"Sorry. I slept in a little today." She smiled and sat down next to Jamie on the paisley vinyl bench. "Isn't Kendra coming?"

"MIA again." Megan took a sip from her teacup, and shrugged. "Not that it matters. She's all about her new boyfriend lately - you know, that guy she picked up at La Notte last weekend?"

"Brent," Gabrielle said, weathering a jolt of unease at the mention of that terrible night.

"Yeah, him. She even managed to switch her shift from graveyard to days at the hospital so she can spend every night with him. Evidently, he has to travel a lot for work or something and is generally out of touch during the day. I can't believe Kendra is letting some guy dictate her life like this. Ray and I have been dating for three months, but I still make time for my friends."

Gabrielle raised her brows. Of the four of them, Kendra was the most free-spirited, unapologetically so. She preferred to maintain a stable of ready dates and was committed to staying single at least until she turned thirty. "You think she's in love?"

"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.

Lucan's fury was ripe: in part for the general disregard Tegan showed the others in the Order lately, but more for the sorry lack of judgment that had made Lucan think he could spend one night with Gabrielle Maxwell and then put her out of his mind.

Neither blood nor the extreme violence he'd brought down on two Rogues in the hours before dawn had been enough to dim the lust for Gabrielle that still pounded through him. Lucan had prowled the city like a wraith all night and came back to the compound in a seething, black rage.

The feeling persisted as he closed his fingers around his brethren's throat. He needed an outlet for his aggression and Tegan, feral-looking and secretive, was more than prime for the role.

"I'm tired of your shit, Tegan. You need to get a grip on yourself, or I'll do it for you." He squeezed tighter on the vampire's larynx, but Tegan hardly flinched under the certain pain. "Now tell me where you've been all this time, or you and I are going to have real problems."

The two males were evenly sized, and a more than fair match in terms of strength. Tegan could have fought back, but he didn't. He showed no emotion whatsoever, just stared at Lucan with steely, indifferent eyes.

He felt nothing, and even that pissed off Lucan.

With a snarl, he took his hand away from the warrior's throat, trying to clamp a lid on his rage. It wasn't like him to lash out like this. It was beneath him.

Christ.

And he was standing there telling Tegan to get a grip?

Great advice. Maybe he ought to take it himself.

Tegan's flat gaze said pretty much the same thing, although the vampire wisely kept his mouth shut.

As the two uneasy allies considered each other in dark silence, behind them some distance down the hallway, a glass door slid open with a hiss. Gideon's sneakers squeaked on the polished floor as he came out of his private quarters and into the corridor.

"Hey, Tegan, great work on the recon, man. I ran some surveillance on the T after we talked last night. That hunch you had about Rogues staking out the Green Line seems like a good one."

Lucan didn't so much as blink while Tegan held his stare, scarcely acknowledging Gideon's praise. Nor did Tegan rise to defend himself against the erroneous suspicion. He just stood there for a long minute, saying nothing. Then he strode past Lucan and continued his progress down the compound's corridor.

"You'll want to check this out, Lucan," Gideon said as he headed for the lab. "Looks like something's about to go down."

Chapter Nine

Holding the warm cup in both hands, Gabrielle sipped her weak oolong tea while Jamie polished off the last of her lo mein. He would wheedle her fortune cookie away from her as well - he always did - but she didn't mind. It was nice simply to be out with her friends, life getting back to some sense of normalcy after everything that had happened last weekend.

"I have something for you," Jamie said, breaking into Gabrielle's thoughts. He fished around in a cream-colored leather bag that sat between them on the bench and pulled out a white envelope. "Proceeds from the private showing."

Gabrielle tore open the seal and pulled out the gallery check. It was more than she expected. A few grand more. "Wow."

"Surprise," Jamie singsonged, grinning broadly. "I highballed the price. Figured what the hell, you know. And they pounced on it without any haggling whatsoever. Think I should have asked for more?"

"No," Gabrielle said. "No, this is, um... wow. Thanks."

"Nothing to it." He pointed to her fortune cookie. "You gonna eat that?"

She slid it across the table to him. "So, who's the buyer?"

"Ah, that remains a big mystery," he said, crushing the cookie inside its plastic wrapper. "They paid in cash, so obviously they were serious about the 'anonymous' part of the sale. And they sent a cab over to pick me up with the collection."

"What are you guys talking about?" Megan asked. She stared at the two of them, frowning in confusion. "I swear, I am the last to know everything."

"Our talented little artiste here has a secret admirer," Jamie supplied with ample drama. He pulled out the fortune, read it, and rolled his eyes as he discarded the slip of paper onto his empty plate. "What happened to the days when these things actually meant something? Anyway, a few nights ago, I was summoned to present Gabby's entire collection of photographs to an anonymous buyer downtown. They purchased them all - every last one."

Megan's eyes widened in Gabrielle's direction. "That's wonderful! I'm so happy for you, sweetie!"

"Whoever it was that bought them has a serious cloak-and-dagger fetish."

Gabrielle glanced at her friend as she slipped the check into her purse. "What do you mean?"

Jamie finished munching a shard of broken fortune cookie, then brushed the crumbs off his fingers. "Well, once I arrive at the address they gave me - one of those corporate suite places, with multiple tenants - I'm met in the lobby by some kind of bodyguard. He doesn't say anything to me, just mumbles something into a wireless mouthpiece, then leads me into an elevator that takes us up to the top floor of the building."

Megan's brows rose. "The penthouse?"

"Yeah. But here's the thing. The place is empty. All the lights are on in the suite, but there are no people inside. No furniture, no equipment, nothing. Just walls of windows, looking out over the city."

"That's bizarre. Don't you think so, Gabby?"

She nodded, a creeping sense of unease spreading over her as Jamie continued.

"So, the bodyguard tells me to take the first photograph out of the portfolio and walk it over to the north bank of windows. It's dark outside, and I've got my back to him now, but he tells me that I am to hold each photo up in front of me until he instructs me to put it aside and get another."

Megan laughed. "With your back to him? Why would he want you to do that?"

"Because the buyer was watching from another location," Gabrielle answered softly. "Somewhere in view of the penthouse windows."

Jamie nodded. "Apparently so. I couldn't hear anything, but I'm sure the bodyguard - or whatever he was - was taking directions through his earpiece. To tell you the truth, I was getting a little nervous about the whole thing, but it was cool. In the end, no harm done. All they wanted were your photographs. I only made it to the fourth one before they asked me for a price on all of them. So, like I said, I pitched high and they took it."

"Weird," Megan remarked. "Hey, Gab, maybe you've caught the interest of a devastatingly handsome, but reclusive, billionaire. This time next year, we could be dancing at your lavish wedding on Mykonos."

"Ugh, please," Jamie gasped. "Mykonos is so last year. All the pretty people are in Marbella, darling."

Gabrielle shook off the odd niggle of wariness that was gnawing at her from Jamie's strange account. Like he said, no harm done, and she had a fat check in her purse besides. Maybe she would treat Lucan to dinner, since the meal she'd made in celebration last night went to waste on her kitchen counter.

Not that she could summon the slightest bit of remorse for the loss of her manicotti.

Yeah, a romantic dinner out with Lucan sounded great. Hopefully, they'd have dessert in... breakfast, too.

Her mood instantly lightened, Gabrielle laughed along as her friends continued trading outlandish ideas about who the mysterious collector might actually be, and what it could mean to her future and by association, theirs as well. They were still at it after the table was cleared and the bill was paid, and the three of them exited the restaurant to the sunlit street outside.

"I have to dash," Megan said, giving Gabrielle and Jamie each a quick hug. "See you guys soon?"

"Yes," the two replied in unison, waving as Megan started up the sidewalk toward the office building where she worked.

Jamie raised his hand to hail a cab. "You heading right home, Gabby?"