“Rio,” he said out loud. “It’s me. Don’t shoot.”
Lucan knocked. A couple of times. Called out her name again.
The door squeaked as he opened it, and he spoke up louder as he leaned into the kitchen. “Rio. Don’t shoot.”
His voice echoed around the abandoned rooms.
“Rio?” He stepped in. Closed the door. “It’s me.”
What if she were injured, he thought—
Across the way, the cellar entry opened a crack, and he put his hands in the air. “Just me. No one else—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence. Rio raced out and threw herself at him. As his arms wrapped around her, he held her so tight, he had to force himself to loosen his grip for fear of crushing her.
“I thought you were going to Caldwell,” he said.
She pulled back. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
When she just shook her head, he felt his fangs tingle. “What’s going on?”
Rio broke away and walked around the fallen plaster pieces, the discarded trash, the broken kitchen chair that was just organized kindling as opposed to anything you could actually sit on.
“It’s not safe for me right now. I came here because I needed a place to think for a minute.”
There was a temptation to get into her mind, to take all of her secrets and consume them because he was impatient and frustrated. But that would be a violation of her, sure as if he touched her when she didn’t want to be or spied on her when she was naked and didn’t know he was there.
It was wholly inappropriate.
“Mozart came after you, didn’t he.” As she looked over at him sharply, he knew he was right. “You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to. But you can’t pretend I didn’t save your life back in that shitty apartment building. It had to be him.”
“He’s a powerful man.”
“What went wrong? I thought you were his second in command.”
“Look, the less you know, the better.” She put her hands up. “And I may not be who you should deal with anymore.”
“But Mickie is dead. So who do I go to?”
“Mozart himself,” she said with a harsh laugh. Then she shook her head. “No, that was a joke. Do not go try to find him—”
“What do you know about the man.”
She didn’t even hesitate. “Nothing. He’s impossible to find, a ghost.”
“No one is that good at cover. No one.”
Rio came back at him, her eyes pleading. “He’ll kill you. That man is a soulless monster.”
He thought of those drawings she’d done of the building and knew the head of the guards was right. They were not mementos of her stay; they were blueprints for an infiltration.
She was using him. And yet . . . her body couldn’t fake arousal.
And was he any better than she was, with all he wasn’t telling her?
“I’m not worried about Mozart, I have some tricks up my sleeve.” Lucan brushed the side of her face. Then he paused as things took on a different intensity. “You know something, I love when you look at me like this.”
“Like how.”
“Like you want me to touch you.”
The next thing he knew, her hands were on his shoulders. And he was leaning into her.
“Rio . . .” There was no time for them. There was no future to be had. All they had was the present. “Rio.”
“Kiss me,” she moaned, like she’d read his mind.
Lucan dropped his head and found her lips like she was the air he needed, the food he craved, the sunlight he could no longer be in. And against his own, her mouth was as hungry as his was, the contact desperate and needy.
Without any rational thought in his head, and every sexual instinct in his body roaring, he maneuvered them over to the door she’d emerged out of.
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand.
As they started down the cellar stairs, he turned back and threw the dead bolt. It wasn’t copper, so it wasn’t going to do shit to keep out any vampires, but at least humans would be denied access.
For as long as it took for an intruder to break down the damn door.
Then again, it wasn’t like he and Rio weren’t armed.
On the lower level, he couldn’t not kiss her again. She’d lit a candle in a stout, corroded holder, and the fragile light was like a distant star in the night over by the bolts of fabric he’d first settled her on when he’d had nowhere else to bring her.
He helped her stretch out, holding her hand to steady her as she got down on her knees and lay on her back. Joining her, she arched her body and he kissed her some more, his hands finding their way under the shirt he’d given her.
The layers that covered her came off, melting away as he undid buttons, unzipped zippers, stripped off the shirt, her pants, and her bra.