, scares me because I wouldn't want to decide just because I want security. I want to decide because I know, deep down in that part you talked of, that I want you, and you alone. Can you see that?"

"Yes."

She nodded, looking away. "Sorry about Justine. She's always tried to defend me. She doesn't mean anything."

"Justine's got her own problems now," he said, laughing again. "And do us both a favor and keep this little chat to yourself. If Luc wants her to know he'll tell her himself."

Goldie frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Just what it says."

---------

Meanwhile, Luc was towing Justine toward the Italian restaurant down the main corridor from where they'd been.

"Go ahead, yell," he muttered as he finally let her go outside the place, and turned and looked at her.

She blinked rapidly. "Yell?"

"Well, I all but drug you out of there by your hair. You aren't mad?" He was looking confused again.

"No. They need to talk. And he's ready."

Luc rolled his eyes. "You want a drink?"

She grinned. "Yeah, I do. But I probably shouldn't. Tipsy women are amusing. Drunk ones aren't."

"How about something to eat then, too. I seem to have removed you from the food you ordered. Sorry about that, but Justin.. well, it was better we got out of there sooner rather than later."

"'Fraid I might hear something I shouldn't?" Justine teased letting him guide her into the restaurant.

He waited until after they were seated before answering. "No, I'm not afraid you'll hear anything. I was afraid Justin might do something he'd regret. He's currently hanging on by a thread. Doesn't need anyone helping to snap it."

"Meaning what?" she asked, munching on a breadstick. "And how did leaving help?"

"You were pissing him off, for one thing, acting like you had to protect Goldie from him. He takes that kind of thing personally," he explained, then ordered drinks for them. He pondered the menu.

She blushed. "Well...she needs protecting, usually anyway., It's gotten to be a habit."

"You and she have been friends a long time? You really care about her?"

Justine nodded. "Yep. And she trusts me. She doesn't really trust anyone else. Justin's going to have to deal with that."

"Is Goldie the only person you trust?" Luc asked.

She set the breadstick down carefully before she lifted her eyes to his. This man was well on his way to owning her soul. He was every secret fantasy she'd ever had, even the ones she'd never wanted to admit to. Every second in his presence for the last twenty four hours she'd struggled to ignore the arousal triggered in her, the clenching deep in her stomach, the constant dampness in her panties. She hadn't lied when she'd said he made her thighs sweat. She just hadn't specified an area. "No."

"Can you trust me enough to believe that Goldie is perfectly safe with Justin?" Well, it was mostly true, Luc reasoned. If he could hold onto his need for her long enough to let her decide.

"Are you asking me if I'm able to or are you asking me to do that?"

Luc nodded acknowledgment of her comment. "Both, I guess," he replied sipping his drink. "He'd die to protect her."

"I know that. But that might not be what she needs right now."

He regarded her a moment then asked, "What does she need right now, do you think?"

"A couple of things. To know she doesn't scare him, that her needs don't, I mean. That's probably the big one. And to know she can be herself with him. The messages on that one might have been a bit mixed."

He sat back in his chair. "Yeah, I can see where it might have seemed that way. If she agrees to a relationship with him, he'll mellow out." Well, in time. In a long time. "Thanks, by the way, for being so understanding. Especially given I pissed you off earlier. I appreciate you giving me a second chance."

"Yes, well. It's inevitable I suppose."

"Why is that?" he asked, confused again.

She toyed with the breadstick. "It's all pretty much...well, what I mean is that...oh hell! I"ve pretty much lost the plot as far as you're concerned."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to... Bloody hormones. They're a problem. You should maybe just stay well away from me. I should, I don't know, use Aqua Velva or something."

"Excuse me?"

"Block them with something," he explained. "I can't exactly control it. Certain people trigger it."

She gaped at him, outrage blooming again. "I have never in my life ever met anyone who could make me lose my temper until you," she spat out. "And you're so clueless you don't even know you're doing it, do you? Or why?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid you're right. I don't know what I said that made you mad. I'm trying to explain it isn't me, the sexual response thing. Isn't it only fair for me to do that? I don't want to take advantage of you."

She shook her head. "I'm sitting here in panties that are close to sopping wet I want you so badly and you're telling me it's a chemical thing, that can be managed with cheap aftershave."

Luc groaned. "Believe me, I'd like nothing more... But it would really be a bad idea. A really really bad idea." He stopped then added, "Not because of you. But it's me. I'm not good at .. at this."

"Why would it be a bad idea?"

He swallowed his drink in one gulp. "I told you I'm not exactly human. It has to do with that."

She rested her chin on her palm and gave him an encouraging look that invited him to continue.

His eyes changed then, from normal human eyes to yellow predators eyes. "See?"

"Yellow's my favorite color," she informed him.

He groaned. "And you just want to hop into bed."

"Not necessarily. But if that's where you prefer to start I'm good with that. But I like a little variety, too you know. The spice of life they say."

"Variety? I don't do variety, if that means what I think it means. What do you mean?"

She started enumerating on her fingers. "Back seat of cars, kitchen tables, against the shower wall, out on the patio, in the pool, in front of the fire, in my office...both over the desk and on the couch...Now that's just places. Do you want me to go on with the positions? Or the things?"

"Uhm, no, you've made your, er, position clear. Look, Justine, it isn't that I don't want to, it's that... someone needs to keep a clear head and it isn't Justin. He's well and truly beyond that at the moment. And you don't want Goldie coming to harm. So I'd love to do all those things to you. But maybe after we catch the bad guys?"

She chose another breadstick and nibbled the end of it delicately, her eyes on his. Then she licked it, a quick, light slide of her tongue, along the length of it, tasting the salt, before she put it in her mouth, sucking on it for a second like a Popsicle. "Sure," she said when she took it out of her mouth again to resume nibbling, "if that's what you want."

He cleared his throat and looked away. "Yeah, it's the smart thing. Oh, good, here comes the food." He waited until the waiter left. "So, uhm, you're good with that? Waiting, I mean."

"Do I have a choice?"

He blinked and his eyes went back to human. "Uhm, yeah, I guess."

"Let's just play it by ear, shall we?" she suggested.

"Okay," Luc agreed, deciding he was sleeping in the Jeep until they got off the bloody planet. Alone. It was the only way he'd be able to keep his hands off of her, since it was clear she wasn't going to help him there.

"So explain this thing between Justin and Goldie."

"Uhm, he wants her. Full stop. Won't give up until he gets her. Think Neanderthal. It works."

"Being Neanderthal?"

"Well, he wants her for a mate. It really doesn't matter what she wants. Well, it sort of does. I mean she can tell him to leave, but if she does he's totally screwed, so he's willing to push a bit to get her. Not that I blame him. Being alone your whole life sucks. At this point she's his whole life."

"Why does not getting her mean that?"

"Those same hormones. Once triggered we're, uhm, screwed. Which is why, well, we'd best not push it."

"Could you be more cryptic, please?"

"Our species mates for life," he replied meeting her eyes.

"And?"

"And? And what? And... and... I'm worried about Justin because we can't game out what happens next."

"No honey. I meant I want to know the rest of the story on this mating for life business. Since you trying to protect me from it is why you're hoping to avoid any kind of intimacy with me until you can head for home, untouched and unscathed."

He sighed and sat back. "Guilty. Look, Justine. Mating is forever. No choice, no second chance. It means giving up a lot of freedom and becoming a part of something that limits you. You, your species I mean, aren't built for it, and I'm not sure how well it will work for Goldie. I think its just better not messing around with it. Bad enough she's been sucked in. I just don't want to take the chance."

"I see." She pushed her plate back. "What freedom and how is it limiting?"

"The freedom to choose your own life, go where you want. Goldie, if she mates with Justin, will have to deal with our society and the consequences he and I will face when we go home. And they won't be pleasant, no matter what. We'll be drummed out of the Corps at the very least. I might be tossed out of my family. I don't think Justin will have to worry about that at least. His family isn't quite so... old line as mine."

"None of that makes sense," she said. "Well I get the last bit, but the rest is just....just gibberish. How does it stop a person being able to choose their own life or restrict where they go?"

"It's social rules and limitations. That you understand. If anyone is outcast by definition their options are limited. I didn't mean the actual mating did that, just the consequences of this sort of thing, where the Corps is involved. Justin has no choice. I do. I just want to make sure you're not put in a position you didn't choose. Yeah, I know, I sound like I'm jumping to conclusions, but trust me, I know when I'm hanging at the edge."

"An idiot hanging by the edge. A charming idiot, but still..." She shook her head. "Why is it that Justin has no choice and you do?"

"He's made a conscious decision that Goldie is his mate," Luc explained. "I'm not an idiot, I'm just not very verbal, especially when I'm talking about things I'm not supposed to talk about when I'm in the field."

"No, that's not it. But never mind that." She studied him for a moment in silence. "I need to get a cab and you need to take Justin and Goldie home."

"Good idea," Luc agreed, thinking he might find his brain again if Justine wasn't around. He waved for the bill.

Justine just sighed. It was a good thing she had a couple of bottles of wine at home and no classes to teach tomorrow.

Luc paid the bill and aimed Justine back toward the Mexican restaurant where they'd left Justin and Goldie as best he could without touching her. "They're still there. You sure you don't want to go home with Goldie?"

"No. You need the space. To bolster your denial."

Luc opened his mouth then shut it. "Thanks," he replied gruffly as they slowed, finding Justin and Goldie standing outside the restaurant waiting for them.

"You okay?" Goldie asked Justine, frowning as she looked her best friend over critically, then turning an accusatory glare on Luc.

Justine moved between them. "I've got some shopping I need to do, so I'm going to take a cab home. I'll call you in the morning." Her expression said what the words didn't, begging Goldie to leave it alone.

Goldie hugged her friend. "Can I kill him?" she whispered into Justine's ear.

"No," she whispered back.

Goldie stood there watching Justine until she was out of sight. So did Luc.

"What did you do to her," Goldie hissed.

"Nothing!" Luc protested. "Come on, let's get you home and out of the public eye."

"Luc?" Justin said.

"What?" Luc replied grouchily.

Justin grinned. "You could go after her, offer to carry her bags for her."

"She doesn't want me to," Luc replied.

"Why not?"

"How do I know? She just doesn't, all right? Don't worry, I'll sleep in the Jeep," Luc added.

"She does too want you to go after her," Goldie put in. "Idiot."

Justin patted Luc on the back. "Welcome to the club, pal."

"Dammit," Luc muttered. He ran his hand through his hair, then fished the keys to the Jeep out of his pocket. "Yell if you need me," he said and took off after Justine.

Justin tossed the keys in the air and then caught them. "Got it."

"He doesn't seem so eager to mate," Goldie said, pointing out the obvious.

"He's not, angel. And I suspect the way Justine has him figured how, she's scaring him to death. He's pretty conservative."

"What, like he's prejudiced against Earth girls?" Goldie asked, letting Justin aim her at the Jeep.

"No, just...well traditional. And mating a woman from the past isn't done."

"Aren't you worried about changing the future or something? Meeting your grandfather, whatever? Maybe he's right." Goldie was chewing on her lip again.

"Doesn't work like that. The fact that we're here means that we're a part of this temporal stream. Don't ask me to explain it, I can't."

"Oh. I really wanted to talk to Justine about... you know. Now I can't."

"Don't tell her, Goldie. It's Luc's decision. Not mine, not yours."

Goldie laughed, as she wrapped an arm around Justin's. "Honey, she already knows every secret in his head. She's good at that. I've never been able to keep secrets from her."

"Let's just give Luc the benefit of the doubt, ok?"

She pouted for a moment but said, "Sure."

He stopped and tilted her chin so she was looking him the eye. "Promise me, angel."

"If it's that important to you, yes."

"It is."

"Okay then, I promise."

He kissed her, quick and hard. "Thank you. And you could call me honey again," he suggested, replacing her hand on his arm. "I liked it a lot."

"It doesn't fit that well, though. Does it?"

"What does?"

"Calling you honey. You're all sharp angles," she explained.

"So what are you going to call me instead?"

"Trouble," she said with a laugh.

"Not to you, baby girl."

"For some reason I believe that," she replied, meeting his eyes.

"Good," he said, kissing her again. "You're learning."