Kaya couldn’t keep her surprised gaze from meeting Aric’s. He lifted his thick shoulder in a shrug as his comrade tipped his lover’s face up for a tender kiss.
Aric cleared his throat, whether in payback for the interruption Rafe and Siobhan’s arrival in the kitchen has caused him or out of the same awkwardness Kaya felt as an audience to the other couple’s passion, she couldn’t be sure.
“Keep that shit up and we’ll be celebrating another howling infant nine months from now,” Aric drawled as his friend drew back from his woman.
Rafe chuckled, his eyes still rooted on Siobhan. “We’re not blood-bonded yet. Not for my lack of interest in pursuing the idea.”
She dropped her gaze and pushed some of the egg around on her plate. “Everything’s just moving a little fast for me, that’s all.”
“I know, angel. Can I help it that I’m absolutely crazy about you?”
Their affection for each other was almost too much for Kaya to take. That Rafe was mad for the female anyone could plainly see. Siobhan seemed equally taken with him, but there were shadows in the Breedmate’s hazel eyes that made Kaya wonder how tall and thick were the walls around Siobhan’s heart?
Rafe didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he had enough hope for both of them to assume that eventually they would be able to knock those walls down together.
Hope that she and Aric would never have unless she was willing to come clean to the Order about her past. Bad enough that she had kept it from them all this time. Now, she had the failed raid on Angus Mackie weighing heavily on her conscience.
Reminded of all the obstacles standing in the way of anything she might have with Aric, Kaya went back to her work. As she reviewed the collections of photos, then shuffled and reviewed them again, Aric and Rafe went back to discussing Order business and speculating on the far-reaching tentacles of Opus Nostrum’s secret brotherhood.
Siobhan finished her meal and slid off the stool to carry her plate to the sink. On her way back, she paused at the table and glanced at the various groupings of images.
“Still haven’t found him, aye?”
“Not yet,” Kaya said. “But he’s in here somewhere. He can’t hide forever.”
“No.” Siobhan gave a sympathetic tilt of her head. “No one can.”
Although the comment wasn’t directed at her, Kaya’s nape prickled with warning as she watched the Breedmate walk away and fold herself under Rafe’s protective arm. Was it possible that Siobhan could suspect her of keeping secrets from the Order? Or was it merely Kaya’s guilty conscience that made heart suddenly begin to bang around like a trapped bird inside her rib cage?
God, she was going to lose her mind if she didn’t put an end to this self-torment soon.
Unable to concentrate now, she swept the photographs into the file pouch, then reached for another stack she had yet to pore over. In her haste, she knocked the pile of pictures off the table. They scattered in a disorganized mess on the floor around her chair.
“Shit.” Kaya dropped to her hands and knees to collect them. Aric was at her side in the next moment. “You don’t have to help. I’ve got this.”
“Yes, I know you do,” he said, gathering up a handful of the images and holding them out to her. “But you don’t have to do it alone.”
The image on top of the stack happened to be a candid snapshot taken of the pavilion during the bride and groom’s first dance. Aric and Kaya stood on the periphery of the crowd, holding hands and pretending to be a real couple. Except unlike the rest of the gathered onlookers, they weren’t watching Stephan Mercier and Anastasia Rousseau sway in the center of the open floor.
They were looking at each other.
And Kaya saw in her own face the expression of a woman already falling swiftly, hopelessly, in love. To her utter shock, she saw a similar tender regard in Aric’s handsome face--both in the photograph and in the solemn expression he held her with now.
“Partners, Mrs. Bouchard. Remember?”
She couldn’t hold his intent gaze. It was too easy to believe him. Too easy to think the fake relationship that had marked their initial meeting might actually have become something real.
Not only for her, but for Aric as well.
Kaya glanced down . . . and her gaze rooted on another face in the crowd.
“Oh, my God.” She grabbed the photo and peered more closely. “Aric. There he is.”
“Are you serious?”
She nodded vigorously, her finger trembling as she pointed to a half-obscured face standing among the wedding guests behind her and Aric. The squatty, dark-haired man had an unremarkable face but Kaya would know his build and carriage anywhere.
“It’s him. Mercier’s Opus contact.”
Across the kitchen, Rafe uttered an excited curse. “Let me see.” He and Siobhan both came over to look at the image. “Who am I looking for?”
“Right here,” Aric said, marking the place in the photo as he handed it to his comrade.
Then all of his attention returned to Kaya. “You did it. You found him.”
As excited as she was, she shook her head, loathe to take the credit when their task was far from finished. “I only found his face. We still don’t know his name.”
“We will.” Aric tapped his temple. “You leave that to me . . . partner.”
Before she could say another word, he caught her face in his palms and claimed her mouth in a slow, bone-melting kiss. Kaya didn’t fight it. Not even close. Looping her arms around his neck, she kissed him back with all of the desire and emotion--all of the love--she’d been trying so desperately to deny.
Dimly, distantly, she registered that Rafe and Siobhan no longer stood near them. And then she realized why, when someone pointedly cleared his throat just inside the room.
Someone that wasn’t Rafe and certainly wasn’t Siobhan, either.
Alarmed, Kaya squirmed, but Aric took his
