“Do you want to talk about Vancouver?” I asked after we had been quiet for several minutes.

“Later. Right now I just want to hold you.”

My chest swelled. How could I say no to that?

Chapter 17

“I think I’m starting to like California.” Jordan leaned against the railing of the patio at the back of the house. “I could get used to this.”

I inhaled deeply as I watched the waves crashing against the shore below us. “I missed the ocean when I was at Westhorne. It’s pretty there, but nothing compares to the ocean.”

“Is that an undine thing?”

A laugh escaped me. “Nope, I think it’s just a Sara thing.”

She was quiet for a minute. “So when are you going to tell me what happened when Nikolas got back from Vancouver?”

“Nothing happened, really.”

She gave me a sly smile. “Nothing, huh? Is that why I saw him leaving your room that morning before breakfast?”

“He came to see me when he got here that morning because he knew I was worried about him.”

“I take it you didn’t tell him your secret since we still have a roof on the house.”

I exhaled noisily. “I wanted to, but then he started talking about the bond, and how crazy it makes him when he thinks I’m in danger. He’s not ready to know everything yet. I wish he was because I hate keeping this from him.”

“Bonds are pretty complicated from everything I’ve seen and heard, and hell on the males. He’ll come around eventually, maybe in a decade or two.”

“Maybe.”

She nudged me with her shoulder. “What’s wrong? You have a smoking hot warrior visiting you in the wee hours of the morning. Why are you not grinning from ear to ear?”

I bit my lip, thinking about my talk with Nikolas two days ago. “Sometimes I wonder how much of what he feels for me comes from the bond. I know it makes males overprotective, and Tristan said it can give them some pretty intense emotions. What if there’s no us outside of the bond?”

Jordan scoffed. “Are you blind? That man is crazy about you. And it’s obvious you’re head over heels for him.”

“I know he cares about me. But he never talks about his feelings, except for how much he worries about my safety.”

“Guys hate to talk about their feelings.” She smiled again. “Nikolas seems more like a man of actions than words anyway.”

I shook my head. “Not with me. He’s taking it really slow.”

“He headed straight for your bedroom when he got back that day. That doesn’t sound slow to me.”

Heat rose in my cheeks. “We’ve never done anything except kiss. He likes to hold me.”

Her hand went to her heart. “Nikolas Danshov likes to kiss and hold you. You poor, poor thing.” She sighed dramatically. “Where did I go wrong with you?”

I pushed her away. “Forget I said anything.” I loved every second I spent with Nikolas, no matter what we were doing. But I’d give anything for him to tell me his feelings went deeper than caring and protective instincts. I loved him so much. What if he never felt the same way for me? I wished I was brave enough to tell him how I felt and hoped he loved me back. But I wasn’t that brave, and my heart couldn’t handle it if he didn’t return my feelings.

“We are a sorry pair, aren’t we? We’re surrounded by hot male warriors every day and neither of us is getting any action.”

Happy to move the conversation away from Nikolas and me, I said, “Whatever happened to that Egyptian warrior you liked – the one with the big sword? What was his name?”

“Hamid.” Her eyes turned dreamy for a second before she huffed. “He left for LA before we could get better acquainted.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

She grinned. “Don’t worry. I’ll see him again if I have anything to say about it.”

Laughing, I turned to look at the water again. Poor Hamid. That man had no idea what he was in for.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Jordan said after a few minutes. “You haven’t really said much about seeing Madeline in Vancouver. What was it like to finally see her face-to-face?”

“Strange. She looks our age.”

“So does everyone else we know.”

I shrugged. “I know, but it’s different when it’s your mother.”

“Too bad you didn’t get a chance to talk to her before she ran.”

I nodded. “I shouldn’t be surprised, but I can’t believe she ran away like that.”

“After everything I’ve heard about her, I can believe it.” She grew quiet and I looked at her.

“What?”

She shifted weight from one foot to the other. “I was thinking. What happens if we find Madeline and she won’t tell us anything? Or what if she really doesn’t know anything about the Master?”

“Why would she be running all this time if she didn’t know something?”

“I don’t know. Why wouldn’t she tell her father and let him take the Master down? She wouldn’t have to run anymore if he was dead.”

I couldn’t answer that. I had asked myself the same question many times over the last few months. The possibility that Madeline might not know the Master’s identity was one I wouldn’t consider. I couldn’t.

“There you are.”