The feeling was gratifying. Another big client would be a step up here. Normally, she wouldn’t mix business with her private life, but that couldn’t be helped now. He’d kissed her. She’d just have to feel the relationship out as it progressed. Go slow. Think smart.
So what if Maze thought he’d been trying too hard and was boring at the same time?
“I’ll be right there.” Jordan hung up and opened her desk drawer to pull out her compact. Dark circles shadowed her eyes, but otherwise…same old Jordan. Gloss might help, though. She applied a little pink and smacked her lips. Okay.
Standing, she straightened her pencil skirt and walked down the hall. She had a smile ready when she turned the corner to the glass-walled conference room where a man waited, but it wasn’t Vince.
Oh. Him. The tall, black column of scary man.
Her hopes sank. This had to be about Maze.
She pushed through the glass door. “Um…hello again.”
“Jordan,” he said, hand outstretched. “I never got a chance to introduce myself the other night. I’m Michael Reese.”
His low voice vibrated something within her. But that wasn’t her only reaction. Every sense, every nerve was hyperaware and shouting alarm, as if she’d been hiding, which she wasn’t, and he’d pulled back a curtain and found her. She felt exposed, as if he could see right into her. See her clearly.
He’d shaved, so apparently he did own a razor, but it only made her want to stare stupidly at the strong lines of his face. It gave her small satisfaction that he had circles under his eyes, too, though they did nothing to lessen his impact. Rough. Potent. Overpowering.
Made her throat go dry and her heart race. She preferred men who were easy on her system, with whom she could keep her balance. Vince Blackman was a good example.
But because this Mr. Reese had helped her sister, she had to hear him out. Couldn’t very well refuse. She reached and shook his hand for the second time. Life kept conspiring to make them touch. “How do you know where I work?”
The Envoi had to have given out her private information. She’d lodge a complaint just as soon as he left.
“You told me your name and I looked you up online.” The darkness in his eyes unsettled her. The air seemed to hold him differently, as if it were hot and dry—electric—where it met his skin. And there was something haunted in his expression, as if he were on her doorstep, the bearer of grim news.
“Why are you here?” She could guess.
He smiled. “I thought we could help each other.”
Uh-huh. His smile didn’t touch those troubled eyes. This was going to be bad. Maisie bad.
He inclined his head toward the conference table. “Can we sit?”
Was there a choice? She took a step and lowered herself slowly into a seat. He chose one diagonally across from her, not directly across.
“You haven’t been sleeping,” he observed. “I’d guess the last time you closed your eyes was the Rêve Saturday night.”
She wanted him gone, so she cut to the chase. “How do think we can help each other?”
Who was he, anyway? He was dressed casually, but in expensive clothes. Not the average working Joe, that was for sure.
“I work in Rêve and have for many years,” he said.
Rêve had only been legal in the States for two. So he was shady. She’d pegged him right from the beginning.
“From what you witnessed with your sister,” he continued, “I’m sure you’ve gathered that there’s a lot more to shared dreaming than fantasy beaches.”
Maze had said she was a courier. “I gathered as much, yes.”
“In fact, it’s being exploited in new ways every day.”
Exploited, huh? Spoken from personal experience, no doubt.#p#分页标题#e#
He leaned forward, elbows on the table. “But to do anything in Rêve, you either have to have an aptitude or employ someone with an aptitude. Someone like your sister, who brought an unapproved party into a closed and carefully monitored dream.”
Jordan needed to get legal counsel immediately, especially if this bastard was working his way up to threatening her with knowledge of Maisie’s latest stupidity. Better her sister came clean with the authorities than be at the mercy of a stranger. Were there laws governing what happened in a dream? Jordan was going to find out.
“Universities are fertile grounds for Revelers,” he continued. “I bet some ingenious kid set up his own shop off campus. She tried it, was identified, and then eventually recruited by someone who needed things done by a young, talented person who was cheerful about breaking rules.”
Yeah, it probably had happened exactly like that.