She felt different. Not simply because of her lost virginity and the incredible passion she experienced last night.
She was different.
Changed in a way she couldn’t quite define. It was as if she were evolving into a new skin, into a new sense of herself, and doing it at an accelerating pace that should have frightened her.
Yet it didn’t. She felt strong and alive. And all she knew was, regardless of where she was headed with Nathan, her life now could never go back to what it was before.
“Carys,” she murmured, “do you remember when I told you how Nathan makes me feel?”
“Of course I do.” Carys stared at her with clear-eyed understanding. “Like you’re on the edge of a cliff and he’s a storm about to sweep you over.”
“Yeah, like that. Well, last night … I did it. I stepped off.” Jordana sighed. “I stepped off with my eyes wide open and now I’m falling. What if no one’s there to catch me? What if what I’m feeling for Nathan is sheer, heedless stupidity and I end up crashing and burning on the ground?”
Carys smiled at her in the mirror. “Sweetheart, if Nathan sees you in this dress, the only one in danger of crashing and burning will be him.”
Nathan’s comm device vibrated just as he was about to drop his knuckles on Commander Chase’s study door at the Boston compound. Paused there, he frowned and glanced at the incoming message. Probably Rafe or another member of his team, wondering why he wasn’t down in the weapons room with them, putting the crew through their daily paces.
He stared at the number on the display.
It wasn’t any of the warriors.
Jordana.
How the hell did she know his private call code?
Curious now, and more intrigued than he cared to admit, Nathan tapped the message open.
Hi. Carys gave me your number. Hope you don’t mind.
Fuck.
Yes, he did mind, but that didn’t keep him from scanning to the next short message, his veins going suddenly electric.
Can’t stop thinking about last night. About us.
Neither could he, and the distraction was driving him out of his damned mind.
I can’t stop thinking about you, inside me.
Holy fuck.
Now that hot current racing through him arced sharply south, rendering him instantly hard. He shifted his stance, for all the good that did.
He had a crystal-clear mental image of Jordana lying naked and open beneath him, and there was no way to relieve the pressure of his huge erection, which strained full and heavy in his fatigues.
Scowling furiously, he glanced to the next line.
I’ll be thinking of you at the exhibit party tonight too. Join me, maybe?
He didn’t miss the real invitation she was extending. Neither did his cock. Every blood vessel in his body lit up with eager agreement. As tempting as it was to pick up again where he and Jordana left off, Nathan growled and tried to push the idea out of his head.>“Her name is Jordana Gates. Her father, Martin Gates, is one of Boston’s most prominent residents. Gates is unmated. He adopted Jordana as an infant.”
Lucan grunted. “Not a typical arrangement, for a single Breed male to take in a Breedmate as his child.”
“Not typical, but not unheard of,” Chase said. “My family has been friendly with Martin Gates since his arrival in Boston from Vancouver a few years before First Dawn. His reputation over those twenty-plus years has been spotless. He made his fortune in the stock market and investments in fine art. As for taking in an orphaned infant to raise on his own, I’ve personally heard Gates say more than once that without blood heirs or family to look after, he felt it a shame to have acquired so much and have no one to share it with. The man is as charitable as he is wealthy. And Martin Gates is very, very wealthy.”
“And Jordana?” Lucan asked.
“A nice girl,” Chase said. “A bright, beautiful woman. She could probably have her pick of any man in the city, Breed or human. For some time, there were rumors that she was involved with a vampire named Elliott Bentley-Squire, Martin Gates’s prominent, longtime attorney and friend. To hear Bentley-Squire talk, it was only a matter of time before they would be mated. Back Bay society rags have been speculating on the match for years.”