“Can you direct me to Poncio’s estate?”
Jerry scanned the desert outside the windows, seeing, Lana was certain, nothing but the black night despite his vampire vision, because there simply wasn’t anything else out there. “When we get closer, I can,” he said. “There’s a turnoff from this road. I’ll recognize it when I see it.”
“That’ll do. Lana, when we get there—”
“Don’t waste your breath,” she said, cutting him off. “I’m not staying with the SUV.”
“It’s a recon. Jerry and I are better at that kind of stealth—”
“I’m perfectly capable of surveying a target without stirring up a hornet’s nest,” she informed him. “That’s kind of my job, you know.”
“You survey hornet’s nests?”
“Ha, ha. Very funny,” she retorted, although privately, she was thrilled and relieved that Vincent was capable of humor again.
“I’ll decide when we get there,” Vincent said, as if that was the final word.
“It’s already decided.”
“I’m hoping for bloodshed,” he growled. “I’m feeling a bit peckish.”
Lana’s mouth tightened irritably. She couldn’t match that one, and his grin told her he knew it. Jerk.
VINCENT EYED LANA speculatively as she stood at the Suburban’s open cargo hatch and geared up for their pending recon of Poncio’s house. She was currently concealing an assortment of knives about her person that a lesser man, or vampire, might have found alarming. Vincent thought it was sexy as hell. Just watching her was giving him a hard-on. That didn’t mean he liked the idea of her going with him, though. He entertained and dismissed the notion of “persuading” her to stay here and wait for him. First, because he still hadn’t figured out how to breach that weird resistance of hers to vampiric power, but even more than that, he wouldn’t do it because he respected her too much to sideline her against her will. Besides, if he tried, she’d probably be pissed as hell, and that would make it much more difficult to achieve his plan to lay her out on a big bed and fuck her until she screamed.
He smiled, thinking about that eventuality. Lana happened to glance up at that moment and narrowed her gaze at him, obviously finding his expression suspect. He winked at her, purely for the sake of his own amusement, and because he knew it would make her even more suspicious.
Muttering to herself, she turned back to her weapons, jamming a knife into her boot with enough force that he winced.
“It’s best if you’re not bleeding before we begin,” he reminded her.
She puffed out a dismissive breath. “Don’t worry your pretty little head, vampire. I’ve done this a hundred times. And, FYI, there’s a custom sheath built into the boot.”
“Is there?” he said, intrigued. “A hundred times, you say?”
“At least.”
“But how many times have you drawn it?”
She gave him an impatient glance as she yanked down and shut the cargo hatch. “Enough,” she said, but then added, “But mostly in practice.”
An unaccustomed, and uncomfortable, tightness swelled around Vincent’s heart at her admission. It revealed a vulnerability in Lana that he’d always suspected was there. He glanced around, but Jerry was in front of the SUV, crouched down and surveying the hacienda in the small valley below. Vincent came up behind Lana and trapped her between his body and the closed cargo hatch. He slipped an arm around her waist, his hand resting flat against her belly as he leaned down and rested his cheek against the side of her head. She stiffened slightly, but didn’t push him away, her body tense, waiting to see what he would do.
“I won’t tell you not to do this, querida,” he said quietly. “But take care. Remember, you’re dealing with vampires. Jerry and I are stronger, faster, and more resilient than you. Poncio might be human, but he can still shoot a gun, and Salvio’s a complete unknown. You’re—” He searched for a way to say what needed to be said that wouldn’t offend her, wouldn’t simply make her shut down and stop listening. “—easier to damage than we are.”
She tried to pull away, but he only tightened his grip. “Promise me, Lana. Don’t risk yourself for me or Jerry. I need you alive.”
She softened enough to ask, “Why?”
Vincent smiled slightly and tightened his arm around her, closing the small space between them until her back was pressed to his front, letting her feel his body’s reaction to her. She sucked in a breath of awareness and her heartbeat kicked up a notch.
“Because I want you in my bed, querida, not just to sleep, but to finish what we started earlier this evening.”
Her head fell back against his shoulder for just a moment, then she turned in his arms and he let her shove him away. “Don’t worry about me,” she said briskly. “I have every intention of staying alive, and not just so that you can get your rocks off, either.”
Vincent snagged her arm, bending it behind her back as he pulled her close and lowered his head until they were breathing each other’s air. “You just stay alive. I’ll do the rest.” He kissed her then, hard and demanding. But if he’d thought she’d fight him, he’d have been wrong. Her other hand came up to cup the back of his neck, fingers twisting in his hair as she yanked him in tight and kissed him back just as hard. When she released him, they were both breathing rapidly and her light brown eyes were glittering with a desire that matched his own.
“We’ll both survive,” she murmured. “And then we’ll talk.”