Free Dancing in the Dark by Linda Cajio

because it gave him an excuse to put his arm around one. “Come on, ladies. Lunch is on the big dumb boss.”
    “You are not getting any younger, dear. That biological clock is ticking away.”
    Charity smiled at her mother as she poked at her filet of beef. Lord help her, but her mother was on a baby kick again. “Yes, Mom, I hear it.”
    “That phrase always sounds like one is about to explode,” her mother said. “Still, I would see thee have children, Charity. Thee would be a wonderful mother.”
    “Emmaline, you’re not in character anymore,” Charity’s father said. “And leave the child alone. It’s not her fault. If you would pay attention to news in your own century more often, you’d know the statistics are against her. She’s more likely to get hijacked than get married. Of course, if she’d married that graduate student of mine … What was his name?”
    “Louis, dear,” Emmaline replied. “He teaches at Brown now.”
    “Yes, that’s right.” Robert smiled. “I always found it humorous that he went from one Brown to another.Still, Charity, he was a very nice young man.”
    “You thought I was too young, remember?” Charity said, while wondering why she hadn’t gone home with Jake and Mary.
    For a number of reasons, she answered herself. But especially because of the kiss that morning. She could still taste his lips on hers. All day the sensation had lingered. Her own reaction, the pulsing desire that had risen so swiftly in her, had appalled her, upsetting her on the presentation. She’d had to push the memory aside all day.
    Unfortunately, her father was on the marriage kick now. Combined with her mother, the conversation would be deadly with the way she was feeling.
    “I said you were too young for Louis?” Robert looked surprised. “But he teaches at Brown. You could be teaching. I’ve never understood why you wanted to work in the private sector. More and more students are turning from the pleasure of knowledge to the pleasure of money. It’s very disappointing. But you know we’d love to have you come home, Charity. We miss you.”
    She smiled ruefully. Her dad had never quite forgiven her for leaving school, but he was generous about it. “I miss you two also. New Jersey is only six hours away, and that’s where my work is. It’s not the end of the earth.”
    “Thank goodness,” her mother said, then added to her father, “I suppose we can hope for a nice terrorist for Charity, Robert. Maybe she’ll stop being so fussy about men. You know, terrorists do have a number of similarities to privateers …”
    “No wonder I moved to New Jersey,” Charity muttered as her parents launched into a conversation onthe nuances of accrediting privateers four hundred years ago.
    She frowned as she considered what her mother had said. Was she fussy about men? She had decided not to settle for immature, noncommitted men. Was that a mistake? She hoped not. Her luck was abominable when it came to nice men who cared for her. A nice man didn’t seem to be out there, which made having children complicated. She’d once considered having a child on her own, but she wasn’t prepared for all it entailed. Maybe she never would be. But why was it so hard to find a quiet man with whom she could share a quiet life?
    A little perverse voice inside her suggested there was a possibility. No, she thought. Not that one. Definitely not that man. Jake Halford was not quiet. He was dangerous. The little voice added other adjectives, like “exciting” and “different.” And “sexy.”
    Charity stiffened as she caught sight of a man entering the hotel dining room. He looked exactly like Jake. She blinked, but instead of the vision vanishing, it grinned and waved at her, then began to weave its way around the tables toward her.
    “Hello,” the vision said as it neared her. Not only did it look like Jake, it sounded like him too. If it stripped down naked and began to chant around the candelabrum,