Page 15

Her touch burned through his shirt to the skin beneath. “And I care what you want because…?” He trailed off, cocking his head to the side. He was genuinely curious as to what she would come up with as a reason. And he wasn’t disappointed.

“Because you obviously really want me with you for some reason, or you would have killed me the moment you found me. And if you don’t spare that person, I won’t go withyou.”

“I don’t need your approval to keep you with me. I can make you stay withme.”

“Yes, you could. But that’s not what youwant.”

Dante narrowed his eyes at her, surprised to find that she was right. He didn’t want to force her to his will. Not with his mind anyway. Or even with physical force. He could think of far more pleasurable ways to bond her to him. A few were popping into his head evennow.

Just then, the door behind her opened and a masculine woman wearing men’s work clothes came out of the restroom, wiping her hands on her pants. Dante zeroed in on her over the top of Laney’s head, his body aching and his throat burning with thirst. He felt Laney’s hand pressing into his gut, but didn’t take his eyes from his prey. The woman glanced up and opened her overly fleshy mouth as if to say something. But upon seeing his fixation on her, she quickly looked away and hurried past, giving them a wide birth. Indecision wracked him, and the fact that he hesitated based solely upon the pleading look on Laney’s face pissed himoff.

In the end, he let the womango.

Grabbing Laney’s arm again, he yanked open the door to the ladies’ room and shoved her inside. A quick look around told him the only windows were too high for her to reach. “Hurry it the fuck up,” he practically spit at her. Then he stepped back to wait just outside the door as the pickup peeled out of the parking lot. He heard Laney go into one of the stalls, and for half a second, he considered chasing down the vehicle. Just to prove her wrong.

But when she came out, he was still standing there staring after the truck. “Thankyou.”

He didn’t deserve her thanks. “All you’ve managed to do is make it worse for yourself, little mouse.”

Dante walked away, not caring anymore if she followed him. He’d never, ever, let a human dictate to him what he should or should not do. Quite the opposite, in fact. The extent of his relationships with humans was to happily terrorize them until they broke down and begged for their lives, right before he silenced them forever. Usually in a painful and bloody manner. Humans were only good for two things: easing his thirst and satisfying his carnal lust before he saved them from their own misery. They deserved nothing less after what they’d done tohim.

He stopped when he reached the car, out of sorts and unsure of how to proceed. In a few short hours, this tiny female had managed to roust him from the norm of comfort of his dark existence, and he didn’t fucking like it. It made him edgy. The dog’s brown face appeared in the window, so Dante opened the door and let him out to go shit on the patch of grass between the parking lot and the highway. He looked in at the orange tabby, but the cat didn’t appear inclined to give up his spot on the comforter, so Dante crossed his arms and leaned back against the car towait.

When he looked up, he saw Laney still standing over by the restrooms. She appeared as displaced as he felt as her eyes went from him to the highway to the blackness of the surrounding desert, and then back to him. Dante said nothing. She was a fool if she thought she could get away from him. Apparently, she was intelligent enough to realize it, for her shoulders sagged in defeat, and she got back into thecar.

Dante held the door open for the dog and climbed in after him. Resuming the same position as earlier with his arm wrapped around Laney’s shoulders, he inhaled her sweet scent. Thirst lanced through him. “We’ll stop at the next hotel,” he growled in her ear. “I’m thirsty.”

He heard her swallow hard, and then she started thecar.

Tonight, he was going to trap his little mouse.