"Your professional opinion. Is that it? That you have no charge?"

"Yup." Another toilet flushed. Awesome. I almost wanted to cheer for that person. I mean if you can't cheer for someone having a successful bowel movement, really, what can you cheer for?

"Great." He grabbed my arms, pulling me into his embrace. Toilets continued to flush, but I focused my attention on his lips as they moved. "Now, here's mine."

His kiss was tender, elusive. I leaned into him, and I was rewarded for my efforts as his hot mouth pushed harder against mine. Without warning, he pulled back.

"Beth," his hoarse voice washed over my body, giving me chills, "you're looking at it wrong. The problem isn't your damn charge. It's that you don't even realize you had it in the first place. If you don't know what you have, how can you use it? So you want to form an ionic bond? I call bullshit. Why would you want to bond with another person's energy when you have your own? Why bond when you're a continuous spectrum?"

"You used big science words." Right, that's all I had after his speech.

Jace's eyes flashed with amusement. "Sometimes. It happens. I did go to school, you know."

"It was like dirty talk, only hotter." I leaned in closer as his smile grew.

He leaned forward, touching his forehead to mine. "There's more where that came from."

"You called me a continuous spectrum." I grinned, feeling all warm and fuzzy all the way down to my toes.

"It was a compliment."

His lips were so close I could almost taste his peppermint gum.

"I know."

"Beth," he gently pushed me away, "stop worrying about attracting things you don't want to attract." He cleared his throat and ran his hand through his overly long blond hair. Was he referring to himself? Was I attracting him? "Trust me, the right guy will come along, and when he does, it will be amazing. Until then, just keep shining. You're beautiful, you're smart, and you have a lot going for you. Don't let yourself become your worst enemy."

Stunned, I could only stare at him and wish… that's what I was doing. I was willing or wishing him to say screw it and kiss me again. I wanted him to want me, and I hated that I was so weak that I felt like I needed a person of the opposite sex to affirm that I was attractive.

"Well!" Grandma strolled out of the bathroom and swore. "Some people just can't handle dairy products, and that's that!" Her eyes narrowed. "What's going on here?"

"Science lesson." Jace put his arm around me. "A little ionic-bond lesson."

"Damn bonds." Grandma hauled her giant leopard purse over her shoulder and winced. "I'll tell you about bonds. The government makes you buy them, and then you wait years — years, I tell you!"

"And an economics lesson," I added. "What a day."

"I'm a starved lion. And I about croaked in that god-forsaken hellhole they call a bathroom. Let's go." Grandma pointed to the doors and scurried away.

Jace chuckled and followed after her, leaving me trailing behind the two of them. Why did he keep kissing me if he wanted to keep me away? And why did I care? Thor was kissing me. This was cause for celebration not contemplation. But, of course, in true spinster fashion, all I could do was focus on the fact that he'd told me I was a spectrum, and sadly that was one of the nicest thing any man had ever said to me.

"Ma'am, what does Justin Timberlake have to do with anything?"

"Justin Timberlake is the answer to everything," Grandma said solemnly.

"How do you figure?"

After a long pause she answered, "Because he brought sexy back."

"I'm sorry I didn't take a sick day today."

Jace

So I'd kissed her twice. Big deal. I licked my lips for probably the twentieth time, hoping, no praying, that I'd still be able to taste her on the tip of my tongue. Damn, she tasted good. I couldn't get her smell or her taste out of my consciousness, and I really needed to be focusing on important things like trying to get my career on track, rather than flushing it down a shit hole.

With a haggard groan, I licked my lips. One last time. Just to remember.

How many times had I kissed a woman and experienced nothing?

Shameful, to admit when a man is so ridiculously turned off by the female species that he stops responding all together. That's what Kerry had done to me. She'd broken me. And I hated feeling like a broken misused toy that no longer functioned properly. It pissed me off and made me feel like less of a man.

But Beth? She made me feel alive. Too bad the things that make you feel alive eventually kill you. Drugs, alcohol, bungee jumping. Okay, fine. I was being dramatic, but still. Women were predators. They couldn't help but want to trap men and eventually destroy the relationship in the process. Maybe it was fear, but I imagined it was so much deeper than that.

Arranged marriage. That was my future. At least in an arranged marriage I could pull the strings, I could use it for my benefit. I'd have the perfect little senator-wife and I'd have my dream.

The only problem? The longer I spent with Beth and that damn grandmother, the more reality was pushed away from the forefront of my mind. I needed to get back to the mainland, and I needed to call Rick. Beth made me lose focus.

I never imagined myself a romantic. That dream had been killed over ten years ago. I was so young and stupid, naïve to think that Beth would remember the magic of our kiss. The magic of the moment we'd shared. I'd fallen head-over–heels. In exactly three minutes, I'd had our wedding planned, while she hadn't been able to wait to get away.

When I'd told Grandma Nadine I'd help get Jake and Char together, never in my wildest dreams had I thought that I'd get pulled into the Titus-family drama. And not once, had I thought I'd end up in bed with Char's sister. Especially after all those years wishing for that very thing.

I stole a glance at her.

She was beautiful. But I was surrounded by beautiful women, and none of them, not a single one, made me want to fight.

She did.

And it made me pissed as hell that I had somehow given her that type of emotional power over me. I'd done it once with Kerry, let my guard down and found her in bed with my best friend. But even with Kerry, I hadn't felt the sizzle I'd felt with Beth.

Which was terrifying. Because if it was this easy for me to want to be with her, then that meant she had that much more power to destroy me, and the sad part was, I'd probably let her, because even though I wanted to be that guy that was tough as shit and didn't give a damn.

I'd always known that once I fell for someone — once I fell in love, it would destroy me from the inside out. My mom had always joked that I wore my heart on my sleeve. In my profession it helped. People genuinely trusted me. They liked me. And in return, I tried to do my best for them.

Them. I needed to keep remembering what I'd been born to do. Lead others and sacrifice. At least, at the end of the day, I'd still have my job. Logistics, voting, politics, they were topics that, given the chance, would take over a person's life, leaving no space for anything else. I needed my life to be that way in order to be able to control things.

Groaning, I decided to put my mind to rest.

For tonight.

I was going to focus on getting through dinner. It would be hard enough fielding Grandma's ministrations. I'd need all my energy for that woman. I swear, God had done a number when He'd made her.