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them, this close to her his body trembled as desire struck, hard and thick and molten.
    He lifted his hand, a slow, languid movement. She caught the motion but fear didn’t enter her expression. Instead, curiosity hit hard, and her face took on an almost academic mask as she pondered what he would do next.
    One finger reached out and touched her temple. She startled but when she didn’t move away he let his finger roam, past the line of her sharp cheekbone and over her nose and its little bump. When he reached her mouth he stopped and studied her again.
    The mask was gone from her features, and while her eyes were still dark and angry, anger wasn’t the only emotion adding depth to them. She swallowed and said, her voice harsh, “Don’t insult my intelligence. People who look like you do not have any interest in people who look like me, not without gaining something from it.”
    He shook his head. “You’re wrong. I have every interest in you and all I have to gain is your companionship. And your intelligence is one of the traits I admire about you.” He took his finger away from her face, missing the warmth of her skin the moment he left it. However, he refused to step away from her. A shadow of remembered conversation between Nissa and Benton came to him, a frame of reference they had shared and she would understand. “When people speak around you, do they speak to you, or at you?”
    Her lips parted on a sharp inhale of breath.
    He continued. “They see this—” and he waved his hand above his face, “-and they discount this.” He pointed to his own temple.
    Her gaze slid away for a few seconds, an unspoken admission of guilt.
    “It’s not totally without cause. The Taras of the world are proof of that. I just don’t want that for myself. I want to be with people who will respect all parts of me.” A small laugh escaped him. “I’ve watched you, seen how you are treated. I think you and I deal with the same small-minded people always thinking the worst of us. I think you and I are more alike than me and Tara.”
    She cleared her throat and pushed past him, away from the tree and away from the closeness of his body. “That may be, but it doesn’t explain why your interest in me started.”
    It was time to bring a little levity back into their conversation. “Well, never let it be said I am not as prone to the foibles of human nature as any other being.”
    “And what does that mean?”
    “It means that anything different attracts our notice.”
    Her head tilted as she thought over his words, until her head straightened and eyes widened as she realized what he was implying. “Your interest in me started because I was indifferent to you?”
    “What can I say? That doesn’t happen to me.”
    Her head fell forward into her hands. “I can’t believe this. I just wanted to stay far away from you, and I caught your eye in the process.”
    Crossing his arms and leaning back against a tree, he affected an expression of wounded pride. “As thrilled as I am to have helped you solve your puzzle, I admit to being a little hurt you wanted to go to such great lengths to avoid me.”
    She had the decency to blush at his words and her head ducked in shame. “I’m sorry,” she said, her words strong but her tone soft. “I judged you without knowing you. I had no right.”
    “Don’t lose heart. You might find you are right about me yet.”
    Nissa laughed, a full-belly laugh that shook her whole frame and rang out over the tops of the trees. She was glorious with the sparkle of mirth shining from her eyes and a smile that held nothing but goodwill.
    She came back to herself slowly, a few quiet chuckles escaping before she sobered. Nissa glanced at him then, and whatever she saw on his face made the last of the smile fade from her lips and brought her hand up to her throat as her breath quickened.
    He spoke without thinking, wanting her to know everything he had never been able to say as Benton, that he had