"The biggest guru-mantra is: never share your secrets with anybody. It will destroy you."

- Chanakya

Danny Dare

I took his jacket to the dry cleaners the next morning on the way to work. Since I was going out of the way, I opted for taking my car instead of walking. All day long at work I kept glancing hopefully at the store front, and jumping nervously every time the door opened.

I hoped foolishly that he might come by the store again, but was in the end disappointed. After work I climbed into my little red Pontiac Grand Prix and decided to go for a drive to clear my head. It had occurred to me that I was obsessing way to much over this guy - and there was no way it could be healthy.

I rolled down the windows and turned the radio up as I drove lazily down the highway that ran parallel to the beach. The air was warm and humid today, just like it should be in Florida in April. A few families were out playing in the water and sunning themselves, but there were no crowds - there never were here. The farther I drove, the more trees that started to appear on either side of the road, and after a few miles I was in the woods, the ocean barely visible through the foliage to my right. I kept driving until I reached the bridge that spanned the canal. The bridge was massive - going up way higher than I cared to think about - and was tall enough for all the large ships to go under coming and going from port. To my right, the sparkling gulf stretch as far as the eye could see. To my left was the marina on one side of the canal and the old paper mill on the other. As soon as I was off the bridge, I crossed into Port Saint Joe.

Once I was in town I turned right and drove down to the boat loading dock. I parked the car in the the gravel parking lot and just sat there for a moment, staring out at the water. After about five minutes, I got out and started walking down the dock. Once at the end, I leaned on the rail and turned my face into the sea breeze, closing my eyes to let my other senses experience it all. The gulf wind carried on it the smell of everything I loved about the ocean. It smelled of warmth and coolness at the same time. It smelled of sun, and salt, and fish, and comfort, and safety. The sun shone hot on my face, but it felt good and relaxed me. The cries of the gulls were quite loud over head, but the roar of the ocean and the crash of the waves were louder still. I could hear a couple fishermen on the dock marveling over a catch, and a child laughing as something caught his interest.

I was so open to the world around me at that moment, experiencing everything so sharply, that I nearly fell over the rail when an unexpected, and all too familiar voice right next to me said, "The water is quite beautiful, isn't it?" I gasped and opened my eyes. I held my hand over my face to shield me from the sun and looked up into the dark eyes of Slen.

Where the hell did he just come from? And how had he snuck up on me like that? I was baffled.

Slen took a slight step back. "My apologies, I didn't mean to startle you," he said, taking in my expression.

"Oh! No, you're fine," I gasped. "You just caught me by surprise," I said while trying to stop my eyes from wandering over him. He was wearing another suit today - still midnight black, but this one was pinstriped. His hair was windswept from the breeze and it fell artfully across his forehead.

He looked down at me, seemingly taking in my appearance as well. "Just came from work?" he asked, gesturing to the uniform t-shirt.

"Oh, yeah," I mumbled. I'd forgotten what I was wearing. Why couldn't I ever be wearing anything more flattering than jeans and a t-shirt when I saw him? I gestured back at his suit. "You?"

His eyebrows knitted together for a second, like he was confused, then his features cleared. "Um, yes," he said hesitantly. The way he said it was unconvincing, like a lie. But why would he lie to me about being at work? It's not like I cared if he was playing hooky or something.

"May I ask what you do for a living?" I wondered aloud to him.

He hesitated. "I own a private investigation company," he said, smirking slightly.

That perked my interest. "Oh wow, really? I bet that's a fun job."

He nodded. "Indeed. It does get a little tiresome sometimes however." I raised an eyebrow in question and he shrugged.

"After so long, all the cases start to look the same. Once you've seen it all, it ceases to hold as much interest for you..." he explained, an odd look crossing his face at the end of his sentence, and I got the impression he was wondering why he had just told me that.

"Oh, I guess that makes sense," I said. "So are you here investigating a case then?" I asked curiously.

He grinned, but something about it seemed off - almost wolfish. "Yes."

An involuntary shiver ran down my spine, and I tried to shake off the strange feeling. "Is this one holding your interest any better than the others?" I asked.

He nodded, still grinning a little eerily. "This may be the most interesting case I've worked in a while." Then his face seemed to darken and he looked away, starting out to sea. "Though I can't seem to figure out why it interests me..." he murmured, almost to himself.

I fidgeted as an awkward pause stretched between us. Desperate for something to break the silence, I blurted, "Would you like to go get something to eat?"

He looked back at me and cocked his head to the side. "Where would you like to go?"

"Um, there's this little Mexican restaurant called Peppers just down the street from here that's pretty good," I suggested.

He shrugged. "Alright then," he said, but he didn't look too enthusiastic.

"If you'd rather go somewhere else..." I trailed off giving him the opportunity to suggest some place of his own.

He shook his head. "The Mexican restaurant is fine," he assured me. "Would you rather drive, or walk?" he asked.

"Walking never hurt anyone," I said with a smile. After all, I loved walking.

And so we started walking back up the dock together, and then down the side of the street, making small talk all the while. 'This is easy,' I thought to myself. I found that today I was a little calmer around him. Maybe the drive really had helped, despite the fact that he was waiting for me at the end of it. Maybe it was just because I was starting to get to know him a little bit. Whatever the reason, I was glad for it.

The restaurant wasn't very busy when we got there - we'd just missed lunch rush and it was a still a little early for the dinner crowd - so we were seated immediately. I already knew what I wanted due to the many times that I'd been here previously. Slen on the other hand skimmed over the menu for a while. Finally he looked up and asked, "What's good? I'm not... terribly familiar with Mexican cuisine," he admitted a little sheepishly.

I blinked. "Really?" I exclaimed. "How could you have never had Mexican before?"

He was glaring at me. "It doesn't matter," he snapped.

"Well, Slen," I said with a smirk, "I think it's time I educated you."

He narrowed his eyes. "Are you... smirking at me?"

I giggled. "What if I am?" was my playful response. I even batted my eyelashes at him.

He blinked. "Um..." He seemed to be lost for a moment as he looked me straight in the eye.

Wow. That was an unexpected, yet greatly appreciated response to my poor attempt at flirting. Quickly though, he suddenly jerked back, his eyes darkening.

The waiter chose that moment to come and take our orders. Hoping to maybe impress Slen, I ordered in Spanish, "Me pido el Mocambo y él pida el Burrito de Carne Asada por favor." I hadn't used it much since high school, and the words came out a little more haltingly than I would have liked but I thought I'd ordered correctly.

"Gracias señorita," the waiter thanked me as he wrote down the order and then took our menus. I looked across the table at Slen. He was peering at me curiously.

"What?" I asked.

He just shook his head, "You're full of surprises, aren't you Danny?" I blushed, but had no reply.

After a moment of silence, I said, "I'm sorry I forgot to give your jacket back yesterday. I guess I was just in a hurry to get out of the rain," I apologized.

He shrugged. "Don't worry about it," he said. Then he seemed to remember something and he looked down at his lap... in embarrassment? Huh.

"What?" I asked, wondering at his reaction.

He looked back up. "What?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"I asked you first."

He rolled his eyes to the ceiling, but made no reply. I sighed and grabbed a chip from the basket in the middle of the table. What was with this guy and his extremely annoying habit of not answering questions?

'Some people like to keep to themselves Danny,' I told myself. 'You should know.' Inwardly I sighed. Yes, I should know. I was one of those people myself. Usually.

An awkward silence had descended upon us, and I fidgeted slightly in my seat. "So you never told me were you're from. Are you just staying here until you've finished your investigation?" I asked.

He grimaced slightly. "I'm originally from Germany," he said, "but I move around a lot - for my job, you know? And yes, I'm only here until my investigation is closed."

I tried to keep the disappointment from showing on my face. "Oh. How long do you think it'll take to close it?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Who knows? It all depends on the subject of my inquiries."

"Oh. So I'm guessing you can't really tell me about your case. Confidentiality legalities and all that stuff, right?" I asked.

He smirked slightly. "You'd be correct," he said. "But I doubt you'd want to hear about it anyway."

I leaned forward on the table, interested. "Why do you think that?"

He leaned forward too, and said in a soft voice, "Because it might scare you."

Scare me? Ha. "I'm a tough girl. I'm sure I could handle it," I said, frowning.

There was a wicked gleam in his eyes. "Do you now?"

"You have no idea the things I've learned to deal with," I said darkly.

The corner of his mouth turned up in a crooked smile that nearly took my breath away. "Like?"

I bit my lip. Great going Danny. This was so not something I wanted to talk about.

I tilted my head to the side and smiled sweetly. "Don't worry about it."

He scowled slightly. "You can't hint at something and then not tell me," he said disapprovingly.

"You mean like you keep doing?"

Slen pressed his lips together in a tight line, but made no reply. He knew I was right. "That's different," he finally said.

I opened my mouth to reply, but the waiter came back at that moment with our food, cutting me off. We both leaned back from the table, and I realized that we had unconsciously been leaning closer and closer to each other throughout the conversation as we both became more engrossed in what the other was saying. Before the waiter came, I was shocked to realize that our faces had literally only been a few inches apart. I blushed, embarrassed about how I had lost myself so easily and also wondering if Slen had realized the same thing I had. I glanced up through my lashed as the waiter set our food before us, but the perfect man's face was unreadable.

When the waiter left, I tentatively stabbed a shrimp with my fork and popped it in my mouth. "So," I said after swallowing, "how is it different, might I ask?"

Slen hadn't touched his food yet. "Because," he said. I raised my eyebrow, waiting for him to continue and he sighed. "Because some information is dangerous."

I grinned. "I like danger. Life's no fun without a little risk."

He tilted his head to the side, seeming to examine my expression in grim amusement. "It's more dangerous for me than for you, although knowing would, in the long run, mostly likely have some adverse effects on you too," he said.

"Like what?" I asked, popping another shrimp in my mouth.

He smirked. "Nope. Not telling."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine," I groaned. "Be that way." That got a chuckle out of him. "How's your Carne Asada?" I asked, gesturing towards his still untouched plate.

He looked down and hesitantly cut off a bite of the burrito and ate it slowly. He nodded. "It's good," he said, and I couldn't tell if he was lying or not.

We moved on to lighter, easier subjects as we ate. Tourism, the weather, local industry - all safe topics where neither one of us felt the need to hide some scrap of personal information from the other. It was mere chit-chat.

When we finished the meal and the waiter brought the check, I went to reach for my wallet. Slen looked at me, almost seeming offended.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Um, paying?"

"I've got it," he said, scowling, and he reached for the tab.

I grabbed it out from under his hand, just before he could touch it. "Hey, I can pay for myself," I said.

He was glaring daggers at me. "Give it here Danny," he said slowly, as if he was talking to a child.

"No."

His nostrils flared. "I'm trying to be nice, which is not something I do very often. Now, give me the bill," he said. When I just continued to stare at him he sighed angrily and ran his hand through his hair. "Don't make me take it from you," he threatened.

I smirked at him. "I don't think you could. I've got pretty killer reflexes -" I stopped, blinking in surprise. The bill wasn't in my hand anymore. Across the table Slen was sticking some cash under the tab. How the hell did he do that?!

He grinned at me. "You're not the only one with 'killer reflexes,'" he said, then smiled even wider as if there was some hidden joke there.

We rose and went up to the counter to pay and then left, walking silently back to the parking lot where my car was parked. As we approached it, I noticed the shiny Corvette glinting in the sun next to it.

We stopped in between the two cars and faced each other. "Um, thanks for dinner," I said awkwardly, still a little stung that he wouldn't let me pay for myself. I was an independent woman after all.

"Thank you for the interesting conversation," he said lightly.

"When would you like me to give your jacket back?" I asked, the real inquiry underneath my words though was, 'When will I see you again?' I hoped he didn't hear my unspoken question.

"Are you working tomorrow?" he asked.

I shook my head."Nope, I'm off weekends."

"How would you like to go for a drive with me? You can give it to me then."

A bomb went off in my head and jumbled all coherent thought. This beautiful man wanted to go for a drive with me? He wanted to spend more time with me? I couldn't believe it. Things like this didn't happen to girls like me. There was no way I could be that lucky.

Stunned, I nodded my head. "Uh, sure. Sounds great," I said.

"Great, I'll pick you up at noon." He smiled that crooked smile from earlier and opened my car door for me and I climbed in with a mumbled thanks. Just before he shut the door he leaned down so that his face was on the same level as mine. His expression was dead serious now. "You know Danny, you really should stay away from me. I'm no good for you," he said grimly. He shut the door and walked around and climbed into his own car before I could even come up with a response. In a matter of seconds he was gone - just a black dot growing increasingly smaller in my rear view mirror.

Shaking my head, I started the engine and started to back out. What the hell was that about?

A/N:

Hey guys, I know I kinda poofed for a while, and I apologize for that. Spare time has been alluding me recently :P anyway, things should start slowing down for me soon: school's only got a couple months left, and I got accepted into my top college with a pretty good scholarship so that takes a lot more stress of my shoulders. Hopefully this will give me more time to write. Anyway, I hope you all are enjoy the story so far, things are going to start picking up soon I promise. Thanks again to all of you for reading, following, favoriting, and reviewing. It means a lot :)

Love you guys!

- Erin