“Hey,” he teased. Grasping her chin, he raised her head and kissed her again. His hair caressed her cheek, a contrast against the roughness of his beard. She buried her hands in his silken curls and returned the kiss. He moaned low in his throat.
Hooking one arm beneath her neck, he lowered her back against the pillows. His body covered hers. His chest pressed against her breasts, still confined by the lacy material of her bra. She pulled away a little to peruse him more fully.
Aside from tangle of downy curls, his chest was bare. Blond hair covered his forearms. With his head of unruly hair framing his face, he looked like a lion at rest. The light caught the earring in his left ear and the medallion around his neck.
Dante was busy with his own study of her. His gaze centered on the pale peaks of her breasts nestled in her bra, then continued down the line of her ribcage to her hips. His hands followed in their wake as if he wanted to memorize her contours.
His free land slipped behind her back and deftly undid the clasp of her bra. She let him pull the material away. He gazed down at her with those golden eyes and smiled.
He kissed her lightly over the pulse point in her neck. She felt the touch of his lips down to her very core. He rained little kisses and tiny nips over her collarbone and then took the peak of one breast in his mouth. Xandra moaned.
Dante raised his head and gave her a smile that promised far more of such pleasure. His even white teeth gleamed in the dim light. Not a fang in sight, she thought in relief, as he bent his head to taste the other.
She threaded her hands through his curls again, demanding more of that caress that seemed to touch on every pleasure center in her body. And Dante complied. He moved lower, painting her ribcage with kisses and then dipping lower toward her navel and the waistband of her jeans.
Abruptly, the motel door slammed open.
Dante reared back. His eyes glowed amber in the light of a dozen flashlights. His lip curled back, exposing his fangs.
Xandra shrieked. She slithered out from under him, and he let her go, positioning her behind him.
She recognized the team of special operatives crowding in through the motel door, as well as the man who strode through after them.
Jeremy.
He stood in the doorway and glared at Dante, who still had Xandra modestly pinned behind him.
“Well, isn’t this interesting.”
“You’re a little out of your jurisdiction,” Dante snarled.
“Really?” Jeremy strode toward them.
Dante moved his body, shielding Xandra from his prying gaze. She desperately wanted to reach for her shirt, but that would mean stepping out from behind Dante.
“I think you’re mistaken,” Jeremy said. “I think you’ve overstepped, Rodriguez.”
Chapter Seven
Dante and Jeremy studied each other for a moment like rival predators surveying their turf. Xandra had the sudden feeling she was part of the turf they were both trying to protect. Why didn’t Jeremy want her associating with Dante? He’d accused her of compromising the investigation. But technically the two departments should be on the same side. So why weren’t they?
“I haven’t overstepped anything,” Dante growled back. His eyes had returned to normal and his fangs had retracted. He kept himself under control. “Ms. Wheeler and I are here on our own time.”
“That so?”
“She is on vacation. I was there when you forced her to take one.”
“And I can just as easily recall her.”
Xandra nudged Dante in the back. “Pass me a shirt,” she whispered, certain Jeremy heard every word and understood the significance.
Intent on doing battle with Jeremy, he ignored her. “If you wanted to recall her, you could leave a message on her phone. You had no right to barge in here.”
“I had every right. I received a report of another hive attack. And that one of my staff was injured and possibly kidnapped.”
“I wasn’t kidnapped,” Xandra protested from behind Dante’s back. “And I’m not injured.”
“So I see,” Jeremy said drolly.
“It’s none of your business!”
“Oh, but it is. You were a witness to another attack on a prominent organized crime figure. And you left the scene.”
“You ordered me off the case! I had nothing to do with what happened.”
“So you say.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Xandra and Dante said in unison.
“You do seem to turn up in the midst of it.” There was a threat in that simple sentence. Xandra felt Dante stiffen.
“And you always seem to turn up just a few minutes too late,” Xandra shot back. Dante grasped her arm. His fingers tightened, warning her against saying anything else rash.
Jeremy caught the inference. His jaw tightened, but he didn’t deny it. Her stomach tensed the way it had since she was a child when she sensed something bad was about to happen.
Instead of refuting her claim, Jeremy turned his anger on Dante. “I believe hive attacks by feral vampires are your territory. And yet you left the scene.”
His implication hung in the air. “I wasn’t on duty.” She caught a glimpse of fang before Dante got himself back under control. “And I was trying to protect your operative.”
Xandra crossed her arms over her breasts and stalked over to the chair. She snatched Dante’s shirt from the pile and pulled it over her head. Hers was hopelessly stained with gore, and she didn’t want to draw her boss’s attention to it.
She turned to face Jeremy. “Stop playing games, Jeremy. What are you doing here? Am I recalled?”
He glared at her for a moment, considering. The operatives behind him milled about nervously. He looked her up and down, taking in her bare legs, Dante’s shirt and her lips still swollen from Dante’s kisses. He shot a distasteful look full of hate at Dante before his piercing blue eyes centered back upon Xandra. “No. It’s obvious your integrity is permanently compromised, Wheeler. You’re fired!”
“Fired!”
Xandra bolted after him. But Jeremy rounded up his troops and disappeared out into the motel parking lot. Ignoring her, he got into the driver’s seat of the nondescript panel van they’d arrived in. The operatives piled in behind him. The van drove off, leaving her standing in the motel doorway clad only in Dante’s shirt.
She stood there for a moment, the shock of the day’s events leaving her mind empty. The press of Dante’s hands on her shoulders brought her back to the present.
“I can’t believe he did that,” she whispered finally.
Dante turned her gently to face him. He drew her back into the room and shut the door behind them. “Let’s get you home. It hardly matters now.”
Xandra nodded mutely. She walked over to the chair where they’d left their clothes. Jeremy had been so taken with the tableau they presented when he barged into their room, he hadn’t noticed her bloodstained shirt on the bottom of the pile. “At least he only thinks we were doing the nasty. He doesn’t know about the blood.”
“Best to keep it that way.”
“What if my place isn’t safe? What if it’s bugged?”
“It could be,” he admitted. “We ought to have it swept.”
“It won’t matter. Jeremy will have us watched. He’ll have us followed.”
Dante put his arms around her and drew her close. She leaned against him, the strength leeching out of her body. For a moment she was content to listen to his heart beating steadily.
A vampire shouldn’t have a heartbeat, came the disturbing thought.
But then Dante said, “Don’t worry, Xandra. You don’t work for Jeremy any more. He has no right to have you followed or anything else.”
“Unless he can prove I have something to do with a crime.”
“Maybe there’s somewhere else we can go,” he said suddenly. “To lay low for a few days.”
“I don’t know. There’s something going on here. Jeremy’s certain I have a part in
it, but I don’t.” She looked up at him. In the dim light his eyes looked normal. “Do I?”
“Only Jeremy knows the answer to that.”
“So what do we do?”
“Lay low for a couple of days. I’m off duty for the weekend. And I think I know somewhere we can stay.”
“I don’t know—”
He bent his head, capturing her gaze. “Look, what you said is true. Somehow you are involved in this. What Jeremy is up to, I’m not sure, but I’d bet it isn’t good. The one thing I do know for sure is that I want to protect you. To keep you out of it.”
She studied him for a moment. They’d nearly done something very intimate, and yet she still wasn’t sure if she could trust Dante Rodriguez. To be alone with him for several days, away from what was happening, away from Alix, her last ally—well, it just didn’t seem like a good idea.
And yet, she had trusted Jeremy with her life for many years, only to have him turn on her. After all they’d been through together, he suddenly didn’t trust her. First he took her off the case and gave her the assignment of dating vampires, over her protests. And why, as Dante insisted, did Jeremy’s backup always arrive moments too late? What had he tried to accomplish by putting her life in danger? Not to mention the final insult, firing her.
Still, she’d been caught in bed with a vampire. If she’d been Jeremy she might have fired her too. And Jeremy didn’t know about the blood. If he did, she’d likely be in custody.
She had no reason to trust Dante. He was unlike any vampire she’d ever met. But that didn’t change the fact that he was a vampire, one of the beings she’d given her life to protect society against.
She simply didn’t know the truth. The only thing she had to go on was her gut instinct. She felt safe with Dante. He’d saved her life twice now when Jeremy would have left her there to die.
Dante watched the play of thoughts across her face. He couldn’t leave her alone to face Jeremy and whatever unsavory destiny he had in mind for her. She’d been through enough already. She needed to be safe for a while, to discover what she truly was.
“Xandra, we really should be going,” he said gently. The last thing he needed to do was to pressure her and send her running back to Jeremy. Assuming Jeremy would take her back.
“I don’t know…” She hesitated still. She didn’t entirely trust him, he could tell.
“Look, I know it’s a lot to ask, you going away with me somewhere you’ve never been…”
“You’re right,” she admitted. “It is.”
“But you have my word that I will be a perfect gentleman.”
She cocked a dark eyebrow, letting him know unequivocally what she thought of that statement.
“And,” he continued—he had to get her away from here, away from whatever was coming—of that he was more certain than he’d ever been, “if you don’t like the cabin, I promise we can leave.”
She put on her cuffs and the V-shaped necklace. The touch of the silver seemed to be bothering her a bit because she scratched at the skin beneath them, but after a moment left them in place. The effects of his blood. He’d have to tell her the truth…soon.
“I have no clothes,” she protested. “I can’t go running around in your shirt.”
“We’ll stop and get some.”
She gave him a long, assessing look. “You have it all figured out, don’t you, Officer?”
“Hardly. I just want to make sure you’re safe.”
“Why? Why do you care?”
“Because we have far more in common than you know.” Before she could probe any further, he said, “Let’s just get out of here.”
“What if they follow us?”
“We’ll lose them.”
She stared at him a moment longer. For a few seconds he was sure he was about to lose out to her fears. But then she said, “Okay, let’s go.”
***
It had rained since they entered the motel. May weather was unpredictable in this part of the country—one day stifling hot, then next as cold and rainy as November. She shivered in Dante’s shirt. “Here.” He handed her his jacket.
“What about you?”
“I’ll trade you for the shirt,” he said with a smile.
She ducked back into the motel room long enough to make the trade. When they emerged, he started up the bike and gave her his helmet. Her bloodstained shirt he tucked into one of his saddlebags. No doubt Jeremy’s operatives would comb the room. Luckily, they’d taken the incriminating evidence with them.
“How long a drive is it?” She cast a glance at the sky. It couldn’t be much past midnight. Dante had given her his jacket and helmet, his only means of protection against the sun’s killing rays.
“About three hours. We should be there long before dawn.”
“And you keep this top secret place for what? A secret hideout?”
“For a vacation home,” he shouted back as they pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway. “Even policemen and vampires take holidays.”
“Sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say. That Dante might have a life like hers, perhaps even a more ordinary and enjoyable life than hers, she hadn’t considered.
For several minutes they rode in silence, the chill, moisture-laden air rushing by them in cold waves. Dark landscape whizzed by on either side as they left the city limits. Suddenly, she felt Dante stiffen.
“What?”
He nodded toward the rearview mirrors. “We have company.”
She glanced at the mirror, but all she could see was the dark road behind them. “I don’t see anything.”
Still, she wasn’t surprised. Jeremy wouldn’t be put off so easily. Even if he professed to be finished with her. Fired or not, Jeremy never let go of anything.
Dante gunned the motor. “Hold on.”
Then in the rearview mirror, she caught a brief flash of light. Behind them, a car was moving rapidly along the country road, driving with no headlights. She might not have seen him at all, except for the flash of streetlights at the crossroads against the dark metal of the car.
She couldn’t be certain, but she thought it was gaining on them.
Dante cut the motorcycle’s headlight. He took a sudden right, pulling onto a dirt road that only he knew was there. She tightened her grip as the motorcycle lurched along the uneven road. Trees bent low above them. She ducked her head against his shoulder, thankful for the helmet.
They flew through the darkness, the motorcycle vibrating on the rough road. They hit a small rock and swerved dangerously before Dante gained control of the bike. Xandra risked a glance behind them, but all she saw were trees and the featureless black of the cloudy sky. For a moment her heart soared in relief. Then behind them, she caught a flash of light as the moon broke free of the clouds and glinted on the metal of the car following them.
The car’s larger motor brought it close enough for her to hear the roar of its engine. Dante gunned the bike. They shot forward, nearly unseating her.
Trees hugged close to the road. Xandra was grateful for Dante’s leather jacket as prickly branches reached out to scratch her. She huddled down close to Dante and tried to make herself as small as possible.
And still the car gained on them. In a few more seconds it would be close enough to run them off the narrow road. Dante might survive a collision, but she wouldn’t. She was about to point out that pertinent fact, when Dante suddenly said, “Lean left.”
“What?” She looked furtively to her left, but saw nothing except the scrubby bushes that lined the road. The moon had hidden back behind the clouds, making it difficult to see anything.
The motorcycle leaned left, low enough for her to touch the ground and get dirt in her mouth. She choked. Ahead she spied a narrow opening among the trees. A narrow road, no more than a footpath. Dante plunged along it. Trees scraped them on either side. Dante must be getting horribly scratched, she thought.
Not suspecting the sudden turn, the car shot by them. It roared d
own the road. Xandra sighed in relief. But no sooner had the breath left her lungs than she heard the distant screech of the car’s tires and a shower of gravel as they realized they’d lost them. The motor gunned as the car tried to turn around on the narrow road. Then it came flying back in their direction.
The path they were on turned out to be a bigger challenge for the larger vehicle. She heard the dull scrape of branches against metal as it barreled down the road after them.
“Dante!” she yelled over the noise. The fierce vibrating of the bike made it difficult to talk.
“I see them,” he said tersely. “Hold on tight and do as I say.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but the car roared down the path after them, scattering bushes in its wake.
The motorcycle’s engine labored to keep up with the pace and the rough treatment. In seconds the car was gaining on them. Xandra risked a quick look behind them. Something metal glinted in the car’s window. A gun, she realized.
A crack shook the night.
She ducked, trying to make herself as small a target as possible. The shot went wide. It pierced a tree trunk, sending splinters of wood into the air. Dante, she thought desperately. Without his jacket, he was totally unprotected. But the wood fragments seemed to have missed them.
Hemmed in on either side by trees and brush, they were trapped on the narrow road. She fervently hoped Dante had a plan.
“Okay,” he said suddenly. “Hold on and don’t let go for any reason.”
“Don’t worry,” she shouted back. Caught between the armed operatives in the car behind them or dying in a motorcycle crash, she’d take her chances with Dante.
The bike pitched right abruptly, nearly throwing her clear. But she held on as Dante spun the bike in a shower of dirt and pivoted with one foot on the ground. He made the turn and righted the bike.
They crested a small hill. Suddenly there was only air rushing by on either side of her and no ground beneath the motorcycle’s wheels. The bike slammed into the ground. It spun precariously, then tipped dangerously to either side. Just when she thought she’d end up a smear on the hillside, Dante gained control again and the bike shot off down the hill.
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