That look. There was complete arrogance in it, yet a vulnerability that tugged at emotions she didn't want to admit to.
She lifted the phone to her ear. "Cassie?"
"Go to another room, Rachel. We need to talk." Cassie's tone brooked no refusal. For a teenager, she could sound amazingly mature. "And don't bother to make excuses to Jonas; we both know he just heard every word I said."
She rolled her eyes as she glanced at Jonas, noticing how well he pretended he wasn't hearing every word Cassie said.
Breeds were a pain in the ass.
Shaking her head, she moved from the bedroom, through the living room, then into the kitchen.
"Good," Cassie expressed as she stepped into the far room. "So how are you feeling?"
How was she feeling?
"Cassie, are you doing drugs?" she asked carefully.
The young woman laughed lightly. "I don't do drugs at all, Rachel. I simply wanted to assure you that the legalities of Amber's acceptance into Breed society has no loopholes. There is nothing the Marshals can do to break that clause."
"What they can't acquire legally, they'll acquire illegally." Rachel sighed. "Amber will never be safe."
"No adult or child within Sanctuary is safe, Rachel," Cassie said softly. "No Breed mate or friend is safe. It's simply a part of our world."
A part of their world. And it didn't matter if they were child or adult, friend or mate. Anyone associated with the Breeds came under fire at one time or another.
She had known that, Rachel told herself. She was aware of it from the beginning, but until now, it hadn't truly hit her. She and Amber had never truly been safe; they had been living merely on borrowed time. Sooner or later, she would have been targeted because of her job, her friendship to Merinus and Kane, or simply because she believed so deeply in the freedom of the Breeds.
"I'm fine, Cassie," she finally told the young woman. "I just need some time to think."
"Thinking is perhaps what you don't need to do, Rachel," Cassie said gently. "Maybe now it's time to simply feel. Good night, Rachel."
The line disconnected, leaving Rachel staring into the kitchen with a vague sense of impending anticipation. Nervousness.
Disconnecting the phone from her end, she turned and headed back to the bedroom, only to come to a stop, once again amazed by the man, the Breed, who claimed her.
He was diapering Amber as though he had done it many times before. And he had, while Rachel slept.
"Cassie likes to poke her nose into things when it's not needed just as well as she does when it is." Jonas fixed the undershirt Amber wore before pulling her gown back around her feet.
The baby kicked, gurgled, her fists flailing as she stared up at Jonas with childlike wonder.
"She worries, I think," Rachel whispered.
Jonas nodded, picked Amber up from the bed, held her close to his chest and reached for the bottle he had obviously prepared earlier.
"Go bathe, Rachel." He watched her, his silver eyes calm rather than raging as normal. "Relax for a while. The next adventure will come soon enough."
The next adventure.
She almost smiled. That was similar to many of her sister's views. And it was nothing less than the truth.
Hopefully, the next adventure wouldn't be quite so hard on her nerves.
CHAPTER 13
The bath helped, but Rachel found herself not quite as sleepy, nor as tired, as she should be. Pulling on the long, warm gown that had been provided for her and a matching robe, she took a deep breath before leaving the bathroom.
She found Amber's crib empty when she reentered the bedroom. She touched the ultra-soft comforter on the mattress and felt her heart clench in something akin to panic.
Jonas was drawing her in. He was tying her to him in ways she wasn't certain she wanted to be tied to him.
Love.
She had thought she loved Devon. Those months in Switzerland had been incredible even though the job she had gone there for hadn't quite worked out.
She had thought it fate when she met Devon.
He had been bright, funny. She hadn't even known who his family was for months. Not until his father had arrived, dour, disapproving, and informed her that she wasn't good enough to marry into the elite Marshal clan.
Her confusion had been almost comical.
He'd looked Devon straight in the eye and disowned him until he decided to get some balls, as he called it, and ditch the dumb bitch he had knocked up.
He'd thrown a clip of money on the floor, ordered her to get an abortion and left.
Devon had sworn he loved her. He had contacts, he'd claimed. He would get a job; he loved working.
She snorted at the memory. That night he had disappeared. Not just with the money clip and Rachel's money, but also her passport and credit cards as well. She had been stranded; the rent and utilities were due. There had been no food.
He'd left a letter, short and to the point. He would contact her when the doctor he directed her to called and informed him the abortion had been performed. She could go home then.
The embassy had refused to help her after firing her. Of course, Devon's father had ensured that. She hadn't been able to get a job. Every time she secured one, something happened and she was fired within hours.
She'd called Kane out of desperation when she couldn't reach Diana.
And now, here she was.
Perhaps Devon had been fate after all, she thought. That road had led her to Merinus, and then to Jonas.
Or perhaps she was simply being as fanciful as Diana had always accused her of being.
Either way, here she was, and she was learning that love wasn't as tidy, or as sweet and easy, as she had once thought it should be.
It came with complications, and it came with a hell of a lot of questions.
Turning, she strode to the doorway, and for the second time, came to a stop. In front of the fire, on the large, soft rug before it, Jonas lay with Amber.
He'd changed clothes. Dressed in loose sweatpants, bare feet and a bare chest, he lay next to the baby as the fire flickered in front of them.
Amber was watching the flames with the drowsy wonder that only a baby could show. Her lashes lay low, sleep edging her expression as Jonas softly hummed a lullaby.
The dark rhythm of the sound lulled her as well, but it did nothing to cause drowsiness. Rachel felt her entire body flushing with arousal instead. The sensation was deeper, stronger, than it had ever been, fueled by emotions that tore through her, that left her aching for his arms around her, or a glimmer of warmth and amusement in his gaze.