“No,” she said coolly.
“Look, I realize that under normal circumstances this wouldn’t be any of my business, but given that we’ve got a job to do on Maui, I need to know what I’m getting into here.”
She went very still. “There’s no cause for concern. I assure you that my phobia doesn’t interfere with my aura-reading talent.”
“Fine. You’re still going to have to lose the gloves. Can you deal with that?”
For a few seconds he thought she was going to tell him to go to hell. Then, very deliberately, she stripped off first one glove and then the other. She stuffed the pair into her handbag and picked up her coffee.
“Satisfied?” she asked.
Her hands were surprisingly delicate-looking, the nails neatly tapered and unpolished. There was no ring.
“Yes,” he said. He let out some air. “Sorry about that.”
“Uh-huh.” She did not look impressed with the apology.
“Are you going to be okay?” he asked quietly.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said coldly. “I can take care of myself.”
“Been doing that awhile, have you?”
“Yes,” she said. “I have.”
SIX
The rental car that had been booked for Andrew Carstairs was waiting at the end of the short flight to Maui. J&J was nothing if not efficient, Grace thought.
“Want the AC on?” Luther asked, getting in behind the wheel.
“No thanks. I don’t like air-conditioning unless it’s absolutely necessary. I’d rather roll down the windows.”
“Same here.” He put the car in gear and drove out of the parking lot.
She contemplated her initial impressions of Luther Malone. They could be summed up in three potent words: Powerful, controlled, fascinating. Okay, there was a fourth word that came to mind: exciting. There was something indefinably electric in the atmosphere, at least on her side of the car. At various times in her life she had found other men attractive but she had never experienced anything quite like this fluttery little rush of sensual anticipation. It stirred all her senses in unusual and interesting ways.
Power was always interesting; power that was ruled by the kind of exquisite control that Luther wielded was especially intriguing, at least to her. One glance at his aura had told her that he was no level eight— more like a level ten or higher. Obviously he’d managed to keep that little fact out of the files. She couldn’t hold it against him. She’d faked her own ranking, too. Powerful talents were slapped with the label “exotic” within the Society. The term did not convey admiration or respect. At best, other sensitives tended to view strong sensitives of any kind with a degree of caution. At worst, they avoided them. Power might be interesting but it could also be dangerous.
The photo on Luther’s new driver’s license had not lied. He was as hard-looking in person as he was in the picture. His eyes were brown, too, as advertised. But it was an almost feral shade of amber. It made her think of dark jungles and forbidden passions. Not that she’d had much experience with either.
“I love the air here,” she announced, inhaling deeply. “It’s intoxicating. Makes me want to put my head out the window like a dog.”
“Hawaii has that effect on a lot of people.” He glanced at her, his eyes unreadable behind his dark glasses. “How are you doing without the gloves?”
The question annoyed her. She looked briefly at her hands, neatly folded in her lap, and then raised her chin.
“I told you, I can deal with it.”
“You’re sure? I noticed that you kept your hands under your raincoat on your lap for most of the flight.”
“I would not have taken this assignment if I thought I couldn’t handle it.”
“Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” She wrinkled her nose. “You’re fretting. I’m making you nervous.”
“Maybe I’m just curious?”
“You’re fretting,” she repeated evenly. “I suppose I can’t blame you for your lack of confidence but try looking at this situation from my perspective.”
“Which is?”
She raised her brows. “I’ve got a bodyguard who isn’t comfortable carrying a gun and needs a cane to get around.”
“Fallon told you about the gun thing?”
“Yes.”
He meditated on that for a long moment and then nodded once. “You know, you’re right. From your perspective, those facts would not at first glance appear to be reassuring.”
“Luckily for me,” she said coolly, “I took a second glance.”
“At my aura,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“I’m an aura talent. That’s what I do.”
To her surprise, he smiled faintly. “What did you see that was reassuring?”
She sat back in the seat and concentrated on savoring the wonderful air.
“I saw a lot of sheer bullheaded determination,” she said.
“Bullheaded determination is a good quality?”
“It means you’ll do whatever you need to do to complete this mission. What’s more, you know your own power and how to control it. You feel confident about your talent so I do, too.”
She saw a lot more than that but she was not prepared to go into details. Some things you just did not talk about on a first date. The thought made her smile.
Luther was silent for a moment, processing what she had said. Then his hands tightened on the steering wheel. “You can see things like determination in an aura?” he asked, half curious, half disbelieving.
She turned her head to look at him. “Didn’t Mr. Jones tell you about the little twist in my talent?”
“He said you could read a person’s psychic profile. Guess I didn’t understand exactly what that meant. I’m surprised they haven’t got you working as a parapsychologist.”
“I don’t have the academic background to work as a counselor.”
“How did you end up in Genealogy?”
“I applied for a position in the Bureau. I like psychic genealogy. It suits my talents. How did you end up as a bartender in Waikiki?”
“It suits my talents.”
She knew a conversational dead end when she ran into one.
“Right. Speaking of your talents, what’s the plan for finding our bad guy?” she asked. “Do I just stroll around the resort like a drug-sniffing dog looking at auras?”