Yet she'd been wishing for just one more as she dragged her eyelids open and realized with disappointment that Lucan hadn't stayed. Her bed was empty, the apartment was quiet. He'd evidently left sometime during the night.
As exhausted as she was, Gabrielle could have slept a full day, but lunch plans with Jamie and the girls got her out of the house and downtown about twenty minutes after noon. As she wandered into the Chinatown restaurant, she felt heads turning in her direction: appreciative glances from a group of advertising types over at the sushi bar, half a dozen suited young executives watching her stroll past them as she made her way toward her friends' booth near the back.
She felt sexy and confident in her dark red V-neck sweater and black skirt, and she didn't care if it was obvious to everyone in the place that she'd just had the most incredible sex of her life.
"Finally, she graces us with her presence!" Jamie exclaimed as Gabrielle reached the table and greeted her friends with quick hugs.
Megan bussed her cheek. "You look great."
Jamie nodded. "Yeah, you do, sweetie. Love the outfit. Is it new?" He didn't wait for an answer, just plopped back down into the booth and wolfed down a fried dumpling in one gulp. "I was starving, so we already ordered a few appetizers. Anyway, where've you been? I was just about to send a posse out for you."
"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.