Playing With Fire (Phoenix Fire #3)(34)
Author: Cynthia Eden

He licked her lower lip once more, and her mouth opened for him.

I’m biding my time. I’ll run when I can.

A wolf whistle sounded in the air behind them. The humans. And they were seeing exactly what Dante wanted them to see. An amorous couple. Not a woman in fear for her life.

Two could play at this game.

Her hands rose—when had he let them go?—and her fingers tunneled in his hair. She pulled him down, closer, harder against her, and she was the one who took over that kiss. He’d thought to seduce her? Well, just because she didn’t have a long history of lovers didn’t mean that she didn’t know a few tricks.

She bit his lower lip, a light sting, then she was the one licking him. Sucking his tongue. Tasting him and making him groan as he clutched her ever closer.

If he hadn’t been a walking, talking disappointment to her, she would have blown his mind in the next bout of lovemaking.

Your loss, jerk.

The footsteps shuffled past them as the men kept heading toward their cars. A few moments later, she heard their vehicles pull away.

That was her cue to pull away from Dante, only he wasn’t letting her go. His arousal stretched against the front of her body. Long and hard and thick. His hands were on her hips, and he was holding tight.

She kneed him in the groin.

Cassie didn’t know if she hurt him or shocked him, but Dante let her go as he swore. She stumbled back, raising her hand to her lips. She could still taste him.

Dammit. I want more of that taste.

She would not be having more.

“I didn’t realize . . . you liked things rough,” Dante growled.

Her heart skipped a beat at that. Images flew through her mind—no. “Why?” she demanded.

“Because I can give you anything you like,” Dante said as he straightened.

No, she hadn’t hurt him. Figured.

“All you have to do is ask.” He stepped toward her.

Cassie threw up her hands. “Why did you kill them?”

His unblinking gaze stared back at her. “I’ve killed a lot of people, sweetheart, so you’re going to have to be far more specific.”

“The people at the ranch—the guards, the researchers,” she gritted out. The ones who hurt me. “I asked you to let them live.”

A shrug rolled his shoulders. “So you did.”

“And you lied to me!” What about him isn’t a lie? “You waited until I slept, then you went back and burned the place to the ground.”

That same furrow—a thin line—appeared between his brows. “What makes you think I did such a thing?”

“Uh, because you’re a phoenix? The only one in the area. And because I saw the destruction on the TV in that diner not five minutes ago.” Her breath heaved out as she dropped her hand. “Two dozen people were killed in that blaze, Dante. Two dozen. They weren’t perfect, but did they all deserve to die like that?”

“I have no idea what they deserved. I’m not their judge.”

“Just their executioner?”

A muscle jerked in his jaw. “I did not kill them.”

“I saw the wreckage! The place was destroyed. It wasn’t—”

“If I had burned it, I wouldn’t have left any bodies behind. There would have only been ash left.”

The nausea rolled through her again.

He frowned. “Cassie, are you all right?”

“No, I’m talking to an insane phoenix, and I just found out that I’m some kind of freak experiment.” She huffed out a breath. “Why are you here? How are you here?”

His gaze—that couldn’t be real worry in his dark stare—swept over her face.

“I’m here because this is where you are.” He took another step toward her. “I can follow you anywhere.”

She retreated automatically, and her back hit the diner’s brick wall. Great. Bricks to her back, a phoenix to her front. “How? How did you find me here? How did you find me at the ranch? And how did—”

“I guess you could say that I’m . . . tuned to you. There is no place you could go on this earth that I could not follow.”

“Provided you wanted to follow me.” The words just snapped from her. “You were too busy with the vamp in Chicago to—”

“My memories of you hadn’t crystalized by then. In time, I would have found you.” His words, so very certain, sent a tendril of unease through her.

But since she was walking on a big old knife-edge of fear, she didn’t let the extra unease stop her. “Did you kill those people at the ranch?”

He shook his head. “I swear to you, I let them live.” His lips thinned. “Though I’ll confess, I did entertain the thought of going back to finish them off.”

He’d entertained the thought?

“Why are you looking so shocked? You knew what I was all the time I was caged at Genesis, but you still let me out of my prison.”

A monster . . . a killer . . . that was what the guards had always said. Dante belonged in maximum security because of the threat he posed to the world.

She’d never believed those whispers. She’d looked into his eyes and thought she’d seen a man who needed her.

But then, she’d also thought Jon had needed her.

She had to get a freaking clue.

“How are you tuned to me?” Cassie wanted to know. If she was ever going to get away from him, she’d have to be sure he didn’t follow.

His lips twisted. Almost a smile. As close as she’d ever seen. She hadn’t expected it to look so cruel.

“Ah, Cassie. If I tell you that, you’ll just try to escape, and that’s not on the agenda for us.”

“What is on the agenda?” Though she probably didn’t want to know.

He stared back at her.

“I’ll tell you what’s on my agenda,” Cassie snapped. “I’m going to Mississippi. People there are counting on me.” Without Dante’s cooperation, she wasn’t sure how to begin helping them.

“You’re going to the other phoenixes.”

“Yes.”

His gaze studied her face. “Then I will come with you.”

Wait. What?

He shook his head as he read her expression. “What did you think I would do? Hunt you down, force you to come with me?”

“I didn’t think you’d hunt me at all. I thought . . . I thought you’d be free of me.”

His hands flattened against the bricks behind her, and she was caged between his body and the wall. The wonderful, enticing heat of his flesh seemed to wrap around her.