Crave the Night: A Midnight Breed Novel Read Free

feel the acceleration of her heartbeat as he held her in an unapologetic stare, drinking her in from head to toe.
    He could almost taste her mouth on his again, soft lips crushed against his in a startling kiss he never would have allowed. A sweet, reckless kiss that never should have happened.
    Not with someone like him.
    No, Jordana’s anxiety wasn’t misplaced at all.
    She’d had no idea what she’d done, kissing him like that. The way his thoughts had been turning in the days since then, she damned well should be nervous around him.
    “Carys!” Aric called once more into the crowded reception.
    His deep, booming voice made Jordana jump, one delicate hand coming up to her throat in alarm. In the gallery above, the music faded, then halted altogether. The museum patrons began to murmur and shuffle about to gape at Aric’s spectacle, though none of the tuxedoed men seemed eager to play hero and take on the threat of a seething warrior from the Order by themselves.
    Aric shouted for his sister again and tried to shake loose of Nathan’s hold.
    “Not happening,” Nathan said, digging his grip deeper into the meatof Aric’s shoulder. Rafe, Eli, and Jax were right behind him, waiting for his orders. “Come on,” he said to Aric. “You need to cool down. Let’s take this outside. All you’re going to do is piss her off—”
    “Aric?” Carys Chase rushed through the unmoving crowds, panic in her normally calm voice. Dressed as elegantly as Jordana and the other women, she gaped at her brother as she charged forward to meet him on strappy sandals that echoed the geometric cut of her curve-hugging copper silk gown. “What are you doing here? What’s wrong?”
    While Jordana’s beauty was diamond bright and icy fair, Carys Chase was earth and fire combined. Her eyes simmered with a fierce intelligence, and her caramel blond mane of hair swung around her face and shoulders like liquid bronze.
    Of course, the differences between the two females went beyond the physical.
    Where Jordana Gates was a Breedmate, half human in addition to the other, more elusive genetics that made her different from her mundane
Homo sapiens
cousins, Carys Chase was something rarer still. She was Breed, and a daywalker at that.
    The same as her twin brother.
    “Aric, are you okay?” she asked him, reaching up to touch his rigid jaw. She glanced at him then, studying him in a quick instant. Her shrewd eyes narrowed. “Where have you been tonight? Why is your shirt torn?”
    “We need to talk,” Aric snapped at her.
    Carys blinked. “Now? Can’t you see I’m in the middle of some—”
    “Now,” he snarled, finally breaking out of Nathan’s grasp to grab hold of his sister’s arm. “This is fucking serious, Car. I’m not gonna let it wait.”
    He tried to maneuver her away from the onlookers, but Carys dug in her five-inch heels and stood her ground in front of him. “Have you lost your mind? Let go of my arm.” She wrenched loose, outrage sparking in her eyes. When she spoke, Nathan glimpsed the tips of her emerging fangs. “For God’s sake, Aric. You’re embarrassing me.”
    Across the room, Jordana started to move away from the others, toward her distressed friend. She was prevented from getting any closer by a man who stepped up behind her now. He was Breed, tall and attractive, with clear blue eyes and golden hair.
    One of the shiny people who belonged in this place.
    The male’s hand came to rest protectively—possessively—at Jordana’swaist as he gathered her to him, subtly holding her in place. As if she belonged with the man.
    Nathan observed this with cool logic and understanding, even if his blood spiked with an unwelcome jolt of disdain for the male who touched Jordana like he owned her.
    He stared at her, watched her cheeks flame a little redder under his scrutiny before she abruptly glanced down and refused to look at him again.
    Was this the source of her nervousness in front of Nathan tonight?
    Not