Lexie didn't kiss like Audrey. She knew what she was doing, why she was doing it and she had no qualms or mixed feelings. But damn, she was still the best kisser ever.

Duke kissed her back immediately, like his body understood everything that his brain hadn't wrapped around.

After what felt like hours, Lexie pulled back, breathing hard. This... Lexie had seen a lot of bizarre shit in her life, but this was a whole new level. Not kissing a stranger- she'd done that before- but this guy.

He was gorgeous, and not in a 'pretty boy, boy band' way. His face was unique, he had a kind of bad-boy appeal and she didn't doubt he could be dangerous if he needed to, but his eyes... his eyes looked young and ancient at the same time, too gentle to be dangerous to her. She felt like she knew those eyes, and he looked at her like he knew her, too. Something was scratching at the back of her mind.

"Another life, huh?" Lexie breathed as the guy -Duke, she reminded herself- ran his nose from her collar bone up to her ear, his hands still on her waist.

"Something like that." Duke murmured, kissing her pulse.

Lexie focused again, looking away from him for a moment.

What the hell? Where was everyone? She knew there were 3 guys in here, she'd just served them- a gin and tonic, bourbon neat and tequila sunrise. They couldn't have reached the door without passing her. Their table was empty, bussed; even the glasses gone.

Distracted, Lexie pressed her hand against Duke's chest, holding up the index finger of her other hand.

"Shh for a sec. I need to check something. Don't... don't go anywhere."

Lexie had a bad feeling; something was very wrong. She had the most bizarre worry that if she left Duke alone, he'd disappear too. The feeling was foreign to her. She wasn't a worrier by nature. She wasn't necessarily a skeptic- she'd seen a UFO in Winslow, Arizona once- but weird things didn't come to her, she stumbled onto them.

Thinking it through quickly, she grabbed Duke's hand and pulled him with her. She peered into the back room. "Rhonda? Where are you? Anyone?" Her right hand went back to her belt, feeling for... What was she feeling for? A bar towel? She patted her hip, trying to think of what she'd been reaching for.

Duke was suddenly whispering, mouth tight against Lexie's ear. "You're worried. What's up?"

"There were three guys drinking over there, and my co-worker Rhonda isn't here, though she should be. They were here, and now they're gone."

Duke took a deep breath, pulling his secondary sidearm out. He offered it to Lexie wordlessly. She looked from the gun to his eyes and back. "I don't really know much about guns."

Duke smiled slightly, amused. "It's a revolver. A 6 shot .357, there's no safety. You see a bad guy, you point and squeeze, got it? Don't point it at anything you don't intend to put holes in, and keep your finger off the trigger unless you're prepared to shoot, okay?"

Lexie repeated the instructions in her head, nodding. "What about you?"

Duke reached into his waistband, pulling out another gun. Lexie raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not even asking, but only because you gave me one first."

Duke laughed. "You're safe with me. Let's check the place out, and stay with me, okay?"

Lexie shrugged and nodded. There were worse things to do that ogle a mysterious hottie.

They checked the whole place. There was nobody around.

Duke tucked his pistol into his waist band, but told Lexie to keep the backup. "Are you sure? These are expensive. People don't just give guns to strangers."

"I told you, you're not a stranger. Trust me Lexie, okay?"

She tilted her head as she stared up at him, eyes hyper-focused, obviously deep in thought.

"They say the eyes are the window to the soul. Do you believe that?"

Duke was quiet for a moment, surprised by the change in topic. "Yeah, I do. I really do."

"I remember your eyes, and I don't know why."

He gazed at her for a few seconds, finally asking, "What else do you remember?"

Lexie made the squinty face Audrey always had when she was thinking. "You... have a tattoo on your arm. On the inside, not a macho, show-off kind. Something you keep in your heart." Lexie shook her head. "I've lost my damn mind. No tat, is there?"

Duke unbuttoned his shirt and threw it over a chair, showing her the tattoo. She traced the words with soft fingers, studying them. "What about the one on your ass?"

Duke was confused. "I don't have one on my ass."

"Damn, I was hoping for a free show."

He laughed, voice rich and warm. "For that, all you had to do was ask."

Lexie smiled. "What else can I have if I just ask?"

Duke left the button-up over a chair, warm enough in his undershirt and grabbed the bottle of scotch.

"Let's play for it. You tell me something and you're right, you get a freebie or I drink. You're wrong, you drink."

"What about you? You going to reveal deep personal insights about me?"

"Sure. Why not? You'll never believe me anyway."

They settled at a table with the bottle. "Okay, barkeep. What do you remember?"

Lexie looked like she was half sure this was a joke or dream, but she never shied from a challenge, so she narrowed her eyes and stared at him intensely. "You've been a bartender."

Duke drank, then asked "How did you know?"

Her answering grin was breathtaking. "I saw you when you grabbed the bottle. Customers always have to look, and they make a mess pouring."

"That's cheating."

Lexie smiled and shrugged. "No, just creative problem solving. Fine then. You have a boat."

Duke drank again, his eyebrow raised in a silent question.

"I don't know how I know, don't bother asking. Your turn."

"You feel like you've lived a hundred lives, yet they all feel similar." Duke said quietly.

Lexie drank, but her grin had been replaced by a furrow of her brow. She thought for a long moment.

"Today isn't the first time I've kissed you." She spoke just as quietly.

Looking her straight in the eye, he drank.

Duke looked down. "You've never been to Maine." Lexie started to drink when he added, " A town called 'Haven'."

The tumbler halted before it touched her lips. She was thinking hard, and that scratching in the back of her brain was back.

She'd never been to Maine, but she knew Haven. She had dreams about it sometimes, she'd written some in her journal. But those were dreams. Weren't they?

She eyed the man across from her. He should be freaking her out. Or, with an empty bar and his looks, she should be jumping him. But she was sitting and drinking, with this stranger-who-wasn't-a-stranger while he told her shit he shouldn't know. Shit she didn't even know.

"I've dreamed about a place called Haven, but I've never set foot in Maine. I must have read about it somewhere."

Duke put his glass down with a pointed look.

"No. Don't give me that look, Duke. I would remember."

He pushed his glass farther from him.

"I've been to Maine?" Lexie asked, incredulous.

Duke picked the glass up and drank again.

He was serious. What the hell was going on? Her gut said he wasn't lying or playing her. But how could she know these things, have done things, and not remember?

She downed the rest of her drink and gestured for him to pour again, standing to lock the place up. Everyone had disappeared, that made her the boss.

Sitting again, she said, "If you're going to screw with my head, you're doing it shirtless. Next thing I get right, lose the shirt."

"Whatever you say, Lexie. You're the boss."

"Great, now you read minds, too?"

She sat back, crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. If he wasn't lying, she had to remember. She tried to empty her mind. An old psychic had told her once that clear messages came to clear minds.

She closed her eyes and said the first thing that popped up.

"Cape Rouge."

When she opened her eyes, Duke was pulling off his shirt.

Oh shit. Clear messages, clear minds. How could she clear her mind looking at that?

"Your turn." Lexie muttered.

Duke grinned at her, looking lean and predatory. "I don't get to ask you to take your clothes off?"

Ah, back in safe territory. She smirked. "You can. But I'm not embarrassed to be naked, so make sure you're not asking just to unnerve me."

Duke smiled, sure she was bluffing. "Next one I get right, lose the shirt. I don't want to get you too drunk."

"Oh please," she scoffed. "I could drink you under the table."

"Maybe, but if anything happens under the table I'd rather you be topless and sober."

Damn it! She was blushing, she could feel it. She never blushed, ever. "Well, unless you say something, I'm not getting drunk or topless. I'm not getting any younger, either."

"I promise you you're not getting any older, either. Okay, okay. You have a birthmark shaped like a little hand on the side of your right hip."

Duke felt a little guilty about that one- he hadn't meant to really look, but when he'd undressed her after dragging her out of the ocean, he'd seen it. Ever since, he'd wanted to see it up close. To touch it.

Lexie narrowed her eyes, shrugged and pulled her shirt off. Nothing but a tiny, see-thru lace bra.

And thus was Duke Crocker rendered speechless.

She calmly watched his eyes go wide and his cheeks turn red. "I don't bluff, Duke."

She raised her glass to him and drank.