Lover Unleashed (Black Dagger Brotherhood 9)

“How did you know they’re mine?”

“They carried your scent. And Wrath told me about the card thingy that my twin removed.”

Phone-schmone. The fact she recognized him by smell turned him on, reminding him of exactly how close they had gotten—

Okay, time to stop that film reel.

She put her hand up to his face. “You know what?”

“What?”

“I like the way you look at me, Manuel.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“It makes me think of when your mouth was upon me.”

Manny groaned and nearly lost it. So to keep things from getting out of hand, he put his arm around her waist. “Come on. Let’s take off before we lose the chance.”

Her laugh was so carefree that for some reason it split his chest wide and exposed the beating heart behind his ribs. And that was before she leaned in and kissed his cheek.

“You are aroused.”

He glanced over at her. “And you are playing with fire.”

“I like being hot.”

Manny barked out a laugh. “Well, don’t you worry—you are just that.”

When they came up to the fire door, he put his palm on the push bar. “This really going to open?”

“Try it and find out.”

He tilted in . . . and what do you know, the latch sprang free and the heavy metal panel went wide.

As vampires with guns and machetes didn’t come streaming down on them from every direction, he shook his head. “How in the hell did you manage this.”

“The king was not happy. But I am not a prisoner here, I am of age, and there is no reason I should not be able to leave the compound.”

“And at the end of the evening . . . what then?” As her joy diminished, he thought, Uh-huh, that was how she’d pulled it off. Technically, she was escorting him home. . . . This was their good-bye.

He smoothed her hair back. “It’s okay. It’s . . . all right, bambina.”

She seemed to swallow hard. “I shall not think of the future, and neither should you. There are hours and hours to be had.”

Hours. Not days or weeks or months . . . or years. Hours.

God, he didn’t feel free at all.

“Come on,” he said, stepping out and t

aking her hand. “Let’s make this count.”

His car was parked in the shadows on the right, and when he got over to it, he found the thing unlocked. But come on, like anyone was going to get at it?

He opened the passenger-side door. “Let me help you in.”

Taking her arm like a gentleman, he settled her and then stretched the seat belt across her breasts, clicking it into place.