“It’s getting late,” I commented as we headed out the door towards a sleek, powerful-looking, vintage black Thunderbird convertible.  “Are there still places in this burg that are open at this hour?”

“Trust me.”  He cocked his head at me with a smile as he opened the passenger door and I slid onto a smooth, cool leather seat.  Nice.  “I make it a habit of knowing where all the most interesting people hang out.”

As he slid into the driver’s side I turned and stretched my arm across the back seat.  My hand was close enough to touch the buttery-soft leather of his coat encasing that wide sweep of muscular shoulder, or possibly that fall of dark hair enclosed in a neat ponytail. I knew it would feel silky soft and with the smallest gesture I could…

He leaned forward just out of my reach to put the key in the ignition then paused and stiffened a little.  “It belatedly occurs to me,” he admitted, turning his head towards me wiith a slightly abashed, utterly charming smile, “that I may have misinterpreted… things.” His eyes lifted to meet mine.  “Maybe you just wanted to have a drink,” he shrugged,  “and have a little friendly conversation about, oh, sports and politics?”

I deliberately smiled slowly and provocatively, and was pleased when a touch of color brightened his hard cheeks.  “As opposed to more… intimate topics?”  That made me chuckle.  “I guess that depends on whether you are doing this just to prove something to Joe Dawson.”

“You heard…?” 

I rushed to explain, since I didn’t want him realizing just how much I knew.  “Just something about his surprise that you might, ‘swing in both directions’ as I think you described it.”

The color in his cheeks faded, then came back even more strongly, then he ducked his head.  “Well, that’s embarrassing.”

I raised one eyebrow.  “Only if you’re toying with my affections.”  I leaned forward and ran the back of my finger across his slightly stubbled jaw.  “Are you toying with my affections?” I asked, very softly; then added.  “Sounds like fun.” 

He swallowed hard and his gaze dropped away.  At first I just thought he was just being coy, but then he shook his head slowly.   “I’m sorry,” he sighed softly.  “This was a bad idea.”  His head raised and his eyes met mine.  “I know this will sound strange, but I really don’t do… casual… very well these days.  It’s possible that Joe was more right than he realized.  My apologies.”  He turned his body away, started the car and we swung out of the gravel parking lot.  “Let me take you home, at least.”

Well, shit.  What’s wrong with casual?  I almost said it out loud, but knew flippancy wouldn’t go over very well.  He was easy to goad that way, I knew, and as satisfying as it might be, that wouldn’t really get me what I wanted, except …  What the heck did I want, anyway?  Obviously, there was more to this odd feeling I was having, this… need… than finding a way to smooth things over with the Big Kahuna.

“Duncan?” I waited until he turned his head to look at me.  “It’s okay.  I didn’t mean to scare you off.  We can go somewhere and talk, or we can do… whatever.”

A sweet, rather tentative smile appeared as Duncan cocked his head towards me, and I belatedly realized I had to handle this whole thing with a great deal more subtlety than I was used to.  The whole human relationship thing was a bit of a conundrum to me.  This … person, this Duncan MacLeod, had developed some very human quirks and complications.  This wasn’t just a supernatural being who had rebelled at being the All Mighty’s Bringer of Justice.  And it wasn’t like I could just impose my will.  This man’s experiences had left him with some deep emotional scars, and he now seemed very careful of making himself vulnerable – to anyone. 

But I wasn’t just anyone, was I?

“You said earlier you thought we had met before, well I must confess I felt the same way.  It was like I knew you in another life, or something.”

“Yeah,” he replied with a little quirk of his mouth.  “Or something.”

But to my disappointment, he really did just take me home – or to the local YMCA, actually, which was my casa du jour and all I could afford at the moment on my part time bartending salary.  I got out of the car and headed across the street towards the stairs of the ugly brick building and heard the car door slam.  Duncan was trailing along behind me.  “You’re walking me to the door?” I asked incredulously.

He shrugged, looking a little sheepish.  “It’s a bad neighborhood,” he explained, “and I just wanted…”

I stopped, letting him catch up to me, then I moved a little closer.  “What did you want?” I prompted.

“Uh,” he reached up, nervously smoothing back his already-neat hair, “I’m not really sure.  You just seem so,” he shrugged helplessly.  He was hardly the first to be confounded by the intensity of my charisma, even muted as it was by my recent demotion to mortality.  The delicious irony was that he probably didn’t truly realize he had much the same effect on others as I had on him.  Served him right, actually.  Nobody should be that… magnificent.  And he was so bloody male, while I was so damned… ambiguous.

Frankly, while I knew I had male equipment, I hadn’t really checked it out with any close attention, sex being something that, in my opinion, had been one of the more notable, uh, well, I won’t say errors, but let’s just say it was an aspect of humanity that, in my opinion, the Boss hadn’t thought through completely.

And it was so messy, for God’s sake!  I had witnessed it innumerable times, and from my vantage point, without real love and commitment in the mix, frankly, copulation was mildly disgusting.  And mortals put such high expectations on the whole process that it was no wonder it caused so much grief.

And yet… there must be something intrinsically compelling about it since it seemed to be at the core of all human relationships.  And then there was that odd tingly feeling I got whenever Mi… whenever Duncan looked at me with that curious, intense expression.  Was that lust?  Love?  Or just the utterly human need to connect to someone or something outside their pathetic, frail, mortal shells?  But wasn’t that what God was for?  Was sex a kind of blasphemy because it attempted to replace or ursurp God's place in mortal's lives?  But God created sex, so how could... I shook myself, irritated at my own sudden doubts.  Doubts had never clouded my judgment or actions before and I wouldn't tolerate them just because I was suddenly mortal.

“I seem so… what?” I finally insisted.

Duncan shrugged again.  “I don’t know.  I just know I’d like to get to know you better.  How about I pick you up for lunch tomorrow and I show you a little of the town and we can… talk?”

I found myself smiling up at him, feeling strangely giddy and pleased.  “Yes,” I answered.  “I’d like that.”

He smiled and I had an almost irresistible urge to reach out and touch those soft, voluptuous lips, but instead I just held his gaze for a moment.  There was a small, awkward silence, then he nodded and turned, trotting down the steps to his car.  As he opened the door and looked up one last time, I could have sworn I saw the ethereal shadow of great, dark wings flare from his shoulders, then fold compactly behind him as he slipped behind the wheel of his long, black car and drove away.

But it was probably just my imagination.

 

To Part 5