Page 41 of Visions in Blood
She gave him an odd stare then nodded.“You’re talking about the shifters.”
He smiled.“Yes.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to find out more about Lorenzo.”
“You gathered what you could.Let’s hope your mother is as reticent about your father with Underwood and Lorenzo as she is with you.”
Her focus shifted again, and she rubbed her forehead on her knees.“I hadn’t considered Lorenzo might be looking for him.”
“We don’t know that he is, only that he’s interested in the necklace.And before you get ahead of yourself, we still don’t know how Lorenzo learned of the necklace.”
“We need that book.I know it’s wild speculation that a connection might exist between it and the necklace…” She rubbed at a spot between her breasts.“But you know when you get this deep feeling, this tug that just clicks and won’t go away?”
“I do.Which is why Sergi is tracking down the book.”
“Is that possible after all this time?”
“The Renaud family is as obsessed with their libraries as they were eight hundred years ago.There will be a record somewhere, and while the trail might be hidden, one does exist.”He took her hand.“But enough about work.I came to show you something.”He pulled her up and took the popcorn from her, dropping the barely touched tub on the vacated seat.
He led her out of the room and toward the solarium, turning down another short hall that ended at a door one would expect to be a hall closet.This particular one led to a set of stairs.When he turned on a light, he felt her resistance, but it dissipated as her curiosity grew.Once they’d passed the second-floor landing, her reticence returned.
“I thought the third floor was off-limits.”
“It is.We’re not going to the third floor.”
“There’s an attic?”
He chuckled.“All old manors have an attic, but we’re not going there, either.”When they reached another door, he paused.“We’re on the north side of the manor.”He knocked on the wall to their left.“The attic is behind there.”
A cool breeze tasting of the sea greeted them, and he pulled her onto a widow’s walk.
“I didn’t know this was here.”Her voice was filled with awe, and she pushed past him.
He followed her and stopped at the end of the ten-foot-long walk that opened to a deck with two lawn chairs.“It’s only visible from the north side of the manor, but it sits far enough out that you can see a good portion of the coastline.”He pointed south.“And in the evenings, you can catch the lights of South Rim.”
South Rim was an artist community just south of Santiga Bay filled with galleries and quirky restaurants.One in particular catered to vampires, and Devon often hosted small family gatherings there.He should take Cressa there, and the sudden impulse unnerved him.He’d sworn to keep her at a distance.It seemed the shared dreams were bleeding into their reality.
She climbed onto the bottom rung of the railing and leaned over.He was next to her in a flash, but didn’t reach out.Her foot was hooked around the post, and she had a solid grip on the top post.She stretched out as if she had no idea how far up she was.He chuckled, thankful the coastal breeze was strong enough to disguise it as nothing more than a clearing of his throat.She was a cat burglar who spent a good portion of her time scaling multi-storied residences to steal valuable items.Did he think she’d simply forget her surroundings?She most likely thrived on heights.
“I come up here on occasion when I need solitude to think.”
She glanced down at the chairs then back to him.“Not always alone.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked out to sea.“Not always.Sometimes you need a second party to offer an alternative view.”
She laughed but nodded her head.“Ginger has always been that person for me.She sees things from a very different perspective.”
“The two of you seem to be an odd pairing.”
She stepped down from the railing to lean against it.“We met at a time when we were both at our lowest.I think our differences were what we each needed.”
“Opposites attract.”
She laughed.“I think that was meant for lovers.”
He took a step closer and drew in her scent.Memories from the dreams cascaded—her lusty moan when they kissed, the taste of her silky skin, and the feel of her fingers as they traced a path over his chest and down the length of him.He pushed a lock of hair behind her ear and kissed the tip of the delicate lobe.She shivered at his touch, or maybe it was the chill of the ocean breeze, but her head tipped back, exposing her delicate neck and the vein that pulsed with a light tremor in the waning light.
He trailed a kiss to that spot, unable to stop, knowing he should.More flashes of her from their dreams rushed his senses, as vivid as if they were in one now.Some place where the world didn’t matter, where nothing mattered but the heat growing between them.
