Part 4

"Hey beautiful...." A bouquet of wildflowers suddenly appeared in front of
Skyler's face as she sat on a park bench reading.

"Holy..." Skyler quickly turned, hair swirling to see the amber eyes that
had haunted her dreams all night after leaving him, "Ransom."

"Non other, darlin'." He drawled leaning down to give her a quick kiss and
take a glance at what she had been reading before he had arrived. "Vanity
Fair, eh?"

"Have you read it?" She asked conversationally not really expecting an
answer, the kiss affecting her more than it should have.

"Yeah. Very amusing in a kind of satrical black humour sort of way." He sank
down beside her, trying to catch her eye, "Do you come here often to read?"

"No, I actually usually only read in my room." She answered. She felt a
slight spark of amusement at how stilted their conversation was as they both
tried to avoid discussing the night before. She knew her reason for doing
so, but was unsure of his motives.

Skyler raised hesitant bright green eyes to his, and found him waiting for
her. They stared at each other until Skyler looked away feeling him looking
into her soul with each passing moment.

Inside she stormed at herself. She had promised herself long ago that no
one, especially no Night World cronie would ever make her lose her
composure, her cool. And yet, this man could do so with a simple glance in
her direction.

Ransom felt the inane urge to grin at the indecision he had seen in her
eyes. Her hesitancy pleased him. So, she was shy. Her room, her apartment
hadn't lied about a woman who was becoming ever more intriguing to him.

He had never actually had a conversation with a woman for this long before,
let alone a witch. They usually just jumped into his bed. Been there, done
that, he thought with great amusement, keeping his face completely
emotionless as she gazed at her hands with great fascination.

"Where did you go last night?" He asked softly, no longer wishing to avoid
the subject.

"Oh, you didn't get my note?" She cringed as she listened to the slight
tremble in her voice and tried in vain to remember what excuse she had
written to him.

"I did." He leaned back, looking at her from beneath long dark lashes, "I
just didn't think that it was a very good reason."

"Oh." Skyler answered, suddenly breathless.

"What was the real reason you left?" He sat motionless, still staring at her
intently with those unusual, yet incredibly seductive eyes.

"I.... don't remember...." She whispered. Even to her own ears it sounded
idiotic, yet she couldn't seem to stop staring into the amber pools.

"Yes you do." He said back just as quietly, "Were you afraid?"

"Afraid of what?" She looked away finally, trying to sound flippant. A pale
hand reached out to gently cup her chin and turn her face back to his before
he replied, "Of this."

She stopped breathing as his mouth brushed against her own. He pulled away
far too quickly, and they simply stared at each other for a moment before
she leaned forward to unknowingly seal her fate by repeating the action.

*************************

"You have to take me off this mission!" Skyler burst into Thierry's office
later that day, breathless.

Thierry's eyebrows shot into his hairline at the unusual request from the
one spy he had who had never backed down from anything he had thrown her
way, "Why?"

"I just can't do it. He's too powerful, he'll kill me before I find
anything." She said in a rush, pacing around in front of his desk.

"I thought everything was going well. Ash said you went home with him last
night." Thierry was still astonished and perplexed in this sudden turn of
events.

"Ash was wrong, okay?" She glared over at him, hating his questions at that
moment, unable to deal with them.

"Okay." Thierry thought for a moment. Skyler was definitly holding something
back from him. He had never seen her in this much of a, well, frenzy. It was
not in her character to lose her head like this.

"Thank you." Skyler breathed gratefully as he thought, squelching the part
of her that was crying out at the thought of leaving Ransom to the others.
He could take care of himself, her rational mind shouted. But what about her
ability to take care of herself, another quieter part of her mind argued
softly. She ignored it.

"What are you not telling me, Skyler?" Thierry questioned, noting the relief
on her surprisingly expressive features, and yet he saw the immense
indecision there, "Has he done anything to hurt you?"

"No, no." Skyler burst out, horrified at such a suggestion, and then
proceeded to mentally slap herself as Thierry's eyebrows again located his
hairline.

"It's nothing like that, I just.... fear him too much to continue." She
quickly burst out with the partial lie.

"Okay." He said quietly, still watching her intently. He had not seen her
like this since the day she had lost her mother. Finally, the ice was
cracking, and he was determined to find out why. He decided that that was
not the time, and he should first work on getting her out of this mission
before trying to discover her inner workings. "I'll send a team to take care
of it."

"Could I please be transferred to another location until this all blows
over?" She asked urgently. He nodded, thinking it a good idea. "We need some
people up in New York at the moment."

"That sounds terrific!" Skyler jumped on the idea, ignoring the amount of
space it would put between her and Ransom. She wanted this, right?

"The earliest we can arrange would be in two days time. Are you sure this is
what you want?" Thierry questioned, still quiet.

"Yes." She shook off the momentary indecision, "Yes. This is exactly what I
want."