Tempted by Midnight: A Midnight Breed Novella(6)

Hope.
Determination.
She tried not to notice the faint pink glow that simmered beneath the stronger colors of her psyche. Her curiosity about Lazaro Archer had no place here. Her awareness of him as a dark, dangerously attractive male, even less. She’d come to assist her father; that was all.
And besides, the grim representative from the Order had given her no reason to think he’d even noticed her tonight, other than as a nuisance he was eager to relieve himself of at the earliest opportunity.
Every time she looked at him, he’d been cloaked in a haze of unreadable, gunmetal gray. Coupled with his intimidating gaze, the effect should have been enough to make her keep a healthy distance.
Instead, as she left the restroom, rather than returning straight to the salon again, Melena pivoted in the opposite direction. Toward the aft deck, where she’d seen him go.
He stood alone at the rail in the dark, a stoic figure, unmoving, forbidding. His large hands were braced wide before him. His immense, black-clad body leaned slightly forward as he gazed off the stern of the yacht over the endless blanket of rippling water beyond.
Melena took a silent step toward him, then hesitated.
This was probably a bad idea. She should go back inside and focus on what she was supposed to be doing. She had no business with Lazaro Archer, even if there was something she’d been wanting to say to him all night. For much longer than that, in fact.
But from the rigidity of his stance, she could see that he was in no mood for conversation. Probably least of all with the interloper who’d shown up uninvited and inadvertently defied his authority over the meeting.
Her feet paused beneath her, Melena started to pivot around to leave him to his solitude.
“You’re doing well in there.” His deep voice arrested her where she stood. He didn’t bother to look at her, and although the compliment was completely unexpected, it came out more like a growled accusation.
“Thanks.” Tentatively, since there was no point in trying to avoid him now, she crossed the deck to join him at the railing. “I like Signor Turati. And I have a good feeling about this meeting. I think my father has made a true friend here tonight.”
Lazaro grunted. “I’ll be sure to inform Lucan Thorne that you give your blessing.”
Melena exhaled a short sigh. “I’m not trying to minimize the importance of this meeting. I understand what’s at stake—”
“No. You couldn’t possibly,” he replied, finally swiveling his head to look askance at her.
And oh, Lord. If she thought Lazaro Archer was intimidating from across the room, up close he was terrifying. His midnight-blue eyes glittered as dark as obsidian in the moonlight, ruthless under the ebony slashes of his brows. His strong nose and sharp cheekbones gave him a ferocity no human face could carry off, and his squared, rigid jawline seemed hewn of granite.
Only his mouth had an element of softness to it, though right now, as he looked at her, his broad, sensual lips were flattened in an irritated scowl.
“How old are you?” he demanded.
“Twenty-nine.”
He scoffed, his dark gaze giving her a brief once-over. Based on the fierce ticking of a tendon in his already ironclad jaw, she guessed he didn’t particularly like what he saw. “You’ve barely been out of diapers long enough to understand how important it is to have peace between the Breed and humankind. You were only a child when the veil between our world and theirs was torn away. You didn’t wade through the blood in the streets. You didn’t see the death, the brutality inflicted on so many innocents by both sides of this war.” He blew out a curse and shook his head slowly back and forth. “You can’t possibly comprehend how thin the thread is that holds back an even uglier war now. Nor can you know the lengths to which some people will go to rip that thread to tatters.”#p#分页标题#e#
“You’re talking about Opus Nostrum,” Melena said quietly. A flicker of surprise in those narrowing indigo eyes now. “As my father’s personal assistant, he trusts me completely with all of his GNC business. I collect data for him. I summarize reports. I attend most of his meetings, as well as compose the majority of his speeches. I’m also his daughter, so of course, I’m well aware of the attempted bombing at the summit he attended a couple of weeks ago. I know Opus wanted to take a lot of lives at that event—Breed and human. I also know the Order’s primary objective now is to unmask the members of Opus’s secret cabal and take the terror group down.”
Lazaro grunted but seemed less than impressed. “If you came out here to recite your credentials, Miss Walsh, let me spare you the effort.”