She drew back from him, retreating a few inches closer to her corner of the sofa. “I’m sorry if I’m to blame for some of your wounds tonight. You told me to stay put, but I couldn’t just sit and wait for the danger to pass.”
“I wish to hell you were better at following instructions,” he said, offering her a wry smile. “But you were a help to me in there, Kaya. You’ve got great warrior instincts and skill.”
She lifted her shoulder in a mild shrug. “I’ve had good training. And it helps to have a good partner.”
“Yes, it does.” Aric held her meaningful gaze. “I don’t think I could hope for anyone better.”
Something flickered in her dark eyes, shadows that seemed to dim the tender regard she held him in before shuttering her gaze to him completely. She got up from the sofa and poured a glass of wine, taking a drink of it as she strode in front of the fireplace.
“Maybe we’re not that good together.” It was an abrupt redirect, steering their conversation away from the awareness he knew she felt as strongly as he did. “We finally identified Mercier’s Opus contact, but in the end it was all for nothing. The Order’s come back less one of our best members and we’re no closer to stopping Opus Nostrum than we were before you and I met.”
Aric rose and moved over to where she stood, her arms crossed in front of her, fingers grasped around her wineglass as if it was the only thing holding her together. “We did suffer losses today. But so did Opus. They’ve got one less member of their inner circle now too. And we’ve got substantial intel collected from Scrully’s estate and computers. We’ve also taken a van full of UV weapons away from Opus’s arsenal.”
Without the time or preparations to detonate the recovered cache of arms and munitions, the crates were currently stowed in the bowels of the command center, a fact that was making more than a few of the Breed warriors a bit twitchy.
“They knew we were coming, Aric. The timing of Scrully’s killing and the Order’s arrival couldn’t have been coincidence, right? Opus’s assassins didn’t just get lucky when they brought a van filled with UV weapons to that estate to kill Scrully. They were waiting for us. They knew we were coming and they knew when.”
He stilled, somewhat taken aback to hear her say the very thing that the Order’s commanders had been discussing ever since they’d returned tonight. Rafe had made no secret of his suspicions over the past few days either, pressing the very likely possibility that the Order had a leak with loyalties to Opus somewhere in their intel chain. Or somewhere closer than that.
Even Aric had to admit he had doubts--too many of them centered on the beautiful woman standing in front of him now.
She spoke so earnestly, so convincingly, she was either innocent or one hell of a cold-hearted liar.
And he had to be some kind of fool for how eagerly he grasped for the former while pretending he could ignore the latter. Staring into Kaya’s soulful eyes made him want to ignore a lot of the things his logical mind was telling him.
That his life and all of the goals he had for his future as a warrior with no chains to hold him down were still the things he wanted most.
That his duty to the Order came before the woman he couldn’t resist.
That he couldn’t possibly be in love with her after only a handful of days.
He stared into her sincere gaze, wishing he had her power to read a mind with his touch. “You’re right about what happened tonight. Opus had to be tipped-off by someone. After what happened with Angus Mackie the other night as well, the Order is all but certain we have a mole somewhere.”
She blanched a bit, then glanced down into her glass. “I hope that’s not true.”
“So do I, Kaya.”
He could smell her anxiety as he took the wine from her hand and set it on the mantel. She was afraid now. He saw it in the heavy drum of her pulse, which ticked in a faster tempo at the base of her throat. Instead of feeling suspicion, even anger, at the sight of that frantic, throbbing vein, what he felt the most was hunger.
A need so primal and sexual it rocked him to his core.
She looked up again, into his eyes. He didn’t have to wonder if they were glowing with the ferocity of his desire; Kaya’s face said it all. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t want her, or that the truth of his feelings toward her didn’t go far deeper than that.
He caressed her cheek, a low curse hissing out of him. “When I realized you were in that house with me tonight, I was so fucking furious at you. I knew the instant you’d been shot by that bastard on the stairs. I heard your scream, Kaya. Then I smelled your blood.” He shook his head, his flawless memory providing a replay that tore at him all over again. “I wanted to kill every last one of those fucks who tried to hurt you. But that’s not all I wanted.”
He let his hand drift along the side of her neck, smoothing his thumb over the artery that beat so strongly below her ear. Kaya sucked in her breath, her gaze widening. When her lips parted on that shocked gasp, Aric took her face in his hands and kissed her. It was a fierce claiming, his tongue invading without permission or mercy. Possessive and heated, he ravished her mouth with all the passion and raw hunger that had been riding him ever since he first set eyes on her.
She kissed him back with equal intensity, until a small moan bubbled up from her throat. She broke away from him, panting. “Aric.”
She took a step back, his brave Kaya who had charged headlong into a building filled with enemy gunmen only hours ago, now trembled after his kiss.
“Are you afraid of me?” He waited in dread for her answer.
“No.” She shook her head as if to reaffirm it. “I’m afraid of myself . . . of what I might agree to if I let you stay in this room with me any longer.”
Her confession shouldn’t have given him as much pleasure as it did. Bolstered by it, he moved closer, denying her retreat. He touched her face again, running the backs of his knuckles along her cheek then down the velvety column of her neck.
“Are you afraid you’ll let me do this?” he asked, continuing his slow caress down the length of her toned arm before moving onto her breasts.
