Not here.
Not when she had nowhere to escape, even if she wanted to.
“Carys is a grown woman,” Jordana said, hoping to put the focus back where it belonged. “If she decides to be with Rune—even if she takes him as her blood-bonded mate someday—that’s entirely up to her. No matter what you or her family thinks would be best for her.”
“If you really believed that, I doubt you’d be with someone like Elliott Bentley-Squire.”
Jordana couldn’t even try to hide the fact that she was totally taken aback. “You know Elliott?”
He lifted his shoulder in a negligent shrug. “I know everything I need to know about him. I don’t find him all that interesting. Which makes me wonder why you do.” It was an impolite question, but Nathan didn’t seem to care. “You and Elliott Bentley-Squire have been a foregone conclusion for the past year, give or take.”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Long time,” Nathan said. “And yet no blood bond.”
Jordana frowned, feeling a need to defend herself. Elliott too. “He and I have known each other forever. Elliott has been a family friend since I was a child.” When Nathan’s face remained impassive, she said, “We’ll make things official when we’re ready. We’re in no hurry.”
“Apparently,” he agreed, but his tone was anything but light. “From what I’ve seen of the man’s professional résumé, it doesn’t indicate an inability to close a deal. So I’m guessing the problem must lie with you.”
“There is no problem,” she insisted, surprised at how desperately she wanted to convince him of that. Right now, standing just a foot away from Nathan in the seclusion of the supply room, she needed to convince herself that she belonged to Elliott Bentley-Squire. Jordana lifted her chin. “You seem to think you know a lot about Elliott and me. Do you make a practice of invading civilians’ privacy?”
“No. Only women who make it a practice of kissing me, then insisting to their presumptive mates that they have no idea who I am.”
Oh, God. Before he left the museum, Nathan must have heard her deny knowing him to Elliott. Jordana winced, remorseful now. She gave a mild shake of her head. “I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “If you have to lie to Bentley-Squire to keep him happy, it’s none of my concern.”
“No,” she said, ignoring the jab. “I mean, I’m sorry about that night in my apartment … when I kissed you.”
“Are you?” He didn’t believe her. His tone was cool and level, but it contained a dangerous edge.
“Of course I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never done anything like that before.”
“Then why did you?”
She glanced down, searching for an answer that would make sense to herself as well as to him. “I did it because I was afraid.”
“You didn’t seem afraid, Jordana.”
“I was afraid of what you might do if you found out Carys was there with Rune that night. I only wanted to stop you from finding out. I just wanted to distract you.”
His face darkened in challenge. “There were a dozen different ways you could’ve done that, none of which would’ve involved putting your mouth on mine.”
She groaned, feeling her cheeks go warm and red. “I know. I’ve already apologized. It was a mistake, and I’m sorry, Nathan.”
The way he looked at her brought every nuance of their kiss back to life in her senses—the cushion of his mouth beneath hers, the softness of his lips combined with the rough abrasion of his dark-shadowed jaw. The powerful stillness of his body as she threw herself against him.
Punishing muscle and lethal strength caged inside a rigid, total control.
Some brazen part of her she barely recognized throbbed with the want to know that kiss again—to have a taste of what it would be like to press against this deadly male and see if he ever let his iron discipline slip, even a little.
More uncomfortable heat flooded her face at the uninvited direction of her thoughts.
And deep inside her, another unsettling heat bloomed …
Nathan’s gaze lingered on her, those eyes seeing everything about her. Knowing everything. Ruthless in their study of her.
Jordana grew anxious suddenly, afraid that Nathan might touch her.