If she had to guess, she’d go withmore. After all, she’d felt the heat of this Breed male’s allure firsthand. Aric Chase was charismatic, magnetic. And damn if he didn’t kiss like the devil too.
She should be relieved he was leaving Montreal.
Especially after what happened today.
Her encounter with that security officer had left her more rattled than it should have. She had never seen the man before, but the fact that he’d been so certain he knew her--by a name she hadn’t heard in years--continued to bother Kaya even now, for reasons she preferred not to consider.
She had secrets no one knew.
Old secrets, but still powerful enough to destroy everything she’d worked for.
And if anyone at the Order uncovered them, there would be no place for her on any team. No, they would condemn her as a liar for all the time she’d kept those secrets buried.
Worse, they would have every right to consider her an enemy.
Letting herself get sidetracked by a charming player like Aric was a mistake she refused to make. It was good that he wasn’t sticking around. If she were smart, she’d wish him gone from Montreal immediately.
And Kaya was smart.
It was the only way she’d survived this long.
She gave Aric a wry smile. “I’m sure the women of Washington, D.C., will be delighted to have you back.”
He stared as if he wanted to say something more, then thought better of it. “Actually, I don’t expect I’ll stay in D.C. for long. The plan has always been for me to join one of teams in Seattle once I’m cleared for patrols.”
Which would put him even farther away from Montreal. And so much the better. “What’s in Seattle?”
“Rafe’s father, Dante, heads up the command center out there. He and my father have been like brothers for the past twenty years. It only seemed fitting that I serve under Dante since Rafe is normally a member of one of my father’s teams in Boston.”
“You mean, when he’s not being sent off to Ireland with you to rescue random damsels in distress?”
Aric grinned. “Something like that, yeah.”
“How very chivalric,” she tossed back, enjoying their back-and-forth despite her determination to keep him at arm’s length for however many hours he would remain in Montreal. “I guess chivalry’s to be expected when we’re talking about the Order’s golden prince.”
He scoffed. “Prince?”
“Oh, come on. Don’t pretend you don’t know. The only name that carries more weight in the Order than your family’s is Lucan Thorne’s.” Kaya studied his handsome face, all those sharp angles and broad slopes that combined to give him a classic, regal look that few women could resist. “Who else do you know who can say they’re not only the son of the first daywalking Breed female in existence and the hero of the Order who killed that madman, Dragos, two decades ago?”
“My father would never take all the credit for that. He had the entire Order with him that day, including Niko and Renata.” Nevertheless, Aric’s eyes danced with familial pride. “And there is one other person I know who can make the same claim as me. My sister, Carys.”
Kaya nodded at the mention of his fraternal twin. “Is she a lot like you?”
“Too much,” he said, a loving smile tilting his sculpted lips. “My sister is a force of nature, always has been. You’d like her, I think. The two of you have a lot in common.”
“Such as?”
“Intelligence. Determination. Courage. Beauty.” He smirked. “Carys got all the good traits between us. I guess that makes me the bad twin.”
Kaya smiled. “I don’t know about that,” she said, weathering a wistful sense of envy for the way he spoke so adoringly about his sibling. “I think you’ve got a few passable qualities too.”
“Care to elaborate? I’ve got a couple of hours to spare.”
She laughed. “No way. You don’t need anyone helping to make your head swell. Least of all me.”
His grin widened. “Why not let me be the judge of that?”
It wasn’t until he started to move closer to her seat on the edge of the bed that Kaya realized she was losing control of the situation. It was so easy to get swept up into banter with him. Easier still to forget that they really weren’t friends, that they would never be something more either. She could not allow that. Not with anyone, but especially him.
