Relentless (Vampire Awakenings #11) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,72

single photo sat on the scarred dresser against the far wall. When he got closer, he saw the photo was of the family from the pictures in the living room. In this photo, the stepfather was holding the back of Preston’s bike. Preston looked to be seven or eight in the picture and was grinning from ear to ear. Standing to the side, Lindsay clapped as the two of them ran down the road. A grandparent or friend must have taken the picture.

Dante tore his attention away from the picture and back to the room. Preston is the reason Julie is missing, he reminded himself.

The happy boy had grown into a man who got himself mixed up with vampires. He’d dragged his sister into his life and possibly killed her and his girlfriend.

Dante went through the drawers and checked the closet but didn’t find anything useful. When he finished, he reclaimed Cassidy’s hand and led her back to the living room. Standing in front of Lindsay, he waited until her head tipped back and their eyes met to speak again.

“We weren’t here,” he told her. “If Preston contacts you again, you never spoke to me, and you never saw us.”

He didn’t think he had to tell her this; she most likely wouldn’t remember this conversation, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He didn’t know what kind of vampire her son had become. Zan said he was a pretty boy, but that pretty face most likely hid the soul of a killer, and Preston couldn’t know Dante was trying to find him. If Julie was alive, Preston might do something to her because of it.

Turning away, he led Cassidy to the door and away from this place. When they were on the street again, he drew her into his arms.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Dante traced the delicate curve of Cassidy’s spine as he followed the water streaming down her back and the curve of her ass. He used a bar of soap to wash her as she rested her palms against the wall and stood beneath the shower’s spray.

She was gorgeous and so tantalizing he couldn’t stop himself from nipping at her shoulder. She was also his. She was made for him; he knew her body as well as his own as he ran soap across her shoulders and one of her arms.

He was hard as a rock, but he kept his touch gentle as he sensed her rising desire. When he finished with her back, she lowered her hands and turned to face him. Behind her closed lips, he saw the outline of her fangs, and his balls tightened.

He followed the trail of water from her shoulders to her breasts, where it slid off her nipples in tantalizing rivulets. His fangs lengthened as he ran the soap over her collarbone, across her breasts, and down her belly.

All she wanted when they left the building was to scrub herself clean, and he would do that for her. Kneeling in front of her, he used the soap to clean one of her thighs before moving lower to her calf and then turning his attention to her other leg.

Cassidy groaned when Dante massaged the muscles of one calf and then the other before turning his attention to her thighs. When his hands brushed the junction between her thighs, her hips instinctively moved toward him. She rested her hands on his shoulders to keep herself from falling when her legs nearly gave out.

However, instead of taking her, he gripped her ass and kneaded her muscles before sliding his palms up the small of her back. Her eyes closed, but when he rose to stand before her again, she opened them to take in the beauty of his chiseled features.

Black stubble lined his cheeks and jaw, and her pale skin contrasted beautifully against his swarthy complexion. His eyes wavered between red and brown as his fingers skimmed the sides of her breasts.

When her gaze fell to the vein in his throat, Cassidy couldn’t stop herself from licking her lips in anticipation. They’d discussed the mate bond, but they hadn’t talked about solidifying it between them. However, she yearned to taste him.

Dante growled when her hunger beat against him and her eyes turned red. She had many needs she had to fulfill, and his instincts screamed at him to do it.

Gripping her hips, he lifted her until her legs wrapped around his waist. He reached around her and turned off the water before opening the shower curtain and stepping