through her blood. Damn, it had been so long since she had been held in a man's arms, alive or dead. So long since she had felt that heady sense of sated passion.
And she couldn't deny that she had lusted after Dante for months. The dull hunger that plagued her seemed to have no sense of timing, damn it all.
"You should try to sleep," Dante broke the silence, his fingers aimlessly toying with a strand of her hair. "I'll keep watch."
She sternly turned her thoughts to more pressing troubles. Having the hots for this vampire surely came second place to imminent peril.
"I'm too on edge to sleep."
"I can't imagine why," he said dryly.
"Shall I make you a list?"
"No need."
She heaved a faint sigh. "We are truly screwed, aren't we?"
There was a momentary pause, as if he were carefully considering his words.
"I'm not sure I would put it quite in those words, but the attack on the witches has made our task more difficult."
"Who would do such a thing?"
"That is the question." His tone held a lethal edge, revealing he was not nearly so composed as he would have her believe. "A demon could not have passed through the barrier, and yet a human could never have caused such destruction."
She shuddered in horror. "God no, it was gruesome."
"Unless??
"Unless what?"
"A human who worshipped the Prince might have been capable of summoning a great deal of power."
Abby didn't bother to hide her shock. She had never even considered the idea that it could be anything but a monster that could attack with such savagery.
"A human?"
He stiffened at her obvious surprise. 'You believe only demons capable of evil?"
The rasp in his voice brought her gaze to his tight expression.
"No," she said softly. "I am well acquainted with the evil people are capable of."
He grimaced ruefully. "I'm sorry. I don't like mysteries."
"I've discovered I don't much care for them myself," she muttered, reluctantly forcing herself to consider the horrors that had been dogging them for the past days. "Do you think the same person who attacked the witches killed Selena?"
"I just don't know."
Abby gave a humorless chuckle. "Well, we've nicely determined that we're not Nancy Drew and Hercule Poirot."
"No." She felt him stroke his cheek over her hair, his lips briefly pressing against her temple. "I'm not much of a champion, am I, my sweet?"
She tilted back her head to glare at his ridiculous words. "Don't say that. If it wasn't for you, I would be dead by now."
His lips twisted at her fierce defense. "Instead you're hiding in a cave, no closer to being rid of the Phoenix than when you started."
He shifted, his movement tugging her even more firmly against his hard body. Her heart skipped, kicked, and lodged somewhere near her throat.
Don't think about it, Abby, she sternly told herself. Don't think about those slender, skillful fingers skimming over your bare skin. Or those lips nuzzling at sensitive places. Or your legs wrapped about his waist as he??/p>
Oh hell.
She melted against his hardness, her eyes darkening with the awareness that she was tired of battling.
"I thought you promised that being with you would make this cave a paradise?"
Quite intelligent, despite being male, Dante instantly sensed the change in the atmosphere. The silver eyes darkened to smoke as he allowed his gaze to slowly wander over her face.
"Abby?" he whispered.
Not giving herself time to consider her rash behavior, Abby reached up to thrust her hands into his glorious hair. Her heart was already racing and her breath impossible to capture.
"I don't want to think about demons or witches or all the other horrid creatures that are trying to Mil me."
His arms wrapped about her, togging her easily to straddle his legs so they were face-to-face.
"What do you want?" he rasped, his fingers trailing up the length of her spine.
'You." She kissed him with all the yearning that was burning within her. "I want you."
* * *
Chapter 10
She heard his soft groan as his hands shifted to cup her hips, compulsively pressing her to his thickening cock.
"Abby?"
She arched forward, her body already on fire. Hell, at the moment she felt fully at home in this cave. Certainly her urges were as primitive as any Neanderthal.
She want. She take.
"What?" she muttered, tilting back her head as his lips nibbled their way down her throat.
"You know you are not thinking clearly?"
"I don't care."
His tongue ran a searing path along the line of her collarbone.
"I just don't want you to come to your senses and discover some