He pushed a hand through his hair. "I just got in and felt restless, thought I'd get a little change of scenery before I went to bed.”

"I couldn't sleep either." She motioned toward the kitchen. "I was going for a fresh bottle of water. Can I get you something?”

"No, thanks.”

Uncomfortable silence.

Mira shifted from one foot to another. "Well, I'll see you—”

"How's your training going?" he asked, interrupting her. "Thomas told me you're making progress.”

"You solved the problem for me. Thank you. My training has been going wonderfully since then. I'm gaining a lot of control.”

"That's great.”

"Yeah." She smiled and nodded her head, feeling stupid. "Yeah, it is.”

God. Small talk. She was reduced to making small talk with this man who'd made her yell his name fifty times in one night. This was just wrong.

Mira hesitated a moment and then sat down in the seat beside him. He eased back away from her. She masked the pang of hurt she felt by leaning down to set the empty water bottle on the floor. "It's actually pretty fortunate that I ran into you. I've been wanting to talk.”

"Okay," he said. "About what?”

The dark velvety interior of the sitting area seemed so intimate. Moonlight streamed in through the windows above where they sat and shadows slanted across Jack's face, making it impossible for her to read his expression.

It was better just to come to the point, she supposed.

"Can we just quit all this bullshit? I hate feeling uncomfortable around you." She drew a breath before plunging into the speech she'd been preparing in her head for days. "I said a couple of stupid things before, and I think I gave you the wrong impression. So we had sex. So what? It's not like I want to have your babies or anything—”

"Oh, now I'm offended," came his low rumble from the opposite chair.

"Jack." She sighed. "I'm just saying there's no reason we can't be friends. We had sex, er, a few times, and it was great. But things got weird afterward, and I feel like you think I'm on the verge of pulling an emotional psycho-stalker thing on you and, frankly, while I do think you're beyond hot and great in bed, I don't think you're that hot or great in bed. Not enough to make me stalk you. Anyway, I'm really not an emotional psycho-stalker type because, you know, coming off a bad marriage over here, remember?" She gave a forced little laugh. Wow, her "prepared" speech had turned into a kamikaze mission. "I'm not making any sense, but you know what I mean—”

"Mira, stop babbling." He leaned across the two-foot space between them, eased his hand to the nape of her neck, pulled her to him, and kissed her. She gasped against his mouth and stiffened in surprise.