He should never have come here tonight.
What had he been trying to prove? That he was stronger than the blood bond that linked her to him now?
All he'd proven was his own arrogance. His raging body would be reminding him of that fact for the rest of the night. The way he was knotted up right now, he might be strung out for the rest of the week.
Although he was finding it damn hard to regret feeling Tess melt for him so sweetly. The taste of her blood on his tongue when he'd nicked her lip with his fangs stayed with him, making the rest of his torment seem like child's play.
What he felt right now surpassed base need, carnal or otherwise. It had only been sixteen hours since he'd last fed, yet he thirsted for Tess like he'd gone sixteen days without nourishment. Sixteen hours since he'd last gotten off, and yet he could think of nothing he craved more than to bury himself inside her. Seriously bad news, that's what he was dealing with here.
He needed to get his head on straight, and quick. He hadn't forgotten that he still had a mission to contend with tonight. He was more than ready to focus on something other than the furious pound of his libido.
Digging into the pocket of his dark coat, Dante pulled out his cell and dialed the compound. "Chase report in for patrol yet?" he barked into the device when Gideon picked up the call.
"Not yet. He's not due 'til ten-thirty."
"What time is it now?"
"Uh, it's quarter to nine. Where are you, anyway?"
Dante exhaled a dry chuckle, every cell in his body still hardwired for want of Tess. "Somewhere I never thought I would be, brother."
And far too much time to kill before his second night of show-and-tell with Harvard began. Dante didn 't have that much patience normally, let alone now. "Call the Darkhaven for me," he told Gideon. "Tell Harvard that class begins early tonight. I'm on my way there to pick him up."
Ben insisted on escorting her up to her apartment after the taxi dropped them off. His van was parked on the street below her place, and while Tess had hoped for quick a good-bye at the curb, Ben was intent on playing the gentleman and seeing her to her door on the second floor. His footsteps echoed hollowly behind her as the two of them climbed the old wooden stairs, then paused outside Apartment 2-F. Tess opened her evening bag and felt around inside for her key.
"I don't know if I told you," Ben said softly at her back, "but you look really beautiful tonight, Tess."
She winced, feeling guilty for going with him to the exhibit, especially in light of what had so unexpectedly happened with the man she'd met there.
With Dante, she thought, his name sliding through her mind like dark, soft velvet.
"Thank you," she murmured, and stuck her key into the lock. "And thank you for taking me tonight, Ben. It was very sweet of you."
As the door creaked open, she felt his fingers toy with a strand of her loose hair. "Tess--"
She pivoted to tell him good night, to tell him that this would be the last time that she would go out with him as a couple, but as soon as she was facing him, Ben's mouth came down on hers in an impulsive kiss.
Tess drew back just as abruptly, too startled to couch her reaction. She didn't miss the wounded look in his eyes. The flash of bitter understanding reflected there as she lifted her hand to her lips and shook her head.
"Ben, I'm sorry, but I can't... "
He exhaled sharply, running a hand through his golden hair. "Nah, forget it. My mistake."
"I just... " Tess struggled for the right words. "We can't keep doing this, you know. I want to be your friend, but--" "I said forget it." His voice was curt, stinging. "You've told me how you feel, Doc. I guess I'm just a little slow on the uptake."
"This is my fault, Ben. I shouldn't have gone with you tonight. I didn't mean for you to think that--"
He gave her a tight smile. "I don't think anything. Anyway, I've got to go. Things to do, places to be."
He started moving back toward the stairs. Tess came out into the hallway, feeling terrible for the way things were going. "Ben, don't leave like this. Why don't you come in for a while? Let's talk."
He didn't even answer, just looked at her for a long moment, then pivoted around and jogged down the steps. A few seconds later, the door of her apartment building banged shut. Tess went back inside, locked her door behind her, then drifted over to watch from her front window as Ben climbed into his van and sped away into the dark.
Behind the cover of dark sunglasses and the flickering light of strobes in the dance club, Dante scanned the crowd of flailing, gyrating humans. Since picking Chase up from his Darkhaven residence a couple of hours earlier, they'd run across only one Rogue, a rangy-looking male who'd been sniffing out prey among the homeless. Dante had given Harvard a quick lesson in the miracle of titanium when it meets a Rogue's corrupted blood system, smoking the suckhead on the spot.
More's the pity, because Dante was still itching for some up-close-and-personal combat. Before the night's patrol was through, he wanted to get bruised and bloody. Call it attitude adjustment, after the clusterfuck way he'd kicked things off tonight.
Harvard, on the other hand, looked like he'd kill for a long shower. Maybe a cold one, Dante thought, following the vampire's gaze across the club, to where a petite female with a long mane of cascading pale blond hair was standing with some other humans. Every time she tossed some of that flaxen silk over her shoulder, the Darkhaven agent seemed to crank tighter. He watched her hungrily, tracking her slightest movements and looking like he was ready to pounce.