Page 73

‘Now,’ he added, softer still, ‘you’ve got me wondering what it’d take to make you stay a little longer. Fish a little more. Drink a little slower, mull over our troubles, work together, and find ways to forget it all.’

She didn’t trust herself to speak, not right away, because every cell in her body was screaming with desire.

The bourbon she sipped scorched her tongue as desire pulsed through her.

A flush rose in her cheeks, the way her limbs were loosening, her pulse jumping.

She sat back in the chair, dragging in a breath of cool night air, trying to anchor her soul.

Get a grip, Bianchi.

She cleared her throat. ‘Does this mean we can talk shop now?’ she said, a little too fast.

Alexandr turned his head, eyes half-lidded, a lazy grin tugging at his mouth.

‘Tomorrow,mi cielo,’ he drawled, voice lower than dusk. ‘I’m too sleepy after that meal. Tonight, let’s listen to the waves lapping on the beach til they lull us to sleep.’

She lurched, as her traitorous body ached as if there was something else she wanted lapping.

Her skin prickled.

She shivered despite the blanket, and when their eyes met, his smirk deepened, knowing, dark, devastating, as if he read her mind.

‘Do I have a choice?’

‘Nada.’

Why did it sound like he was referring to something altogether different?

Damn this man.

Xander suddenly knifed up in his seat, his spine stiffening.

He turned his head toward the underbrush. ‘¿Quién está ahí?’

Savvine caught a scrape of feet on rock, followed by a rustling.

‘Who’s there?’ Xander repeated in a growl.

A towering, glowering silhouette stepped into the open.

Bone.

Still barefoot and unsmiling, arms crossed over his scar-scored rippling chest, still wearing his grimy work trousers with the suspenders slack against his hips.

His eyes, black-lit and burning, fixed on her like he’d tracked her scent from the catacombs.

‘Thefokk,’ Xander muttered under his breath, voice gone steel.

Bone didn’t speak. He only stared at her, then at Xander, the air thickening between them with unspoken challenge.

Xander rose, slow and controlled. ‘Excuse me,’ he said to Savvine, already stepping off the blanket, and to her shock, stripping his tee and dropping it to her feet. ‘Shouldn’t take long.’

He jerked his chin at Bone, who followed him down the beach, their footsteps leaving twin tracks in the sand.

Savvine sat up, frozen, half in shock, half in curiosity, eyes locked on their retreating forms. They moved a reasonable distance away, out of earshot, but not out of sight.

Then it happened.