Page 38 of Sweetwater and the Witch

“In my family we’re cold-blooded about business, but we do high drama when it comes to love.”

She stared at him for a beat, aghast. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

He said it as if it were merely a fact, like saying a talent for amber engineering ran in the family.

She collected herself. “As it turns out, there was no love involved in my relationship with Dawson. On my side the romance was a fantasy. On his side it was just another business deal he was trying to put together.”

Ethan nodded, satisfied. “I’ll bet you weren’t exactly forthcoming on the questionnaire you filled out for the Banks agency.”

She wrinkled her nose. “No. Sybil knows the truth, of course, but she was afraid putting it on the questionnaire would discourage too many potential matches.”

“You need to take a different perspective,” Ethan said. “It’s not thetalent that defines the monsters. It’s what they do with it. Bad guys are bad guys, regardless of where they show up on the spectrum.”

“I know, but—”

“Your talent isn’t all dark or all light, and it’s definitely not useless.”

She drummed her fingers on the white tablecloth. “Maybe I should go into the popcorn business.”

He reached across the table and put one warm, powerful hand on top of hers, stilling her fingers. “Pay attention, Ravenna. Your fire talent is a form of self-defense, like my fast reflexes and good eyesight.”

“You’ve got good eyes? Why the glasses?”

“Guess.”

She suddenly understood. “When people see the glasses they are more inclined to view you the way you want to be seen, as an engineer, not a potentially dangerous individual.”

“That’s the idea. My point is that, evolutionarily speaking, your psychic ability probably developed as protection against certain kinds of other dangerous talents. Nature is always engaged in an arms race. It makes sense that when lethal psychic abilities develop in a population, defenses against those talents will also appear.”

She sat very still for a moment, aware of the heat and power in his hand. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. Still, it doesn’t change my fundamental problem. I’m very tough to match.”

He took his hand off hers and sat back. “Like me.”

“I suppose so. I’ll mention your insight to Sybil Banks. Maybe that will help her reassess potential matches for me.”

Irritation flashed briefly in his eyes. “What about me? Think you’ll be able to do a better job of matching me now that you know the family secret?”

“No. Unfortunately that just makes it a gazillion times harder. Talk about trying to find a niche market.” A thought struck her. “By any chancedid you mention your old family business to any of those nine dates I arranged for you?’

“Of course not. I may have poor dating skills, but I’m not stupid.”

“Why tell me?”

Ethan’s smile was slow, sexy, and satisfied. “Because you’ve got your own big secret. Figured you’d understand.”

Chapter Eighteen

They lingered over coffee and liqueurs and a small tray of exotic cheeses. At the end of the meal they walked out into the luminous night and started to make their way back toward Midnight Court.

A wistful sensation settled on Ravenna. She was reluctant to see the evening end. In spite of the weird manner in which the relationship with Ethan had begun, and the fact that she had spent hours wondering if she would be arrested at work, and regardless of the Sweetwater family’s unusual history, she wished the date were real. She remembered the after-action reports from the nine agency dates she had arranged for Ethan.

“Is this when you tell me you have to rush back to your lab to check on the analysis of some rare and exotic amber?” she asked.

“Can I assume that was one of complaints lodged against me by some of the dates you fixed me up with?”

“All nine told me that’s how you ended the evening.”

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