Oh, God. The whole team was back from patrol and now heading this way.
Kaya pulled out of Aric’s reach, scrambling back into her seat. What the hell was wrong with her? Mortified at her lapse in judgment and control, it was all she could do to collect herself and prepare to face her comrades as the group of them converged on the war room.
Aric, however, showed no outward signs of humility. Leaning back in his chair, his eyes still glimmering with fiery sparks, he looked only at Kaya as the warriors poured inside.
“Hey, you two!” Mira strode in under the shelter of Kellan’s arm, laughter dancing in her eyes. She was freshly showered and dressed in casual clothes like her mate and the rest of her squad. “See, you guys? I told you they’d still be here working.”
“Or something,” Torin said, earning low chuckles from Bal and Webb.
Kaya groaned inwardly, knowing it was useless trying to deny anything. Especially around Torin, whose unique Breed gift allowed him to read the emotional barometer of any space he walked into. If the tall vampire with the glorious mane of long hair decided to read the room’s heated emotional state now, his face gave nothing away.
Kaya cleared her throat. “We were just about to take a break. Isn’t that right, Aric?”
He merely grunted in reply, an arrogant smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. Although his friends might pretend not to notice, she could see the fullness of his fangs behind his sensual lips. Just the idea made her pulse kick with an unwanted thrill.
Mira’s gaze ricocheted between them in question. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Well, we’re all going to hang out for a while on the back terrace. Since you were ready to take a break from... whatever you were in the middle of... come join us. That means you too, Aric.”
Without waiting for further argument, the petite captain strode out of the war room with her mate and comrades flanking her.
Kaya remained seated after they’d gone. “Go on, if you’d like. I’m going to stay and try to get through some more of these files.”
It took Aric a long moment before he moved. Then he got up from his chair and rolled it back into place at the table. Kaya closed her eyes, holding back the breath that was frozen in her throat as she waited to hear his booted feet cross the floor. In the unending silence, she reached for her tablet and tapped to open another of the image folders.
Aric’s hands came to rest gently on her shoulders. “The work can wait a while.”
She swiveled her head, prepared to make a dozen excuses as to why she preferred to stay. Aric’s crooked smile made every one of those lame protests dry up before they reached her tongue. He stood behind her, a wall of heat and muscle and dangerous temptation.
And those devastating dimples were going to be her doom.
“Come out there with me,” he said, his voice a low growl. “Rumor has it, you’ve got nothing against people having a good time.”
Her pent-up breath escaped on a small laugh. Against all better judgment and the countless warning bells that told her she’d better guard her heart as much as any other part of her anatomy around this male, she closed her files then walked with Aric out to the moonlit terrace behind the command center mansion.
It was a balmy summer night, just a trace breeze blowing over the courtyard and expansive patio where a burning fire pit and tall torches illuminated the group gathered there. Mira and Kellan and the three Breed males on her squad were seated around the pit, laughing and talking like family.
Rafe was there too. And he wasn’t alone. The Irish Breedmate, Siobhan, occupied a small stone bench along with him. Huddled against his side, she was wrapped in a blanket in spite of the warm night. If the sweetly shy looks the strawberry-blonde beauty gave Rafe were anything to go on, Kaya suspected any chill she may have felt was mainly an excuse to stay close to the handsome Breed male.
Rafe sent up a nod of greeting when he noticed Aric and Kaya coming to join them. Like the rest of the team, he had taken time to shower and change out of his patrol gear and weapons. Dressed in faded jeans and a dark T-shirt, Rafe had effortless, golden good looks but the shrewd instincts of a warrior. Kaya had gotten a taste of that latter side in the war room earlier tonight.
“Come on,” Aric said, encouraging her to follow him when she hesitated.
She went along, if only because the only remaining seat was the other little bench situated next to Rafe and Siobhan.
Kaya saw Mira smile then whisper something to Kellan as she watched her cross the terrace bricks with Aric. Music flowed out of the sound system, joining the comforting lull of conversations and the occasional bark of laughter. It was one of the things Kaya loved most about nights like this, the post-patrol ritual the squad often enjoyed. Even though she had yet to accompany the team on a formal mission, Kaya relished the time she got to spend with Mira and the others upon their return to base each night.
But tonight everything was different.
Walking alongside Aric then taking a seat next to him on the bench made her feel part of a different unit too. One that she didn’t belong to, nor ever could.
“How’d it go out there in the city tonight?” Aric asked his friend.
Rafe lifted his shoulder. “Uneventful. Not the kind of night we were looking for. We shook down some of the usual suspects for information, but no one seems to know anything about Mercier aside from him making headlines with his marriage into the Rousseau family. And his abrupt exit from it.”
“Or else they’re not talking,” Kaya interjected.
Aric nodded. “Good chance of that. Especially after Opus made it
