by Lara Adrian
Aric’s eyes lingered on her, as steady and certain as a caress. “You’ve got friends in the Order, but who were your friends before you came here? Where is your family?”
“I have all the friends I need here at the command center. They’re the only family I need.”
“Is that why it means so much to you to be part of the team?” he asked gently. “Because the Order is the only family you have?”
“Yes.” A shaky breath leaked out of her before she could hold it back. “And because without the Order, I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
She surprised herself, giving him that truth. She’d been friends with Mira for longer than a year and she’d never said those words out loud to her.
But saying them to Aric felt safe somehow. Maybe because he would be leaving soon.
Maybe because he was looking at her with such care and genuine interest, she couldn’t deny him if she tried.
And that was a dangerous thing.
He leaned forward, shocking her when his hand covered hers atop the table. Her heart slammed against her ribs as his thumb stroked the backs of her fingers. She knew she should pull away from his uninvited touch, but God help her, she could hardly move.
She could hardly form a logical thought when his other hand reached up to caress her face. His palm was warm and strong against her cheek, his fingers achingly tender. But there was no softness in his eyes. They glowed with predatory hunger, amber flecks of light swiftly devouring the bright green of his irises.
Kaya swallowed. The shift in the air between them had changed so suddenly, turning into something dark and seductive. They had been on the verge of this same steep plummet earlier tonight in her quarters, before Niko’s call had interrupted them. She’d been counting that narrow escape as a blessing, but now she realized the postponement had only heightened the craving she had for this man.
For this powerful Breed male who was making her yearn for something more than just duty and drive. Aric’s heated, hungry gaze as it slid from her face down to the pulse that hammered frantically in the column of her throat made her long for all the things she’d never dreamed she could have.
And never would.
Not when a blood bond would lay all her secrets bare, leaving her nowhere to hide.
“Kaya.” He spoke her name in a hushed growl, otherworldly and dark. He drew her toward him.
Before she realized what she was doing, her whole body arched into his coaxing touch, moving slowly, unresistingly, into his kiss.
His lips brushed over hers, the motion unraveling something deep inside her. Heat spiraled along her nerve endings and into her blood, igniting a cauldron in her core. She gasped at the swiftness of her response to him. Arousal so powerful it staggered her. He captured her wordless cry with his mouth, his tongue spearing past her parted lips on a hungered moan.
Kaya didn’t fight the power he had over her senses.
She craved the feeling of surrender she felt in his arms.
She wanted him--so much so, the sound of laughter and conversation drifting down the corridor took several seconds to register in her mind.
Mira and Kellan. Along with Torin and Balthazar and Webb.
Oh, God. The whole team was back from patrol and now heading this way.
Kaya pulled out of Aric’s reach, scrambling back into her seat. What the hell was wrong with her? Mortified at her lapse in judgment and control, it was all she could do to collect herself and prepare to face her comrades as the group of them converged on the war room.
Aric, however, showed no outward signs of humility. Leaning back in his chair, his eyes still glimmering with fiery sparks, he looked only at Kaya as the warriors poured inside.
“Hey, you two!” Mira strode in under the shelter of Kellan’s arm, laughter dancing in her eyes. She was freshly showered and dressed in casual clothes like her mate and the rest of her squad. “See, you guys? I told you they’d still be here working.”
“Or something,” Torin said, earning low chuckles from Bal and Webb.
Kaya groaned inwardly, knowing it was useless trying to deny anything. Especially around Torin, whose unique Breed gift allowed him to read the emotional barometer of any space he walked into. If the tall vampire with the glorious mane of long hair decided to read the room’s heated emotional state now, his face gave nothing away.
Kaya cleared her throat. “We were just about to take a break. Isn’t that right, Aric?”
He merely grunted in reply, an arrogant smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. Although his friends might pretend not to notice, she could see the fullness of his fangs behind his sensual lips. Just the idea made her pulse kick with an unwanted thrill.
Mira’s gaze ricocheted between them in question. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Well, we’re all going to hang out for a while on the back terrace. Since you were ready to take a break from... whatever you were in the middle of... come join us. That means you too, Aric.”
Without waiting for further argument, the petite captain strode out of the war room with her mate and comrades flanking her.
Kaya remained seated after they’d gone. “Go on, if you’d like. I’m going to stay and try to get through some more of these files.”
It took Aric a long moment before he moved. Then he got up from his chair and rolled it back into place at the table. Kaya closed her eyes, holding back the breath that was frozen in her throat as she waited to hear his booted feet cross the floor. In the unending silence, she reached for her tablet and tapped to open another of the image folders.
Aric’s hands came to rest gently on her shoulders. “The work can wait a while.”
She swiveled her head, prepared to make a dozen excuses as to why she preferred to stay. Aric’s crooked smile made every one of those lame protests dry up before they reached her tongue. He stood behind her, a wall of heat and muscle and dangerous temptation.
And those devastating dimples were going to be her doom.
“Come out there with me,” he said, his voice a low growl. “Rumor has it, you’ve got nothing against people having a good time.”
Her pent-up breath escaped on a small laugh. Against all better judgment and the countless warning bells that told her she’d better guard her heart as much as any other part of her anatomy around this male, she closed her files then walked with Aric out to the moonlit terrace behind the command center mansion.
It was a balmy summer night, just a trace breeze blowing over the courtyard and expansive patio where a burning fire pit and tall torches illuminated the group gathered there. Mira and Kellan and the three Breed males on her squad were seated around the pit, laughing and talking like family.
Rafe was there too. And he wasn’t alone. The Irish Breedmate, Siobhan, occupied a small stone bench along with him. Huddled against his side, she was wrapped in a blanket in spite of the warm night. If the sweetly shy looks the strawberry-blonde beauty gave Rafe were anything to go on, Kaya suspected any chill she may have felt was mainly an excuse to stay close to the handsome Breed male.
Rafe sent up a nod of greeting when he noticed Aric and Kaya coming to join them. Like the rest of the team, he had taken time to shower and change out of his patrol gear and weapons. Dressed in faded jeans and a dark T-shirt, Rafe had effortless, golden good looks but the shrewd instincts of a warrior. Kaya had gotten a taste of that latter side in the war room earlier tonight.
“Come on,” Aric said, encouraging her to follow him when she hesitated.
She went along, if only because the only remaining seat was the other little bench situated next to Rafe and Siobhan.
Kaya saw Mira smile then whisper something to Kellan as she watched her cross the terrace bricks with Aric. Music flowed out of the sound system, joining the comforting lull of conversations and the occasional bark of laughter. It was one of the things Kaya loved most about nights like this, the post-patrol ritual the squad often enjoyed. Even though she had yet to accompany the team on a formal mission, Kaya
relished the time she got to spend with Mira and the others upon their return to base each night.
But tonight everything was different.
Walking alongside Aric then taking a seat next to him on the bench made her feel part of a different unit too. One that she didn’t belong to, nor ever could.
“How’d it go out there in the city tonight?” Aric asked his friend.
Rafe lifted his shoulder. “Uneventful. Not the kind of night we were looking for. We shook down some of the usual suspects for information, but no one seems to know anything about Mercier aside from him making headlines with his marriage into the Rousseau family. And his abrupt exit from it.”
“Or else they’re not talking,” Kaya interjected.
Aric nodded. “Good chance of that. Especially after Opus made it crystal clear how they feel about potential leaks in their ranks. Hard to tell Opus secrets when you’re missing your tongue.”
Rafe’s glance strayed to Siobhan, who shuddered beneath the comfort of her thin blanket at the mention of the terrorist brotherhood. She was one of very few people able to count herself lucky enough to survive Opus’s wrath. An innocent bystander, she had been beaten and left for dead in her flat outside Dublin just a few nights ago after Opus loyalists broke in and murdered her roommate, Iona Lynch.
Kaya smiled at the Breedmate. “Hi. We haven’t met yet.”
“Ah, shit,” Rafe said, raking a hand over his head. “Sorry about that. Kaya, this is Siobhan.”
The young woman tipped her chin down in acknowledgment. “Hello,” she murmured. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same,” Kaya said as she and Aric sat on the neighboring bench.
Rafe leaned forward, his forearms braced on his knees. “Listen, Kaya, I’m sorry if I came off overly interrogative during the meeting earlier tonight.”
She shrugged and shook her head. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” Aric said. “My friend was being a dick, so let him apologize.”
“What happened?” Siobhan asked, pivoting to face Kaya.
Rafe draped his arm around his companion’s petite shoulders. “We were talking about a mission that didn’t go as smoothly as it should have. I just wanted to be clear on some of the facts, but I think I was pushing Kaya too hard at times.”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“So, I noticed. Opus Nostrum is serious shit,” he added. “I guess it’s hard to turn off my training when it comes to those bastards and the worthless scum who are loyal to them.”
Kaya nodded. “I feel the same way. And if I could’ve changed anything that happened today, believe me, I would have.”
Rafe grinned. “I’d have rather heard this pompous daywalker took a bullet in his ass instead of his arm, but no one asked me.”
Aric snorted. “No one’s asking you now, either, nightcrawler.”
“Ignore him,” Rafe said. “I generally do.” He held out his hand to her. “Apology accepted?”
“Don’t let him off too easy, Kaya. Remember, you bled for that mission today too.”
Rafe frowned. “You did?”
“Not really. It was no big deal.”
Aric gave her a sober look. “I made her run barefoot for a couple of miles through wooded terrain.”
Rafe’s blond brows arched. “And you called me a dick?”
“Show him, Kaya.”
“What? No.” She shook her head, mortified that Aric was making a big deal out of a few scrapes and bruises. She’d endured worse injuries just trying to live day-by-day on the streets when she was a kid. “Really, I’m fine.”
Rafe was already off his bench and standing in front of her. “Let me see.”
“You should,” Siobhan chimed in. “Rafe can help you. He helped me too.”
Kaya sighed. Only because they were all giving her little choice, she removed her shoes and waited while Aric’s friend checked out her wounds. “Does this hurt?”
His palm pressed flat against her abused sole. “No, it doesn’t hurt.”
In fact, it felt pretty good. Warmth suffused her tender skin, soothing her.
Healing her.
“You feel that?” Aric asked, watching her face intently as his comrade took away her pain and her injuries.
She nodded. Rafe’s ability was amazing, but she was even more captivated by the tender, intimate look in Aric’s eyes.
“I feel it,” she murmured, unsure if she was talking about the heat and light restoring her body, or the greater sensation she felt every time she was close to this Breed male.
“Good as new,” Rafe announced a moment later, his deep voice slicing through the haze of her tangled emotions. “And just in time for a little dancing.”
Someone had turned up the volume on a slow song--Kellan, by the look of it. He held Mira’s hand and guided her into the center of the expansive terrace, spinning her and then drawing her up against him. The mated couple swayed in a close embrace, eyes locked on each other.
Rafe murmured something to Siobhan, then the two of them got up and joined Mira and Kellan. Kaya watched them all for a while, desperately, achingly aware of Aric’s thigh pressed against hers on the bench they shared. His body heat seeping into her skin and bones, into the rush of blood racing through her veins.
She was relieved to see Torin and Bal get up from their places around the fire pit and saunter over to her and Aric. Webb had already disappeared into the night, going wherever it was he preferred to spend his time after hours.
The two warriors nodded to Aric as they approached. “We’re going to head back into the city to look for blood Hosts before the feeding curfew,” Bal said. “Care to join us?”
“No, thanks.” Aric’s reply was immediate. “I fed before I left London. I’ll be back in D.C. before I need to find a vein again.”
The two vampires glanced at Kaya. Torin had the audacity to wink at her. It was all she could do not to leap up and pummel the amused look off his face.
“You should go,” she told Aric as her comrades strode away. “You don’t have to keep me company. I was just about to turn in for the night.”
Aric smiled. “Always trying to get rid of me.” He rose, then held his hand out to her. “Come on, Mrs. Bouchard. As I recall, we never finished our dance.”
CHAPTER 11
For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, Aric found himself holding Kaya close in his arms while a crooner waxed on about true love and happy-ever-after. Sappy, fairy tale sentiments that should have made his molars ache with their impossible sweetness. But it wasn’t his molars that ached while Kaya swayed against him.
Everywhere their bodies brushed, currents of electric heat crackled beneath his skin. Instead of making jokes or searching for other ways to demonstrate that he wasn’t susceptible to the kind of hearts-and-flowers weaknesses that seemed to have overtaken the other two couples dancing nearby, Aric found himself riveted to Kaya’s lovely face in the half-light on the terrace.
His veins pounded, a possessive need surging inside him as he moved to the tempo of the music and tried not to imagine how soft she felt, how the scent of her was making his mouth throb with the presence of his fangs.
Damn.
Maybe he should have gone with Mira’s teammates to look for a blood Host. It was true he wouldn’t need the nourishment for days, but that had little to do with the hunger he’d been battling since his first taste of Kaya. Kissing her that first time had been an impulsive mistake, though one he couldn’t seem to regret.
Kissing her again in the war room tonight had been worse than impulse or a mistake. It had been possessive, a compulsion he couldn’t have fought even if he tried. That need still raked him. Now, try as he could not to imagine the two of them naked and in a sweaty tangle, his mind refused to obey.
The fact that she seemed to meet him with equal passion each time they’d kissed only made his desire for her burn all the hotter. And now that she was in his arms again, it took everything he had
just to keep that desire on a short leash. Especially when she gazed up at him, a note of pleasure in her dark brown eyes.
“Are you going to tell me what that cryptic smile is about or leave me guessing?”
She shrugged, still watching him with an avid interest that made his pulse kick into a higher gear. “I was just thinking that if things don’t work out for you with the Order, maybe you should take up ballroom dancing.”
He choked on a laugh. “Oh, thanks. Remind me never to come to you for career advice.”
Her smile flashed brilliant white, the joy on her face utterly captivating. “I’m serious. You’ve got some impressive moves.”
He grunted, arching a brow. “You haven’t even seen my best ones yet.”
With her face still lit with amusement, he spun her into a low dip. Her surprised squeal and burst of easy laughter drew the attention of their friends. Someone applauded, but Aric hardly noticed and didn’t care. Nor did Kaya, from the delighted look on her face as he brought her back up and held her close.
Her cheeks were bright pink, her dark eyes glittering along with her broad smile.
“Careful, now, or I might think you’re actually starting to have a good time.”
“I am.” She did a little jig in his arms, nodding toward her shoes. “I feel like I could dance all night. Thank you for asking Rafe to heal me. And thanks for standing up for me during the meeting with everyone too.”
Aric shrugged. “No thanks necessary for either one. Partners stick together.”
“Is that what we are now?”
He nodded, brushing a stray tendril of dark hair off her cheek. “For better or worse, Mrs. Bouchard.”
“Right,” she murmured. “Until D.C. do we part.”
He nodded, uncertain why the comment felt like a jab. Once his work for Nikolai was finished, he was leaving Montreal. Kaya had been making it fairly clear that she was as eager for him to go as he was. Perhaps more so.
They continued to dance in silence now, one slow song after another. Eventually, Rafe and Siobhan drifted quietly back into the mansion. Aric didn’t have to guess anymore if his friend was falling hard for the female. The truth of it had been written all over his face tonight.