Despite his resolution, however, Val found that he couldn't keep his eyes off of Norah. At first he was only sneaking looks at her out of the corner of his eye. Soon, however, it became clear that she was too entrenched in the records in front of her to notice anything short of an explosion, and then he could look without fear.
At first glance, she was a small plump woman with a round face and wild curls tamed back with a large silver barrette at the base of her neck. Now that he was looking more closely, he could see how sharp her dark eyes were, observe a splatter of freckles over her nose and the threads of gold in her dark brown hair. Even sitting still, there was something graceful about her, how she handled the delicate papers with a sure touch and how she tilted her head to see them more clearly.
At one point, her teeth sank into her lush lower lip as she made a soft speculative humming sound, and Val actually jumped in his chair at the bolt of heat that went through him.
Norah looked up at him quizzically.
“Everything all right?” she asked.
“Oh. Yes. Everything is fine.”
“Did I get some ink on my face or something? Some of this old newsprint still bleeds like crazy.”
“Ah, no, nothing like that.”
“Then why are you looking at me?”
He was ready for the statement to be wary or even hostile, but Norah was only looking at him with curiosity in her big brown eyes. Something told him that while she reserved the right to be angry about his answer, she wouldn't start there, and of course she expected the truth.
“You're only so very beautiful.”
Val knew that his dragon couldn't actually seize control of his tongue and speak. He couldn't blame the part of him that wanted to spin circles in the sky over finding his mate, but he dearly wished he could. No, this was all him, and he waited to see what Norah would do.
She simply sat and stared at him for a moment, and then she laughed.
Her laugh was low and husky, perfect so far as he was concerned, and when she went back to scanning the letter in front of her, there was a slight blush on her round cheeks.
“Well, don't you speak nicely, Mr. Rychek,” she said, and Val shook his head.
“Val,” he insisted.
“Val, all right. Short for Valentine, like your ancestor, I guess?”
“Who?”
“Your ancestor? The one with the letters to The Millbrook?”
Tell her, hissed his dragon. She smiled at you, she called you by name, she laughed, what else do you need? She's yours, you're hers, what else is necessary?
Val ignored his dragon valiantly, because time and place. He knew what happened when he didn't remember such things.
“Yes, that one,” he said firmly. “Valentine.”
“We're a few months late for you to be my valentine,” Norah said, studying the paper in front of her. “Maybe. Maybe we could try it next year.”
“I'll remember that,” Val said, smiling. “Are you the kind who likes gold? Or rubies, perhaps?”
Norah blinked at him.
“You do like to move fast, don't you? I guess if you're carrying around a briefcase full of cash, you can afford rubies.”
“I hope you like rubies,” he said half-seriously, and she laughed.
“I'm really more of chocolate and flowers kind of girl when I think about getting anything at all.”
“But you don't mind rubies?” he pressed, because the matter was suddenly very important to him. “Rather than, say, emeralds or blue sapphires or opals?”
She gave him an amused look, and Val made himself take a breath. He was getting away from himself a little, and he needed to stop.
“Sure. I like rubies, and yes, I like them better than the others.”
“Good,” he said. It wasn't that he wouldn't have changed his interest to emeralds or sapphires if that was what she preferred. It was only that they were usually the province of his siblings, and while he would have infringed on their territory to get his mate what she wanted, it would have been –
“What's your interest in rubies?”
“I find them,” he said automatically, and she raised an eyebrow at his words.
“Really? Like a dog finds truffles?”
“Well, it's a little more complicated than that. I'm operating in the United States these days, but in the past, I've been to Afghanistan, Thailand, and Vietnam among others.”
“So that's your job, you just look for rubies.”
“Yes?”
He was suddenly aware that Norah's eyes were very bright, nearly sparkling. Val caught his breath at the change. His mate had gone from being merely beautiful to being something more, something elemental, something that was hungry, and right then and there, he would have given her damn near anything she wanted on a platter.
“So... you do mining. With explosives?”
“When it's called for?” he hazarded. “Do you like explosives?”
“Oh my God, that's the whole reason to watch action movies!” Norah exclaimed. “Explosions, the bigger, the louder, the better! Bobby, who works circulation, her dad is a pyrotechnics expert, and he did the fireworks here in town every Fourth of July, Once she got us onto the blast site, and it was just incredible.”
All right, Val hadn't seen this coming, but now he couldn't imagine having a true mate who wasn't just a little gone over explosives.
“What do you like about them?” he asked curiously. “And how did you even get into explosives in the first place?”
“What's not to like? It's just so big, and overwhelming. You can feel it through your entire body, and when it's over, you're practically worn out, just totally lost in it.”
Abruptly, they both realized what else she could be describing, and Val grinned while Norah coughed, looking away for a moment.
“No, please tell me about how good it is,”
