Jack grinned, “Ah, you’re already doing a great job on your rep without my help, hacking these things.” He knew what she’d been playing at, though. But, for all his own preening, he also liked complimenting people on things that had nothing to do with what they could do in the bedroom once in awhile. “Smart and gorgeous, rare enough combination when you’re not on an island. Throw nice into the mix, you’re hot stuff around here from the way I look at it.”
He thought they all here in their own way, though. Some of the younger group were...okay, probably as messed up as he’d been at their age, and he probably would have signed up just the same as them, expecting he could really get away from it all. Now he knew he was just pretending, but at least he was good at that.
He smiled at her compliment, “Well thank you, Ms. Sullivan,” he murmured, looking very sincerely in her eyes for glancing up at the stars for a moment. This was a safe story. Personal, but far enough back--and forward. “I better be. Can’t die now, but it saved my life a time or ten a long time ago. I was….something of a dashing rogue, once upon a time.” The laughter in his eyes when he glanced down at her again was at least real when he told this. “Quite a few times a job could have ended in someone losing their head if I hadn’t been able to distract a whole room with my rumba.”
He pressed a chaste kiss to her hand, “But you’re not half bad-either. I haven’t felt a single delicate foot fall on mine yet.”