Jordan
Jordan stalked from the bridge, without waiting to see if she followed. Ever since he and Vivianne had gone back to the engine
room, he’d been riled.
His skin prickled. No matter how much he tried to repress the need, he was close to losing control again.
“You think us being together’s a… good… idea?” Vivianne’s tone was soft and raw. She might as well have caressed his flesh.
He gritted his teeth. “It’s… happening… again.”
“No. It is not.” Vivianne spoke as if she was in agony.
It took every ounce of his control not to rip off her clothing and take her right there in the hallway. He swallowed hard.
“I’ll be in the captain’s quarters.”
Not in his entire life had lust ever pounded him like this. They were in danger. But it didn’t matter. They might die tomorrow.
It didn’t matter. The crew would know exactly what they were up to. It didn’t matter.
He had to have her. Now.
“Fast-paced and sexy otherworld adventure.”
—L
INNEA
S
INCLAIR
, RITA award–winning author of
Hope’s Folly
“4½ Stars! Kearney’s back and better than ever as she launches a thrilling new trilogy… Hang on for a most excellent ride!”
—RT Book Reviews
“Kearney captivated me with her action-packed, emotional tale… I couldn’t turn the pages of this book fast enough while, at
the same time, I didn’t want the story to end.”
—RomanceNovel.tv
“[Kearney] combines sexy romance with spaceships, laser guns, psychic powers, and time travel.”
—Tampa Tribune
“5 Hearts! Takes you into a completely different realm… I thoroughly enjoyed
Lucan
and look forward to the next installment in Susan Kearney’s new series.”
“Kearney is a master storyteller.”
—New York Times
bestselling author Virginia Henley
“A fairy tale… with a futuristic twist… the sensuality makes it well worth the read.”
—
TheRomanceReadersConnection.com
“A credibly (and explicitly) passionate and rough romance… for fans of sexy space opera intrigue.”
—Publishers Weekly
“An interesting blending of science fiction, Camelot mythos, and romance… fans will enjoy the first Pendragon Legacy thriller.”
“Susan Kearney takes you on a wild ride, keeping you guessing until the very end.”
—New York Times
bestselling author Karen Rose on
Kiss Me Deadly
“Out of this world love scenes, pulse-pounding action, and characters who come right off the page.”
—USA Today
bestselling author Suzanne Forster on
The Dare
“Looking for something different? A futuristic romance…
The Challenge
gave me a new perspective… love and sex in the future!”
—New York Times
bestselling author Carly Phillips
A
LSO BY
S
USAN
K
EARNEY
Lucan
Rion
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are
used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2010 by H.E. Inc.
Excerpt from
Lucan
copyright © 2009 by H.E. Inc.
Excerpt from
Rion
copyright © 2009 by H.E. Inc.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Forever
Hachette Book Group
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New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at
www.HachetteBookGroup.com
www.twitter.com/foreverromance
Forever is an imprint of Grand Central Publishing. The Forever name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
First eBook Edition: March 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-55844-0
Contents
To all the booksellers out there who read, love, and sell romance books. Without you, writers would have a hard time connecting
with readers. Thank you.
First, I need to thank my editor Amy Pierpont for all her hard work on the book. She’s very much appreciated. And to Alex
Logan for keeping track of all the little details. To Melanie Moss and Anna Balasi, your work behind the scenes makes promotion
painless. I’d also like to thank Claire Brown and Christine Foltzer for my best cover ever!!!!! And thanks to Anna Maria Piluso
in book production for taking care of JORDAN at the last minute. And of course, Bob Levine and his team in the sales department,
the book wouldn’t be out there without you.
And as always I’d like to thank Julie Leto, Charlotte Douglas, and Jeanie Legendre for all their wonderful suggestions, but
mostly thanks for being my friend.
As we lay in the sweet grasses under the constellation of Orion, I knew that what we had done was not so much lovemaking as
a release of an inexplicable act of passion.
—H
IGH
P
RIESTESS OF
A
VALON
D
amn it, Jordan. You lied to me.” Vivianne Blackstone, CEO of the Vesta Corporation, tapped the incriminating report against
her leg and restrained her urge to fling it at Jordan McArthur, her chief engineer. The world was in a total meltdown after
learning an ancient enemy had infiltrated Earth’s governments and major industries, and Vivianne was determined to keep her
Draco Project safe.
Head throbbing, she stared at the spaceship’s complex wiring. The
Draco
was the only ship of its kind, the most advanced spaceship Earth had ever built, and she had to fly as planned. It had to
work out. So much was riding on this venture to find the lost and legendary Holy Grail. Vesta’s future. Earth’s future. Her
future. Everything she’d ever wanted, everyone she’d ever loved, might be lost if this project didn’t succeed.
When Jordan didn’t respond, she nudged his foot with her shoe. “I’m talking to you.”
Lying on the deck with his head halfway through a hatch, Jordan shifted until she could just see his intense blue eyes.
“I heard. How did I lie to you?”
She dropped the papers, but she’d already lost his attention to the ship. He’d wriggled back inside the compartment, pulling
another wire to hook into the circuits, no doubt following an electrical schematic that existed only inside his head.
He threaded a wire into a panel box of delicately networked circuits. “Pass me a screwdriver.”
Scowling at his back, she slapped the tool into his hand.
“Tell me these findings are wrong,” Vivianne demanded.
“What findings?” He didn’t so much as spare a glance at the folder she’d dropped. His profile, rugged and somber, remained
utterly still, except for a tiny tick in his jaw that told her he was unhappy she’d interrupted his work.
“You’ve never attended Harvard. Never got your PhD at MIT. Never taught at Cambridge.”
“The Phillips head.” He held out his hand again, impatience lacing his voice. “It’s the screwdriver with an X on the tip.”
Like she didn’t know a Phillips head when she saw one? While her specialty was communications technology, she’d designed and
built her first hydrogen rocket by age twelve.
However, when it came to spaceship design, Jordan was the go-to guy. Despite his doctored résumé, the man knew his aeronautical
engineering. From hull design to antigrav wiring, no detail on the
Draco
was too small for Jordan to reengineer and make more efficient.
One of Jordan’s engineers spoke over the ship’s intercom. “These voltage-converter equations can’t be right.”
“They are,” Jordan answered evenly.
“They’re frying the circuits.” The man’s frustration was evident in his tone.
“Sean, you’ll find a way to keep them humming. You always do.”
“I’m stumped.”
“I’ll give you a hand as soon as I can.”
“Thanks, boss.”
“But I’m sure you’ll figure it out before then.”
Sean chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”
While this was a side of Jordan she hadn’t seen, his easy relationship with his team didn’t surprise her. But it wasn’t his
leadership skills that she questioned. Vivianne’s gut churned. “Jordan, we really need to talk.”
“So talk.”
Vivianne paused and considered precisely what to say. She’d already made one mistake by hiring Jordan before he’d been properly
vetted. She couldn’t afford to make another—like accusing him outright of being a spy for the planet’s worst enemy.
“The
Draco
is Earth’s first and only spaceship that can carry a full crew to the stars.”
“So?”
“This ship has caught the imagination and attention of the masses. Everything we do is under intense scrutiny and makes headline
news, and when the press finds out that my chief engineer falsified his employment application—”
“Damn it, Vivianne, I know what I’m doing.”
“To the public, a liar is a liar. And if you lied to get a job, they’ll wonder what else you’ve lied about. In these dangerous
times, we can’t have our loyalty questioned.”
“So we don’t tell anyone. Problem solved.”
Vivianne pinched the bridge of her nose to ease her headache. “But if your lies come to light, you don’t just lose your job,
you ruin my credibility. My company’s reputation. It could crash Vesta’s stock.”
Jordan threaded one of myriad wires into a nexus of circuitry. “As long as this ship doesn’t crash, your stock will be fine.”
She could handle the business end. What she couldn’t handle was a traitor. Who was he? The PIs she’d hired had found nothing
on him back further than six months ago, when he’d applied for a job with Vesta. His fingerprints and eye print weren’t on
file. He had no military record. No record of birth. With the entire planet on the alert for alien moles, Jordan’s nonexistent
background and his lies had her suspicious as hell… and yet, she was good at reading people.