Page 619 of Flirting with Darkness

“Laz,” she said, sharper. “What the fuck are you talking about? Did you really hit your head? Are you drunk or something?”

He stared at her, taken aback by her faintly hostile tone.

“You know damned well you can’tsteal,”she snapped. “For fuck’s sake, youknowthis. You’re the one who’s constantly harping on ‘the rules’ with me. Remember? No stealing. No lying. No overt deceptions of any kind. It completely screws up the time jumps. You’ll end up in the dinosaur age. Or maybe back with your father in his murder-castle in Siberia––”

“St. Petersburg.”

“WHATEVER,” she snapped, clearly ending the discussion.

He stared at her for another beat.

Then Ghost nodded, trying his best to make light of his own words.

“It was just a thought––” he began casually.

That time, she wasn’t having it.

“No. It’s not ‘just a thought.’ What the hell is thematterwith you? Since when do you joke about breaking the rules? Youneverjoke about that. It’s one area where you’ve never, ever had any sense of humor at all, Laz. Like… at all. You can be maddeningly literal about that stuff, in fact. Now all of a sudden you’re floating stealing a few hundred bucks’ worth of clothes? Why? What’s funny about that? And whywouldwe? It’s not like we’re hard up for cash––”

“I am sorry––”

“Did something happen on your last jump?” she demanded. “Are you going to tell me whatever the hell it was? Or are you just going to keep actingtotally bizarre?”

“No,” he said, unthinking. “No. Nothing happened. Everything is fine, wife.”

He saw her eyes flinch.

He could tell something in his calling her that disarmed her.

It also seemed to puzzle her all over again.

Staring into his face, her eyes grew briefly worried.

“Laz, seriously. What is it? What’s wrong? Something happened, didn’t it? I’m not kidding. You’ve been acting really strange since you woke up… and you’re not even acknowledging how frickin’ strange you’re being. Maybe we should get Rach to do another round of tests on you or something––”

“No.” He said it a little sharper that time. Sharper than he intended. “No,” he said, calmer. “I’m fine. Really, Nat. I’m fine.”

“Like that.” She pointed at his face. “Younevercall me Nat. Never. Everyone else calls me Nat. Everyone except you. With you it’s always Natalie, or Natalia, or Stormy. Or you call me ‘Bones,’ like some kind of weirdo. But never,ever,do you call me Nat.”

Staring at his eyes, she bit her lip, the worry leaking into her voice.

“You don’t even call me ‘wife’ all that often outside of bed… not that I’m complaining. But it’s super weird, Laz.”

He brushed away her concerns again.

He tried, at least.

He did his best to smile at her.

“I am sorry. Truly. I was only making fun. It was a bad joke. I apologize.”

“Making fun?” Her puzzlement deepened. “A joke? What the fuck, Ghost?”

“I know the rules,” he assured her. “It was just a passing thought.”

“Was it a passing thought?” she asked, sharper. “Or a joke?”

There was another silence.

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