“Lust, honey.” Jamie pinched the last dumpling with his chopsticks. “It can make you do crazier things than love sometimes. Trust me, I’ve been there.”
As he chewed on his appetizer, Jamie’s gaze held Gabrielle’s for a long moment, before it swept over her loosely tousled hair and suddenly flushing cheeks. She attempted a casual smile, but couldn’t keep her secret from betraying her to him in the happy gleam of her eyes. Jamie set his chopsticks down on his plate. He cocked his head at her, his bobbed blond hair swinging around his chin.
“Oh. My. God.” He grinned. “You did it.”
“Did what?” A soft laugh bubbled out of her mouth.
“You did it. You got laid, didn’t you?”
Gabrielle’s laughter dissolved into a blushing, girly giggle.
“Oh, sweetie. You’re wearing it well, I must say.” Jamie patted her hand, laughing along with her. “Let me guess; Detective Dark-and-Sexy of the Boston PD?”
She rolled her eyes at the silly nickname, and nodded.
“When?”
“Last night. Practically all night.”
Jamie’s whoop of enthusiasm drew attention from some of the surrounding tables. He simmered down, but beamed at her like a proud mother hen. “He was good, huh?”
“Amazing.”
“Okay, how come I don’t know anything about this mystery man?” Megan interjected now. “And he’s a cop? Maybe Ray knows him. I could ask—”
“No.” Gabrielle shook her head. “Please don’t say anything about this to anyone, you guys. It’s not like I’m dating Lucan. He came over last night to return my cell phone, and things just got…well, out of control. I don’t even know if I’ll see him again.”
She had no idea about that, actually, but God, she hoped so.
Part of her warned that what happened between them was reckless behavior, foolish thinking. It was. She couldn’t really argue that. It was crazy. She had always considered herself a reasonable, careful person—the one who would caution her friends against careless impulses like the one she’d indulged in last night.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
And not just because she’d allowed herself to get so caught up in the moment that she had forgone any kind of protection. Getting intimate with a practical stranger was seldom a good idea, but Gabrielle had the terrible feeling that it would be a very easy thing to lose her heart to a man like Lucan Thorne.
And that, she was sure, was nothing short of idiotic.
Still, sex like she’d had with him didn’t happen all the time. At least, not for her. Just thinking about Lucan Thorne made her insides twist with sweet longing. If he happened to walk into the restaurant right now, she’d probably leap over the tables to jump him.
“We had an incredible night together, but right now, that’s all it is. I don’t want to read anything more into it.”
“Uh-huh.” Jamie put his elbow on the table and leaned in conspiratorially. “Then why can’t you stop smiling?”
“Where the hell have you been?”
Lucan smelled Tegan before he saw the vampire round the corner of the residence corridor inside the compound. The male had been hunting recently. He still carried the metallic, sweet odor of blood on him—both the human and Rogue variety.
When he saw Lucan waiting for him outside one of the apartments, he paused, his hands fisted in the pockets of his low-slung jeans. Tegan’s gray tee-shirt was shredded in places, filthy with dirt and splattered blood. His pale green eyes were hooded, ringed with dark circles. Long, unkempt tawny hair drooped into his face.
“You look like shit, Tegan.”
He glanced up from under that hank of light brown hair and smirked, wiseass, as usual.
Glyphs tracked up his forearms and thick biceps. The scrolling, elegant markings were just a shade darker than his own golden skin tone, their color betraying nothing of the vampire’s current mood. Lucan didn’t know if it was sheer will that kept the male’s attitude locked on permanent apathy, or if the darkness of his past had truly deadened all feeling in him.
God knew, he’d been through enough to break a full cadre of warriors.
But Tegan’s personal demons were his own. All that mattered to Lucan was making sure the Order remained strong and on point. There was no room for weak links in the chain.
“You’ve been out of contact for five days, Tegan. I’ll say it again, where the fuck have you been?”
He scoffed. “Piss off, man. You’re not my mother.”
When he started to walk away, Lucan closed the space between them with blinding speed. He seized Tegan by the throat and shoved his back against the corridor wall to get his attention.