Jordan shrugged. “Here and there.”
Her blood pressure shot up ten points, but she did her best to keep her temper under control. “Could you be a little more specific?”
He shot her a nonapologetic smile that was way too charming. “I’m pretty much self-taught.”
Hell. She needed more that a damn charming smile to convince her he hadn’t been educated on another planet. That he wasn’t a spy.
“You don’t have a PhD?”
He didn’t answer.
How could Jordan have fooled her so easily? More importantly, what was he hiding? What else hadn’t he told her?
“What about job experience?”
“Nothing verifiable.”
“I suppose you fudged the glowing recommendations, too?” Her pulse pounded and she massaged her aching temple. “Who the hell are you?”
“You might want to take an aspirin—”
“Thank you, doctor.” Her sarcasm escaped unchecked. “Oh, excuse me, you aren’t a doctor of anything, are you?”
“I don’t need a medical degree to see that your head hurts and you’re taking it out on me.” His tone was calm, low, and husky, and she found it sexy, which irked her even more.
“So now you’re a shrink.”
He’d barely glanced at her before turning to work on his beloved circuits, but it was so like him to notice details, even her wincing in pain.
Vivianne willed Jordan to turn around. “How did you do it? It’s as if you appeared in Barcelona six months ago. Until then, you had no credit. You attended no schools. Even your birth records are fake. I can’t find anyone who knew you before you walked into my office to apply for a job.”
“And you’ve never regretted it.”
“Until now.” Damn him.
“You don’t mean that.” Jordan shrugged. “You don’t regret letting me build you this ship.”
Vivianne hadn’t developed her company by allowing handsome men to sweet-talk her into trusting them or by ignoring urgent government warnings. Both Vivianne and the Tribes were after the same goal—both wanted the Grail. So it was very possible that the reason her chief engineer had faked his past was because he was a spy—for the Tribes.
She felt sick to her stomach, but her tone snapped with authority. “Jordan, put down your tools. You can’t work on the Draco until security clears you.”
In typical Jordan fashion, he kept right on working. “Don’t you want to see if the new engine’s going to work?”
“We’ll straighten that our later.” Her temper flared, because Jordan knew just how to pique her interest. From the get-go, the engines had been a major issue. It almost broke her heart to know that the Draco might never fly now that she was pulling him off the project.
“I’m about ready to test a new power source.”
“What are you talking about? What new power source?”
“The Ancient Staff.” Jordan reached to a sheath he wore on his belt and drew out an object that resembled a tree branch with symbols carved into the bark. When he flicked his wrist, the rod telescoped and expanded with a metallic click. Extended to five feet, the Ancient Staff gave off an otherworldly shimmer unlike anything Vivianne had ever seen.
The air around the staff glittered like heat reflecting off hot pavement. It was if the staff folded and compressed the space around it, the eerie effect and haze continuously rippling outward.
She peered at Jordan. The cords in his neck were tight, his broad shoulders tense, as if he were bracing for her reaction. She tried to tamp down a pinch of panic. “Don’t move.”
He moved to place the staff into position. “The Ancient Staff will supply far more power to the Draco’s engines than a cosmic converter.”
That staff wasn’t in the plans. It hadn’t ever been discussed. For all she knew, once he attached the strange power source to the Draco, they’d all blow up. Unnerved, she reached for her handheld communicator to call security, but there was no time. It would take only a second for him to snap the Ancient Staff into the housing.
She’d have to stop him herself. “Turn it off.”
“The staff doesn’t have an off switch.”
Vivianne jerked backward a step. “Don’t attach that thing to my ship.”
“It’s meant to—”
“I said no.” Mouth dry with suspicion, she clamped her hand on his shoulder.
Before she could yank him back, Jordan snapped the rod into place. The anxiety she’d been holding back knotted in her stomach.
But controlling her fear was the least of her worries as the air around the rod shimmered, then spread up his arm.
“What type of energy is this?” she asked.
“The powerful kind.”
“The engines can deal with that kind of power?”
“I hope so.”
The energy crawled all the way up his arm and stretched toward her hand. She tried to jerk back, but her body refused to obey her mind. Her feet wouldn’t move. Her fingers might as well have been frozen.
Panicked, she watched the glow of energy flow over Jordan’s shoulder to her hand. Every hair on the back of her neck standing on end, she braced for pain. But when the glowing energy engulfed her fingers and washed up her arm, then sluiced over her body, the tingling sensation somehow banished her headache and expelled her fear.
The effect was instantaneous and undeniable. Her breasts tingled. Her skin flamed as if she and Jordan had spent the past fifteen minutes engaging in fore-play rather than arguing over his nonexistent past. She’d always found him attractive, but now it was if the staff had turned on a switch inside her. She swallowed thickly. If he felt the same effects, he wasn’t showing it.
Every centimeter of her skin now was demanding to be stroked. Unwarranted sensations exploded all over her erogenous zones. Her nipples tightened, exquisitely sensitized. The scales on the insides of her arms and legs fluttered. Sweet juice seeped between her thighs.
Drenched in pure lust, she shook her head, trying to clear it. “What the hell is going on?”
“Don’t know.” Jordan practically growled, as if it took superhuman effort just to speak.
So he felt as totally, inexplicably aroused as she did. Obviously, he wasn’t handling it well, either, but that didn’t stop desire from rushing through all her senses.
She craved him like a starving dragon needs platinum, yet this could not be. Not without an emotional connection. She didn’t do chemistry. She didn’t do one-nighters. She wouldn’t crave a man she barely knew.
But there was no fighting or denying the potent passion slamming her. Sexual need burned into her flesh, blazed in her bones, smoldered through her blood, the sensations fiery hot.
If she didn’t have sex in the next few seconds, she was certain she would spontaneously combust.
THE DISH
Where authors give you the inside scoop!
From the desk of Susan Kearney
Dear Reader,
I came up with my idea for LUCAN (on sale now), the first book in the Pendragon Legacy Trilogy, in the usual way. A time machine landed in my backyard early one morning, and I forgot all about sleeping in—especially after a hunky alien sauntered right up to my back porch and knocked.
Scrambling from bed, I yanked on a cami and jeans, stashed a tape recorder in my back pocket and ran my fingers through my hair. Like any working writer worth her publisher’s advance, I was willing to forego sleep for the sake of research.
I yanked open the back door.
Did I mention the guy was hot? No way would I have guessed he was an archeologist back from a mission to a planet named Pendragon. But I’m getting ahead of myself. From his squared jaw to the intelligent gleam in his eyes to his ripped chest, Lucan was all macho male.
And for the next few hours he was all mine.
“I understand you’re interested in love stories written in the future,” Lucan said, his lips widening into a charming grin.
“I am.” Heart poun
ding with excitement, I joined him on the porch. We each took a chair.
Lucan steepled his hands under his chin. “In the future, global pollution will cause worldwide sterility.”
Uh-oh. “Humanity is going to die?” I asked.
“Our best hope will be a star map I found in King Arthur’s castle.”
“A star map…” Oh, that sounded exciting. “You followed the map to the stars?”
“To find the Holy Grail.”
“Because the Holy Grail will cure Earth’s infertility problem?”
He nodded and I was pleased. I was a writer for a reason. I could put clues together. But I wanted more. “You mentioned a love story?”
Lucan’s face softened. “Lady Cael, High Priestess of Avalon.”
“She helped you?”
His full lips twisted into a handsome grin. “First, she almost killed me.”
“But you’re still alive,” I prodded, settling back in my chair. There was nothing I liked better than a good adventure story about saving the world, especially when it involved romance and love.
If you’d like to read the story Lucan told me, the book is in stores now. And if you’d like to contact me, you can do so at www.susankearney.com.
Enjoy!
From the desk of Marliss Melton
Dear Readers,
“What inspires your stories?” my readers ask. I tell them everything—news stories, movies, dreams, but most especially personal experience. “Write what you know” is wise advice, especially when it comes to painting a vivid setting. Though I’ve never visited the jungles of Colombia the way my characters do in my latest book SHOW NO FEAR (on sale now), I did get to experience the jungle as a child living in Thailand. During my family’s three-year tour there, we often vacationed at a game reserve called Kao Yai.
Children are wonderfully impressionable. I will never forget the moist coolness of the jungle air or the ruckus of the gibbons, swinging in the canopy at dawn and again at sunset. And the birds! There was a great white hornbill named Sam, hand-raised by the park rangers, that liked to frighten unsuspecting tourists by dive-bombing them! One morning, I fed her Fruit Loops off my bungalow deck. By day, my parents would drag all five of us kids on mile-long hikes, an experience stamped indelibly into my mind, providing inspiration for Gus and Lucy’s perilous hikes. Our labors were always rewarded by a swim in the basin of a thirty-foot waterfall. Behind the waterfall, I discovered a secret cave, just like Gus and Lucy’s. On one hike in particular, we stumbled into a set of huge tiger tracks. Who knew how close a tiger was lurking? Luckily, it left us alone.
Without a doubt, my childhood adventures have provided me with tons of material for my writing. I hope you enjoyed Gus and Lucy’s adventures in SHOW NO FEAR. To read more about my adventurous childhood and what inspires my writing, visit my Web site at www.marlissmelton.com.
Sincerely,
From the desk of Michelle Rowen
Dear Reader,
In my Immortality Bites series, I’ve put fledgling vampire Sarah Dearly through a great many trials and tribulations, and she’s weathered them all with her trademark sarcasm (her greatest weapon against nasty vampire hunters), grace, and charm (although this is usually mixed with a whole lot of anxiety and paranoia).
In TALL, DARK & FANGSOME (on sale now), the fifth and final book in the series, Sarah finds all of her vampire-related issues coming to a head. Her nightwalker curse seems likely to turn her permanently into an evil, bloodsucking vamp; she’s being blackmailed into helping Gideon Chase, the leader of the vampire hunters, become the strongest vamp ever created; and her romance with master vamp Thierry seems destined to break both of their hearts.
Life sure ain’t easy for a vamp.
How will it all work out? Will Sarah get the happily ever after she’s been hoping for?
I wish I knew!
(Ha. I do know. I wrote it! But I can’t just give away the ending so easily, can I?)
What I know for sure is that writing these crazy characters for the past five-plus years has been a pleasure and I’m going to miss them very much! I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey and that you’re as pleased as I am with the ending to Sarah’s story…
Happy Reading!
www.michellerowen.com
Table of Contents
Copyright
“It’s Going to be Okay,” Lucan Said.
Praise For Susan Kearney
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
A Preview of Rion
Chapter 1
A Preview of Jordan
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The Dish
Lucan Page 29