by Adrian, Lara
“I think you do.” His palm glided along the line of her jaw, his long fingers splaying into her hair. “Tell me.”
A strangled moan escaped her before she could call it back. “Aric . . . I can’t.”
“Then tell me why you can’t.”
She closed her eyes. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Because I think something’s got you terrified, and it’s not me.” His caress gave her no choice but to open her eyes and meet his smoldering gaze. “I don’t know what’s going on in that beautiful, stubborn head of yours but I want you to know that you can tell me, Kaya. You can trust me.”
“Trust you? I hardly know you.” The protest sounded weak, despite the force with which she pushed it past her lips.
“You really want me to believe you feel that way? Because I’ve been trying to convince myself that’s how I feel about you, and it’s not working. Not one damned bit.”
Her heart leapt at his confession. She could not allow this hope to bloom, though. Not when the secret of her past was all but certain to crush anything Aric felt for her, along with his trust.
Yet she couldn’t move.
She couldn’t speak, neither to confirm nor deny what he was saying.
She stood there, torn between wanting him to kiss her and knowing she should push him away. But she couldn’t push him away. Inside she was a mess, and Aric was the only thing grounding her.
He stroked his fingers along the side of her neck, his penetrating gaze locked on her. “Tell me again that you hardly know me. That you really feel there’s nothing between us.”
His voice was low and quiet, but filled with a masculine power that spoke to everything female inside her. And, God, she couldn’t think when he was touching her. Those leaf-green eyes captivated her too, made her remember how good it felt to be drowning in his hungry, molten stare while his body moved against hers, inside her.
She wanted to feel that pleasure again. Wanted to tell him that she would never be the same now that she knew the fire of his touch, his kiss, his passion.
With this man, she simply . . . wanted.
“I didn’t say there was nothing between us, Aric.” She shook her head, miserable for all of the longing he stirred within her. “I only wish I had the strength to tell you that.”
“Finally, honesty,” he murmured. “Was that so hard?”
It should have been. Kaya didn’t trust easily. She didn’t let people see past the wall that protected her heart, let alone allow them to breach it. Yet she never felt safer than when she was with this dangerous Breed male. She didn’t resist at all when his hand moved around the back of her neck, warm and possessive. He drew her closer, his gaze flickering with amber light as he lowered his head toward her parted lips.
At that same moment, Rafe’s deep voice sounded just outside the kitchen entry, a low murmur that Kaya couldn’t quite make out. It was followed by the soft titter of Siobhan’s giggle as the pair entered the room.
“Oh, shit,” Rafe blurted. “Are we interrupting?”
Aric’s reply was no better than a growl. “Yes.”
“--No,” Kaya answered at the same time. She slipped out of his reach and turned back to her work spread out over the table. “I was just going over the intel from the wedding and reception.”
“Ah,” Rafe said. “Getting anywhere?”
Aric’s grunt held a sardonic tone. “We were starting to, but then you showed up.”
Kaya didn’t miss the questioning look he gave his comrade as Rafe brought the shy Breedmate to one of the tall stools at the island counter, then headed over to the stove. “Siobhan’s hungry, so I told her I’d make something for her to eat.”
Aric leaned against the long counter and cocked his head, then glanced at the female. “Has he mentioned to you that he’s Breed? My man over here has never cooked a day in his life, nor tasted anything he’s made. His diet is the same as mine: human red cells only.”
“And even that’s losing its appeal lately,” Rafe said, flicking a meaningful look at Siobhan. “Anyway, I think I can manage to scramble a couple of eggs and throw in some chopped vegetables. Kaya, would you like some too?”
“No, thanks.” Unlike the other Breedmate whose flushed face and throat and dusky, heavy-lidded eyes threw off an unmistakable post-sex vibe, Kaya had no appetite for food. Her stomach had been in a knot for days--ever since Aric Chase had sauntered into her life.
She felt his gaze return to her as she busied herself with the stacks of printed photographs and the surveillance videos stored on the tablet. The mention of blood and hunger only made the heat of Aric’s stare feel more intense. Try as she might not to imagine any of the human blood Hosts he was required to feed from--especially the females--the thought of Aric sinking his fangs into the soft flesh of another’s throat sent a dark lick of curiosity through her veins.
And a profound, shocking envy.
She couldn’t have been more relieved when Rafe drew Aric’s attention away from her, even though the conversation centered on the disappointing raid on Angus Mackie and the troubling evidence they collected at his bar.
“Too bad we weren’t able to grab the son of a bitch and haul him in for interrogation,” Aric snarled. “I’d have liked to see how long Big Mack would last in front of a room full of Breed warriors before he started spilling everything he knows.”
“Not to mention a lot of his bodily fluids,” Rafe added with a smirk.
“Will all of the Order’s commanders be here tonight?” Siobhan asked in between bites of her omelet.
Rafe shook his head. “Not all. Lucan Thorne and his mate Gabrielle are coming, of course. Along with Aric’s parents, and mine.”
“Carys too,” Aric put in. “She called me as soon as she heard about the baby’s birth. She and her mate Rune are on the jet with the others. Darion Thorne’s with them as well.”
“Don’t forget Rio and his Breedmate, Dylan,” Kaya added.
Aric gave her a warm nod. “That’s right. The ceremony doesn’t start without the godparents being present.”
“As for the others,” Rafe said, “Gideon and Savannah will be holding down the fort in D.C. along with Brock and Jenna. Commander Hunter and his mate Corinne have just returned to New Orleans to deal with a Rogue outbreak in that city. Kade and Alexandra are back at the command center in Lake Tahoe for the same reason. Unfortunately, our European commanders have fires of their own to put out as well, so neither Mathias Rowan nor Lazaro Archer will be at the ceremony, either.”
“What about Tegan and Elise?” Aric asked.
Rafe shook his head, his face oddly grim. “They’re on the way to Budapest.”
“Isn’t that where Micah was sent recently? Some kind of black ops mission for the Order?”
“That’s the last we heard,” Rafe confirmed. “Apparently, there’s been a development.”
The way the warrior said that word gave Kaya the sense that it wasn’t anything good. The fact that Micah’s parents had gone after their reputably formidable warrior son only confirmed the unease she felt.
Siobhan, being civilian, seemed to miss the gravity of the conversation. “Well, even without the ones you mentioned, it sounds like quite a full guest list to me.”
“It’s too bad everyone won’t be here.” Rafe gently covered her hand with his. “Sooner or later, I’d like all of the Order to meet you.”
Kaya couldn’t keep her surprised gaze from meeting Aric’s. He lifted his thick shoulder in a shrug as his comrade tipped his lover’s face up for a tender kiss.
Aric cleared his throat, whether in payback for the interruption Rafe and Siobhan’s arrival in the kitchen has caused him or out of the same awkwardness Kaya felt as an audience to the other couple’s passion, she couldn’t be sure.
“Keep that shit up and we’ll be celebrating another howling infant nine months from now,” Aric drawled as his friend drew back from his woman.
Rafe chuckled, his eyes still rooted on
Siobhan. “We’re not blood-bonded yet. Not for my lack of interest in pursuing the idea.”
She dropped her gaze and pushed some of the egg around on her plate. “Everything’s just moving a little fast for me, that’s all.”
“I know, angel. Can I help it that I’m absolutely crazy about you?”
Their affection for each other was almost too much for Kaya to take. That Rafe was mad for the female anyone could plainly see. Siobhan seemed equally taken with him, but there were shadows in the Breedmate’s hazel eyes that made Kaya wonder how tall and thick were the walls around Siobhan’s heart?
Rafe didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he had enough hope for both of them to assume that eventually they would be able to knock those walls down together.
Hope that she and Aric would never have unless she was willing to come clean to the Order about her past. Bad enough that she had kept it from them all this time. Now, she had the failed raid on Angus Mackie weighing heavily on her conscience.
Reminded of all the obstacles standing in the way of anything she might have with Aric, Kaya went back to her work. As she reviewed the collections of photos, then shuffled and reviewed them again, Aric and Rafe went back to discussing Order business and speculating on the far-reaching tentacles of Opus Nostrum’s secret brotherhood.
Siobhan finished her meal and slid off the stool to carry her plate to the sink. On her way back, she paused at the table and glanced at the various groupings of images.
“Still haven’t found him, aye?”
“Not yet,” Kaya said. “But he’s in here somewhere. He can’t hide forever.”
“No.” Siobhan gave a sympathetic tilt of her head. “No one can.”
Although the comment wasn’t directed at her, Kaya’s nape prickled with warning as she watched the Breedmate walk away and fold herself under Rafe’s protective arm. Was it possible that Siobhan could suspect her of keeping secrets from the Order? Or was it merely Kaya’s guilty conscience that made heart suddenly begin to bang around like a trapped bird inside her rib cage?
God, she was going to lose her mind if she didn’t put an end to this self-torment soon.
Unable to concentrate now, she swept the photographs into the file pouch, then reached for another stack she had yet to pore over. In her haste, she knocked the pile of pictures off the table. They scattered in a disorganized mess on the floor around her chair.
“Shit.” Kaya dropped to her hands and knees to collect them. Aric was at her side in the next moment. “You don’t have to help. I’ve got this.”
“Yes, I know you do,” he said, gathering up a handful of the images and holding them out to her. “But you don’t have to do it alone.”
The image on top of the stack happened to be a candid snapshot taken of the pavilion during the bride and groom’s first dance. Aric and Kaya stood on the periphery of the crowd, holding hands and pretending to be a real couple. Except unlike the rest of the gathered onlookers, they weren’t watching Stephan Mercier and Anastasia Rousseau sway in the center of the open floor.
They were looking at each other.
And Kaya saw in her own face the expression of a woman already falling swiftly, hopelessly, in love. To her utter shock, she saw a similar tender regard in Aric’s handsome face--both in the photograph and in the solemn expression he held her with now.
“Partners, Mrs. Bouchard. Remember?”
She couldn’t hold his intent gaze. It was too easy to believe him. Too easy to think the fake relationship that had marked their initial meeting might actually have become something real.
Not only for her, but for Aric as well.
Kaya glanced down . . . and her gaze rooted on another face in the crowd.
“Oh, my God.” She grabbed the photo and peered more closely. “Aric. There he is.”
“Are you serious?”
She nodded vigorously, her finger trembling as she pointed to a half-obscured face standing among the wedding guests behind her and Aric. The squatty, dark-haired man had an unremarkable face but Kaya would know his build and carriage anywhere.
“It’s him. Mercier’s Opus contact.”
Across the kitchen, Rafe uttered an excited curse. “Let me see.” He and Siobhan both came over to look at the image. “Who am I looking for?”
“Right here,” Aric said, marking the place in the photo as he handed it to his comrade.
Then all of his attention returned to Kaya. “You did it. You found him.”
As excited as she was, she shook her head, loathe to take the credit when their task was far from finished. “I only found his face. We still don’t know his name.”
“We will.” Aric tapped his temple. “You leave that to me . . . partner.”
Before she could say another word, he caught her face in his palms and claimed her mouth in a slow, bone-melting kiss. Kaya didn’t fight it. Not even close. Looping her arms around his neck, she kissed him back with all of the desire and emotion--all of the love--she’d been trying so desperately to deny.
Dimly, distantly, she registered that Rafe and Siobhan no longer stood near them. And then she realized why, when someone pointedly cleared his throat just inside the room.
Someone that wasn’t Rafe and certainly wasn’t Siobhan, either.
Alarmed, Kaya squirmed, but Aric took his sweet time letting go of her.
When he finally did, his beautiful green eyes danced with bright flecks of amber. He swiveled his head to greet the new arrivals, his fanged smile utterly unapologetic.
She glanced toward the entrance of the kitchen too. Standing there were two couples. There was no mistaking the air of authority--and lethal danger--that radiated from the Breed males, both the handsome, golden-haired one in a crisp white shirt and dark jeans and the devilishly good looking brunet who stood beside his well-dressed comrade wearing a lot of sleek black leather and a pair of long, curved daggers sheathed on his belt.
The two Breedmates at their sides were equally stunning for different reasons, each blessed with incredible beauty and a strength that seemed to emanate from deep within.
Aric rose, taking Kaya’s hand to bring her up with him from their embarrassing clinch on the floor. He smiled at the tall female with caramel-brown hair and eyes the same spring leaf green as his own. Then he tipped his head in greeting to the golden male at the beauty’s side.
“Hey, Mom. Hello, Father. There’s someone I want you to meet.”
CHAPTER 21
“Lars Scrully,” Aric said, dropping a passport photograph and a folder of intel he’d assembled for the four Order commanders gathered with Nikolai in his private office.
The group of Order elders presented an imposing picture, even seated as they were around Niko’s large desk, engaged in sober conversation. Gabrielle Thorne and Aric’s mother Tavia were also in the room, seated together on an oversized sofa near the fireplace. The other warriors’ Breedmates and the rest of the mansion’s occupants were catching up elsewhere in the compound with Kaya and Mira and the Montreal team while Renata continued to rest with the baby.
“Scrully wasn’t on the wedding guest list, nor in any of the gate check security data Gideon’s hacking provided us. But we’ve got the son of a bitch.” Aric gestured to the file of intel he’d collected in the twenty minutes since Kaya had ID’d the squat, dark-haired man in the reception photo. “I knew I’d seen his face somewhere before,” he told the group of warrior elders. “There were some news stories from eighteen months ago when Lars Scrully inherited his father’s pharmaceutical empire.”
“Scrully Pharmaceuticals?” Tavia asked, her distaste for the name evident in her tone. “That’s the company that came under fire several years ago for acquiring expired patents on antivirals, cancer treatment drugs, and other medicines, then jacking up their prices by five-thousand percent. People literally died because they couldn’t afford to pay his exorbitant prices.”
Aric nodded, unsurprised that his mother would be the one to mention that fun fac
t. If his gift for recollection was flawless, it was only because it was handed down to him through her powerful DNA.
“That’s the one,” he confirmed. “Lars’s father, Simon Scrully, made a fortune off the backs of other people’s suffering.” Aric pulled out a printed obituary and laid it on top of the folder. “The old man had a severe allergy to shellfish. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the new chef at his favorite restaurant. Scrully ate a bite of lobster sauce on his pasta and dropped dead of anaphylactic shock before anyone could administer his medicine to counteract it.”
Dante let out a wry chuckle. “Ironic way to go, considering how the asshole got rich in the first place.”
“Or convenient,” Aric’s father said. “Now that I’m hearing this, I recall some rumors about the old man’s death. Some of the gossip at the time seemed to suggest Scrully’s son settled into his inheritance with a bit more glee than grief.”
Aric nodded. “That’s right. And he’s been spending money like water ever since. Expensive toys and women. Palatial homes. In fact, just three months ago, he moved into a newly built twenty-thousand square-foot lake estate here in the province.”
Nikolai frowned. “And thanks to Kaya, we also know Scrully was making arrangements to pay a cool hundred million to Stephan Mercier on behalf of Opus Nostrum.”
“Right,” Aric replied. “The question is, in exchange for what?”
His father grunted. “Too bad we can’t ask Mercier. Kind of hard to talk when you’re missing your tongue and half your throat.”
Niko nodded, grim. “No need to guess whose handiwork that hit was. Opus tends to get twitchy whenever we start closing in on any of their weak links in the chain.”
“Which means we need to get our hands on Lars Scrully as soon as possible,” Lucan said, his gray gaze as cool as gunmetal.
Dante leaned back in his chair, flashing a dangerous grin. “I do love a good old-fashioned interrogation session.”
Beside him, Rio chuckled. “I’m with you on that, brother. Especially the part where we each take a piece of this Opus bastard apart with our fists and fangs.” The immense warrior with the smooth Spanish accent and a vicious tangle of old shrapnel scars riddling the left side of his face could be a charmer, but tonight he was as lethally serious as the rest of his comrades. He glanced at Aric. “How far is Scrully’s place from here?”