"I don't care about breath mints." John said, stepping closer to her.

"But I do."

"Be right back. Don't move."

He sprinted to the snack shop, bought peppermint gum, then ran back to Aubrie. He hadn't figured that leaving her alone for a few minutes would be a problem. He'd been wrong. His heart dropped straight to his stomach at the sight of three men forming a triangle around a clearly frightened Aubrie. He approached slowly, assessing the situation.

"Come on, baby, let's have some sugar." Said the man whose back was directly in front of him.

John's blood began pumping overtime. All of the old instincts kicked in, and he actually reached for the gun that had hugged his ribs for years. Of course, it wasn't there. He stopped about five yards away and said, "Security. Anything wrong here?"

Aubrie held up her hand as if she were answering an algebra question in class. The three thugs turned to him, and he was happy to see they weren't armed with anything but stupidity.

John pointed at her. "Yes, ma'am?"

She actually smiled. "I think these boys need to go out to recess, sir."

He glared at each man in turn. "You heard the lady. Time to take a break, boys."

The young thugs looked at each other, probably assessing their ability to go three on one. John brought his watch to his mouth. "I've got a three-one-nine on the west end. Bring in the backup."

The boys scattered like roaches when the lights came on. Once they were gone, John took a huge, gulping breath. He'd just left a defenseless woman alone in a badly lit parking lot. All for the sake of a kiss. He was an idiot.

He moved to her. "You okay?"

Her laughter shook a little. "I'm okay."

"They didn't hurt you?"

"No." She glanced down at his wrist. "That's some walkie-talkie you have there." She raised her head. "Does it do anything?"

"Tells time."

Aubrie bent over, laughing. "I thought so. Oh, you're such a weasel."

He pulled her up, ignoring the weasel comment. "Seriously, are you okay?"

"I'm fine now. Thank you."

"But they scared you."

She straightened and opened her mouth, her demeanor full of feisty valor. But then she surprised him by throwing herself at him. "Yes I was scared."

John felt a weird twitching sensation in his stomach, part residual fear, part relief. In his years with the FBI he'd encountered many hairy situations. And he'd been scared. Anyone who professed not to be scared was a liar or a fool. But this wasn't exactly the same.

And having Aubrie leaning against him, holding him as if he were her savior, felt so right. Even if he'd done little more than scare away three cowards. He didn't have the willpower to push her away.

Her body, pressed into his, hit him in all the right places. Her arms wrapped around him and her hands pressed into his back. She didn't say anything, but her body said it all: She'd been more frightened than she cared to admit.

He tried to fight the fury, but he'd witnessed good people hurt too many times. How could humans do that to one another?

"John?" She mumbled against his chest.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"You said that already. And you should be cursing me. I was the one stupid enough to leave you alone, all for the sake of getting to kiss you."

She nuzzled his chest before lifting her face to his. "But I don't have any breath mints."

He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out the pack of gum. Unwrapping a piece, he said. "Chew fast." Then he stuck it in her mouth. She chomped like a chipmunk, actually groaning with pleasure.

"Spit it out." He commanded. She obliged.

He spit out the piece he'd stuck in his mouth at the snack bar, then looked at her. "Now, I'm kissing you."

"Okay."

"Okay? Really?"

"Would you like an engraved invitation?"

He smiled. "Okay, works for me." He gazed at her for one moment longer, than slowly lowered his lips to hers. Her response astonished him. She wrapped her hands around his neck and pressed her mouth into hers. But he pulled back and just stared at her for a heartbeat, then laid his lips over hers again, this time coaxing hers open so his tongue could invade her mouth.

She jerked back a little, which really made him stop short. He stepped away for a second, but didn't let go of her. "I'm sorry." He said, but wasn't certain what he was apologizing for.

"No, it's okay. I…just am out of practice."

"Let's go back to the car."

"Are we going to kiss more there?"

For the first time since high school he wanted to do a lot more than kiss in a car. But it was obvious she wasn't that schooled in car sex. In fact, it was obvious she wasn't schooled in much sex at all.

"Aubrie?"

"Yes?" She said, looking a little dazed and frazzled.

"Don't take offense at this."

"Okay."

"Are you….a virgin?"

She stared at him as if he were an alien. "A virgin? Am I that bad a kisser?"

"No! Not at all. You just seem…tentative."

"Well, I'm not. I went to college, you know."

What that had to do with the current discussion, he wasn't sure. But he nodded his head like he understood, because she seemed to think that explained everything. "I was just wondering."

"Well, I'm not." She looked at him. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

He didn't know. If she wasn't a virgin, she was pretty damn close. He sighed. "Let's go."

"I disappointed you, didn't I?"

"No, Aubrie. I just don't have a clue what to do with you."

"Why?"

"Because you're beautiful and sweet and a liar."

The date had gone downhill from there. Aubrie had stomped back to the car and refused to speak to him on the ride home. She dropped him off with a terse. "Out." John hadn't meant to hurt her or accuse her of being a liar. He was just so confused.

Worse, when he talked to Jamie about it, she walked out on him. So he sat in the living room, nursing a beer and wondering why he was even on this planet.

Life in the FBI had given him a mission. It wasn't that he didn't feel he was doing good now. It was more that he didn't know what good he was doing. And that was the conundrum. He wanted to make a difference. He'd always wanted to make a difference. But it felt like every time he tried, he screwed up.

Take Aubrie, for instance. He'd been hoping to dig into her secrets. Instead he'd been so focused on her lips that he'd completely forgotten the original plan. IT was a good thing he'd left the FBI. He might have been an average agent, but had he made a difference? Other than putting some thugs behind bars, what contribution had he really made to society?

And was he making a difference now? He helped people keep criminals away, but that just sent them elsewhere. And if Aubrie was a criminal—a bad one at that—how much good would it do to put her behind bars? In the big picture it seemed like a small matter indeed. Not that he was proving to be very adept at figuring out her secrets anyway. He almost didn't want to know if she was involved in something underhanded. He liked her too much, was too attracted to her.

He was so confused. And frustrated. And neither Aubrie nor Jamie was speaking to him. He was heading for bed when the phone rang. His instincts kicked in. At this time of night, it was an emergency.

"Yeah?"

"John?"

Aubrie. His heart almost stopped. "Yes?"

"I forgive you."

"What?"

"Just listen. Okay, so I'm not all that experienced. I'm sorry for being so mad that you could tell."

She thought he'd called her a liar over her previous sex life. He could live with that.

"No need to be sorry. I shouldn't have said it."

"Forgive me for being mad?"

"Of course. I'd be mad, too."

"Here's the deal. I sort of was lying. But I want to fix it."

"Okay, how?"

"Want to have meaningless sex?"

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