Gift of Gold

to you?”
    “Are you always going to spring a surprise on me after we’ve gone to bed together?” she had countered aggressively. “Last time it was that earring in your pocket. This time you liven things up by admitting you’re only interested in me because you think I’m some kind of anchor for whatever it is that happens to you when you pick up old swords.”
    “Don’t put words in my mouth, Verity.” He reached for her, his hands closing around her shoulders. “I wanted you the first time I saw you standing in that cantina doorway. The light was in your hair and you had on one of those breezy little Mexican dresses and you looked sweet and sexy as hell. I followed you initially because I wondered what a fire-haired little gringa with jeweled eyes was doing going from cantina to cantina. I figured if you were just looking for some fun on the wild side of Mexico, you might as well have it with me. Considering what Pedro had in mind for you, you’re damn lucky I was attracted enough to follow you that night.”
    “Maybe any woman who attracts you physically can act as the key you say you need,” Verity said seriously. She wondered if he was telling the truth about his initial attraction. It wasn’t much consolation, but it was better than nothing, she supposed.
    He shook his head impatiently at her suggestion. “That’s not so. I just wish it were that easy. If it were true, I would have found out by now. Verity, listen to me. I know this has all come as a shock. We need to talk some more. I need to explain some things to you.”
    She softened then, touching his hard jaw with her fingertips. “Jonas,” she said earnestly, “I believe you when you say you’ve got a problem. I’m not sure I believe in your psychometric ability, but I know you believe it and I accept that. But for some reason you’ve fixated on me as a solution to your problem. I’m not sure what that means, but it might be dangerous for both of us. Perhaps you should seek professional help.”
    “Christ, don’t tell me to get counseling. I don’t need therapy! I gave that a whirl back at Vincent when I first began to think I might go crazy. It was useless. I’m not suffering from delusions or psychoses. I’m suffering from an excess of reality, past and present. You haven’t understood a word I’ve said tonight, have you?” He dropped his hands and gave her a small push back into her room. “Go ahead and go back to your lonely bed. I hope you enjoy your solitude. But I’m willing to bet it won’t be nearly as satisfying as the way I made you feel a while ago when you were shivering in my arms.”
    “Getting a little egotistical, aren’t we?”
    “You’ve had a taste of the real thing now, lady, and you’re going to want more. You are one hot little number. You’ve been locked away ice all these years but I’ve melted that ice. The next time you want to feel as good as you did when I was inside you, just remember I’m the man who can make it happen. You need me for that, if nothing else. Sweet dreams, your majesty.”
    He had turned and stalked off down the corridor, leaving Verity more confused and wary than she had ever been before in her life.
    No one really believed in psychometry.
    And no one except the most sheltered and naïve of innocents believed in finding true love with a man who was wrong for her on every count.
    On her way downstairs Verity reminded herself forcefully that she never had been sheltered, nor was she naïve. She had no excuses for the daydreams she hadn’t even begun to acknowledge until recently. Whatever she had with Jonas amounted to nothing more than an affair that probably wouldn’t last through the winter.
    The odds were that Jonas would grow restless and hit the road long before spring. Or she would lose her temper with him one time too many and wind up kicking him out for good. Either way, once he was gone she would never see him again.
    A sobering thought. The man might be difficult, crazy, and haunted by ghosts, but he was her first lover. It was depressing to think she had waited all these years for a wacko to sweep her off her feet and into bed. That probably said something about her own flawed judgment, Verity decided gloomily.
    At least now she knew the source of the ghosts in his eyes.
    As she entered the gray-on-gray dining room she found Caitlin waiting for her at the far end of the granite table. Verity decided she did not care for the table. With its unrelenting