Read Jordan for Free Online Page A

eyed him warily. “Are we going to play twenty questions, or are you going to explain—”
    “Captain.” Darren poked his head through the hatch. “Look what I’ve found.”
    He held a black-and-white Boston terrier, with mournful brown eyes and one floppy ear. Vivianne petted the dog’s head and
     it leaped into her arms.
    His warm little body snuggled against her. “Hey, fella. Where did you come from?”
    “He doesn’t belong to any of the engineers,” Darren said. “I’ve already asked.”
    She scratched behind his ears. “He’s a stowaway?”
    “If we run out of food,” Jordan muttered, “I suppose we can eat him.”
    “Over my dead body.” She clutched the dog to her chest and he licked her neck. “Don’t worry, fella. I won’t let the mean old
     man eat you.”
    Darren started to chuckle, caught sight of Jordan’s scowl, and uttered a choking cough instead. The dog settled happily in
     Vivianne’s arms, his nose tucked under her chin.
    Darren cleared his throat. “I also found…”
    “Yes?” Jordan prodded him.
    “My girlfriend, Knox.”
    Darren’s expression looked sheepish, and Vivianne focused her attention on him. “How’d she get onboard?”
    “My fault.” Darren rubbed his temple. “I just wanted to show Knox the
Draco.
I thought she’d left, but she fell asleep in the bunk.”
    The bunk? Vivianne didn’t want to think about that too hard. “Does Knox have a security clearance?”
    “Yes, ma’am. She works in payroll.”
    “That’s useful,” Jordan said, and Vivianne suppressed a smile. She was beginning to learn that Jordan looked tough and talked
     rough, but at times, he was more growl than bite. “Sorry, how’s the inventory coming?”
    “Lyle and I are working on the list. There’s a lot of supplies in the cargo hold. Knox’s helping, too.”
    “Can your girlfriend cook?” Jordan asked.
    At just the mention of food, Vivianne’s stomach twisted. Eating without gravity was something she’d prefer not to try.
    “I’ll rustle us up some grub.” Darren hurried away.
    The dog didn’t seem to mind when Darren left. He closed his eyes and relaxed. Apparently he had no trouble with space sickness.
     Or men who told the most outrageous stories.
    “You believe me?” Jordan asked her, with those strange glittering eyes piercing her. And she recalled another part of him
     piercing her, pleasuring her. The memory taunted her as details came back. His five-o’clock shadow rubbing against her neck.
     His hands gripping her hips. “Do you?” he prodded, drawing her from her daydream.
    “Huh?”
    “You called me an old man. So you believe me?”
    She’d reserve judgment until she had more facts. “So what planet are you from?”
    “Dominus was my home world. It hasn’t existed for over fifteen hundred years.” He rested his hands on his hips.
    So Jordan was older than even King Arthur? So old that his world no longer existed? Alien technology might explain how he
     knew how to design systems that no one else understood. It might also explain how he knew how to enflame her lust against
     her better judgment. She reminded herself he might be old, but he was still a man with desires like any other. And he’d just
     told her his world was gone.
    “What happened?” she whispered, sensing tragedy from the harsh twist of his lips and the haunting pain in his eyes.
    “While I was exploring a nearby moon, the Tribes shot a planet buster at Dominus.”
    That sounded terrible. “A planet buster?”
    “Missiles that fire in sync into the nickel-iron core and change the world’s pressure. The planet collapses in on itself,
     then explodes, the pressure so great that nothing larger than cosmic dust particles survive.”
    Earth also had a nickel-iron core, and Vivianne’s gut tightened. “I thought the Tribes want to enslave people and steal other
     planets’ natural resources.”
    “They do.”
    “But they can’t benefit from such planetwide destruction. So