Jacen's smile was most deffinately taking on something of a smirk quality though he really had no idea whether Lee could see it through the shadows. He had a couple of possible things in mind but a lot of it depended on what sort of stakes Lee was willing to work with. If he pushed her to much then she might just walk away but if he wasn't bold enough then it would be a moment lost.

"Just remember... Lori and I aren't exclusive." Jacen reminded himself forcefully as he did his best to concentrate just on the beautiful woman that he was currently with, "Someday maybe but not yet."

"Well, I've got a couple of ideas of what I could be playing for but I guess it really depends on how confident you are that you might be able to beat me." Jacen said teasingly as he stepped over to a nearby tree and just leaned up against it while he waited for Lee to make her decision. "You pick what you might like to win and I'll pick something that's about the same monetary, friendship, or embaressment value. Sound fair?"

If she gave him something with enough value he was going to challenge her to finding out what it was like to kiss someone that she couldn't siphon from. If she was always so worried about how she was draining people a kiss with him would be a completely different experience but really it was all coming down to her. Was she confident enough to set the stakes high enough that he could challenge her to the possible kiss or was she afraid she would lose?

How confident was she that she would win such a race? Well, Lee had only been running for about an hour before she had run into Jacen. Though she hadn't exactly planned out the night, she figured that without the interruption, she would have run for about another two, maybe three hours before finally feeling she had gotten rid of enough energy to head back to the apartment. And if she had run for another three hours, she might have actually been able to make herself have a short nap before Tarin got up in the morning.

Sure, she wasn't siphoning now, so what energy she was expending wasn't being replaced at all, but the truth of the matter was that Lee didn't exactly see a lot of people at this time of night, so even without Jacen there, she wouldn't have been siphoning much if anything anyway.

Was she confident of being able to win? Hell yeah, she was.

"Well, I guess that depends on how confident you are that you'd actually be able to beat me," Lee countered, turning Jacen's own words around on him. "I guess we could start with you buying me coffee every time we run into each other from now on. And I'm in this park at least once a day, and can drink a lot of coffee."

Raising an eyebrow in something akin to amazement Jacen was most deffinately beginning to rethink his plan. If she was willing to wager something as big as coffee every time they met from now on then she had to be supremely confident. Could he be that confident? Was he sure enough about winning that he was ready to throw it all in?

"Wow." Jacen said, his grin returning as he pushed forward recklessly. Why the hell not? If he won it would be a very nice thing and if she won it guaranteed him a chance to talk to her whenever they bumped into each other. Other than the fact he was buying the coffee, what was the down side. "I didn't expect you to bid that high but I think I can match it. If you win I buy you coffee every time we bump into each other from now on. If I win then you let me show you what kissing can feel like when you're not siphoning from someone."

There... the words were said and it was all out in the open now. Even though he couldn't see her extremely well in this light he was expecting the reaction would be dramatic. At the very least some heavy blushing and more than likely that would be combined with at least a little bit of shock or anger.

"You're call... we can always lower the stakes if things have gone to high for you." Jacen continued, his voice still teasing but at the same time adopting something of a challenging tone. Was Lee ready to run with the big boys?

"A kiss?" Lee asked, her voice a little squeaky because of the surprise. She hadn't thought that Jacen would wager that, hadn't thought that he was even thinking of that.

Sure, two years ago the idea that not only a good looking man, but a man who also caused her siphoning to not work, would want to kiss her would be extremely intriguing. She might have also agreed to that wager.

However, two years ago, Lee also wouldn't have had the energy to be sure she'd win.

But even when she and Tarin had been broken up, when she had left and gone to Toronto, then after when she was back and had gone on those quasi-dates with Sam, she hadn't been ready, or really wanting, to kiss anyone.

"Counter offer," Lee said, her voice closer to normal once more now that she had had a little time to get over that shock. "I win, you buy me a coffee the next two times we run into each other. You win, I'll let you show me what it feels like to touch someone who I'm not siphoning from. That work for you?"

A friendly chuckle was Jacen's imediately response to Lee's counter offer. A part of him was dissapointed that she hadn't chosen to jump at the chance for a non-draining kiss but hey, if she wanted to stay loyal to her boyfriend he most deffinately wasn't going to push it.

"Counter offer accepted." He said with a smile as he pushed off from the tree and made his way over to a crack in the cement that would make a fine starting line, "That must be quite a person you left asleep in bed. He's a lucky guy."

Taking his place at the crack, Jacen looked over at Lee with a challenging look in his eyes. "Ladies choice... you get to say go."

At least Jacen was open to her counter offer. That was good. Lee couldn't stop the smile from ghosting over her face as he made a brief mention about the man she had left sleeping in bed, though. "That he is," Lee murmured, though she didn't specify whether she was talking about Tarin being 'quite a man' or about him being lucky; both were true.

"Plus," Lee continued, her voice only slightly louder than her previous comment had been. "I doubt my husband would be happy about me kissing another man, and he's bound to find out because I'd probably feel guilty enough I'd tell him before long."

But it was lady's choice, she got to say when they started running? That was kind of fair, though. Jacen thought up the wager, she said when it was going to start.

Tossing her now empty cup in the nearby garbage can, Lee grinned over at Jacen. "Alright then, go!" With that, Lee started running down the path, quickly picking up her normal pace.

Jacen stood at the starting line but then froze as Lee's words slammed into him like a one two punch. Husband? Husband? Husband? Glancing over quickly, his searching eyes found her left hand and then focused as a stray bit of light caused the stone on her hand to sparkle. "Ah, shit!" Jacen mentally cursed as his mind suddenly ran back over all the clues that he had been assuming meant boyfriend when really they meant husband.

"...go!" Lee's voice suddenly broke this his concentration as she lept forward, immediately gaining a two or three yard lead. Even though he'd been caught flat footed, Jacen moved forward, picking up a pace that was slightly faster than Lee's until he could pull even with her. If she took time to glance over at him the embarassment on his face would have been obvious.

"I'm sorry!" Jacen said as best he could while still trying to maintain steady breathing for his current level of exertion, "I thought you were talking about a friend or boyfriend. I missed seeing the ring!" As the conversation continued to run through his mind Jacen was just beginning to realize that he had probably been coming off as something of a jerk. What kind of scumbag tried to seduce another man's wife?

"That's got to be the biggest mistake I've ever made."

As Lee was running, she didn't feel Jacen beside her, then shook her head slightly at herself. Of course she wasn't feeling him beside her, he could be running there, a mere inch beside her, and she wouldn't feel her because his powers stopped her from siphoning. He could have been right beside her, or might have not even started running yet.

So Lee turned her head to see where he was as he came up beside her. With a weird look on his face. Was he embarrassed?

That thought was confirmed a moment later when Jacen apologized. He'd thought she was just talking about a friend or a boyfriend? But hadn't she mentioned...

As Lee thought, she realized that while she had brought Tarin up in the conversation, and had said that they'd had a date night that night, she had never said anything about being married.

So Lee shook her head, more noticeably than she had the previous time. "Don't worry about it," she said, noticing that she was slightly out of breath. Maybe that was just because she wasn't used to actually talking while she was running. "To be honest, I'm still kind of getting used to the whole being married thing myself. It's only been a few months."

"Well on the good side... at least you can brag to your hubby about another man hitting on you." Jacen offered with a quick grin at Lee before turning his eyes back toward the path they were currently following, "Although, with a figure like yours, I'm sure that's a pretty common occurence."

Suddenly a thought occured to the S.W.A.T. officer and he glanced at Lee out of the corner of his eye. What kind of guy was this husband of hers? If he was the jealous type then maybe it was better left unsaid that some guy had tried to flirt with her. But, hopefully he was secure enough to handle other guys being attracted to his wife. Yeah...

"I haven't given her my business card, have I?"

At least she was running. Jacen's comment about her figure, and how that likely resulted in a number of men having hit on her in the past caused her to blush slightly, but at least since she was running, it might be passed off as being from the exertion. Possibly. And it was dark, so hopefully Jacen wouldn't notice it.

That in itself was weird, though. Sure, a lot of guys did try to hit on her, though it did tend to happen much more at the bar rather than when she was out running, but Lee pushed them all off at once. And those who had thought that commenting on her figure was a good idea as they hit on her normally ended up getting slapped. But her she was blushing as Jacen made a comment like this.

"Good thing you didn't try at the bar, then," Lee said, her breathing growing slightly heavier with each step. Why was she getting this winded this quickly? She'd done the math before, she'd run around the park three times on numerous occasions, done it on a marathon pace, and still had the energy that she hadn't slept that night. What the hell was going on here?

"Cause if you'd have walked up to me in a bar, I would have just shot you down without a thought, turned back to my beer, and we wouldn't have had the chance to talk."

Though, Lee realized as said it, that would certainly have been a strange, and probably frightening experience, Jacen walking up to her in a bar and her siphoning suddenly stopping.

That thought actually made Lee falter a bit, and before she knew it, she was a couple paces behind Jacen. So Lee pushed herself to catch up, not willing to give up. She was just out of breath because she was talking, that's all. "Though, I can't even imagine what that would feel like..."

Ok, so it sounded like Jacen was pretty safe. He had been right that Lee got hit on at least a little bit and she hadn't made any comments about her jealous husband so hopefully that was a good thing. A little harmless flirting had never hurt anyone and as long as her hubby understood that, it would all be fine.

"I'm glad I didn't meet you at a bar then." Jacen replied, doing his best to just maintain a steady pace while watching Lee out of the corner of his eye. It looked like she was beginning to struggle but that didn't make any sense. If she was so confident in her running then why was she struggling now? Since his power stopped her 'siphoning' could it be that it also stopped her from accessing the energy she had already siphoned? Now that was an interesting question.

"If you really want to know, I guess I could always meet you or you and your husband at a bar sometime." Jacen offered with a quick grin before his expression turned to concentration as he increased the pace just a little bit. He could feel the weariness pushing at his legs and chest from earlier but he knew that he could push himself farther. He had used to run twice this distance back in the military! Of course, he hadn't kept training as much as he used to but it was still in there somewhere... wasn't it?

"We can change that coffee to me buying first and second round of drinks if you want!" Jacen offered with a quick bark of a laugh as he suddenly sped up even a little more, "If you can keep up!"

It had to be the talking. That was the only thing that Lee could think of that explained why she was so winded, why she was having such problems at that moment simply trying to keep her breathing at a normal pace along with the running. She ran fairly often, thanks to her and Tarin's ...activities, but she never, ever talked to anyone while she was running, this was the first time.

Could simply talking while running be making this much difference?

Before she could think that through any more, Jacen was suggesting that maybe he could meet her at a bar sometime, change those coffees he was going to buy her for drinks. As long as she won.

That...Lee really wasn't sure what to think of that. To be completely honest, other than with her sister Rachael, Lee had not gone to a single bar since meeting Tarin without him.

Lee laughed slightly at the thought of her and Tarin meeting Jacen at a bar. Yes, he might be doing much better with his whole jealousy thing now that they were married. He might be alright with her meeting Jacen for coffee, even him buying the coffee especially since it would be a result of her having out run a former Army Ranger, but planning to meet at a bar, even with Tarin there, and him buying her drinks...that might be going to far.

Her laugh, very quickly turned into a cough as her body, winded as it was, as she tried to inhale sharply in the middle of the laugh. Lifting her hand to her mouth, Lee tried to get the cough out and tried to catch her breath once more.

But by the time she had even somewhat caught her breath, Lee was a good five steps behind Jacen, with the distance between them growing. Had he picked up the pace even more? "Of course I can keep up," Lee managed to get out as she pushed herself even more. Were her leg muscles burning?

She had just barely managed to catch up at that point, though she was still about a step behind him. "Not sure Tarin would be ok with that," was her voice wheezing at this point as she spoke? "The bar is one thing, buying me drinks there is another."

The sound of Lee's voice as she tried to answer his challenge about keeping up cemented it in Jacen's mind. This wasn't a fair race because Lee was obviously struggling without the reserves she normally had access to. A part of Jacen wanted him to quit or to slowly back off the pace until Lee out distanced him but somehow he just knew that she wouldn't appreciate someone just letting her win.

"I'll buy him a couple rounds too." Jacen offered, slowing his pace ever so slightly so that it would be a little easier on Lee though still not a giveaway, "Is he a beer man or does he like a nice scotch or whiskey?"

Talking while running was deffinately over rated. Jacen could feel his lungs begining to burn just a touch as they tried to tell him to concentrated more on his breathing and less on things that wasted oxygen... like talking. If he wanted his body to work like a well oiled machine then he had to make sure it was getting all the fuel and air it needed. Just like a car needed fuel, air, and oil in order to run, his body had certain requirements to perform correctly. No, talking while running was most deffinately a bad decision.

As Jacen spoke, Lee found herself, while not making up that last step or two between them, at least not falling behind any more. That was good, though even just managing that was almost impossible for Lee at that moment. What the hell was going on? She could still feel the energy, so why was she having so many problems simply running?

And he was willing to buy both her and Tarin a couple rounds if they ever met up at the bar. That, well that would probably go over better than if Jacen just bought the drinks for her, but something like this had never occurred before, Lee had no idea how Tarin would react to that.

But was Tarin a beer or a Scotch man? Remembering the bottle of Scotch that she had flung across the apartment, which had shattered against a certain ex-cop's head...

Opening her mouth to tell Jacen that, depending on the situation, Tarin did drink both, Lee was upset to find out that all that came out was her wheezing breath; she couldn't even force actual words to come out any more. And that wheezing breath was no where near enough oxygen.

Slowing first to a walk, then finally stopping, shaking her head at herself the entire time, Lee crouched down, her elbows on her knees and her head lowered as she simply tried to catch her breath, at least enough that she could somewhat talk.

"Damn it," she muttered after a little bit, still shaking her head slightly. "Damn it...I don't know...

"Drinks both, but we normally have beer when we go out," Lee finally managed to say, only then glancing up to see where Jacen was.

Jacen jogged forward a few steps as Lee came to a complete halt and then finally turned around and walked back to her. His expression was apologetic as he watched the woman work and strain to try and get her breath back.

"If you want we can drop the wager." He finally offered after a few moments, "It wasn't exactly fair anyway. With my field blocking access to your ability, your body just doesn't know how to react."

Lee had provided him with information about what Tarin drank but that wasn't really important. In fact, as bad as Lee was looking, none of it was particularly important until she started to feel a little more like herself. Suddenly inspiration struck the man and he turned, walking about ten or fifteen feet away before turning back around to watch Lee. Now that she wasn't in his field he knew her mutation should start to kick back in and help her to feel better. As long as she had the sort of energy stored up she had mentioned earlier, she should recover rather quickly.

"So... does Tarin ever come out and jog with you or does he prefer to be worn out with other activities?" Jacen finally asked with a mischevous grin once Lee was able to stand upright again. He might not be trying to get on base with this woman but that didn't mean he had to stop teasing her or making suggestion remarks. After all, mutant or not, he was still a man and she was still an attractive woman.