“Lastite Lala.” Nera’s tone was dubious.
“Yeah.” Bomb maker extraordinaire, opinionated teenager, and often a pain in his ass. But she was theirs now. “She had a messed-up childhood.” He met Nera’s gaze. “No one in her past showed her how to feel, how to give affection, yet she does. Generously. I think it’s built into us. Humanity, through all the millennia, has always had a need to belong.”
Nera pushed off the wall and kept wandering, this time touching the spines of the old books. He let himself drink her in. Her skin wasn’t pale or dark, but some fascinating shade in between. He looked at her long fingers, amazed that such elegant hands could steal, subdue, or kill with such ease.
“You think emotions for another person is just a biological imperative?” she asked.
Their eyes met. “I think the biological drive is there, but we don’t feel for everyone we meet. It can be more. Sometimes much more…a meeting of souls.” He’d seen it happen for both his brothers.
Nera’s lips quirked. Not quite a smile. He’d never seen her smile. “Poetic.”
“What made you, Nera?”
She stiffened. “A nightmare.” She strolled across the room with her lethal grace. “And how about your past at the Institute? Did that make you, too?”
He tensed. “That’s not up for discussion.”
“So, you just pick and choose which parts matter?”
His hands curled into fists. “I don’t want to discuss it.”
She inclined her head. “I’ll leave you to your work.”
He watched her leave the room, and pondered biological imperatives and the burning need to connect with someone who probably would never feel the same way.
With her spectrum camouflage on,Nera walked back into the library. She’d paid a lot of e-creds for the upgraded tech that rendered her virtually invisible. It made her job a lot easier.
She sank into a chair across the room and just watched Niklas Phoenix.
He was a man who was easy to watch. Tall, broad across the shoulders, but with a rugged face that had a studious edge to it. His intelligence radiated off him like heat waves.
What was it about him that kept drawing her to him? Nera fought the unfamiliar urge to fidget. Aside from the good looks and a sharp mind, he had a tendency to brood. And there were billions of men in the galaxy who were more handsome, and easier to deal with.
She watched him bend his head over the document laid out before him on the desk. A lock of his dark hair fell over his face. Steady and true. That’s what she saw when she looked at Niklas Phoenix. She hadn’t met many people in her lifetime who she’d describe that way. He had an encyclopedia of a mind, admirable dedication to his brothers, commitment to his craft.
Nera remembered when she’d first seen him. She’d only just moved into the treasure-hunting game, and had spent a lot of time watching the number one players. And that had been the infamous Dathan Phoenix and his brothers. The camaraderie between the men had been apparent…even when they were bitching at each other. It had left her confused. She’d never in all her life had that kind of solidarity with anyone.
She watched Niklas tap notes into his Sync. His brow was creased, and he rubbed the back of his neck. She’d been trainedto interpret the smallest facial expressions and read someone’s needs. He was intrigued but frustrated by what he was reading.
After a few more minutes, he put a call through to the ship’s galley and ordered tea and a snack.
She could watch him for hours, she decided. There was something so soothing about this man’s intense concentration. It made her wonder what it would be like if it was focused on her.
Nera shifted in her seat. Not somewhere she was ever going to go. Niklas was a fascination, but she would never, ever change the strange relationship they had. She couldn’t seem to break off her contact with him, but couldn’t risk anything else.
Niklas’ Sync chimed.
“Phoenix.”
“Nik.” Avril Luma-Smythe’s voice.
Nera frowned. She did not like the woman. She was too…perky. All earnest enthusiasm and flattery for Niklas. And the way the woman looked at him, and smiled at him. Nera sniffed. No, she didnotlike the astro-archeologist.
“I just wanted to check how the work was going,” the woman said. “Maybe you want to bounce some ideas off someone?”
“No, but thanks for the offer. Nera’s here with me. If I need to bounce anything, I’ll bounce it off her.” He politely ended the call.
Nera sat there, frozen. How had he known she was there?
