Runaway Vampire (Argeneau, #23)(29)
She stopped with the door half open and risked glancing at him in question. The damned man should not have been attractive in the ridiculous clothes he was wearing, but he was. Like a diamond in an ugly setting, he sparkled and shone despite the feminine apparel.
“I will keep you safe,” he vowed.
Her eyes widened slightly and she didn’t know what to say to that. She hadn’t really considered herself in any danger. Her concern had all been for him.
“In the meantime, we need to talk,” he added. “There are things I need to tell you.”
Mary hesitated. She did have some questions she’d like to ask him. Questions like, what else could he do besides read and control minds? And had he controlled her at all? She didn’t think so. At least, she didn’t feel like she’d done anything she hadn’t chosen herself to do. Even if she’d been compelled by guilt or pity at the time, she was quite sure every step of the way had been her choice.
Narrowing her eyes on him, she asked, “Have you controlled me at all since meeting me?”
“No,” Dante assured her solemnly. “I was unable to.”
Her eyes widened. “You mean you tried to control me?”
He nodded. “But I could not. That is why we need to talk.
Mary stared at him, unsure whether she believed him or not, and too tired to care. It had been a very long day for her, full of various stressors, and she was obviously exhausted or she wouldn’t be reacting to him the way she was. She needed sleep and some time to herself.
“Right now, I’m fighting to keep my eyes open,” she said finally. “We can talk in the morning.”
Dante looked as if he were about to protest, but then suddenly relented and even smiled a little as he nodded. “Very well. Sweet dreams.”
Something about the tone of his voice and his smile made Mary hesitate and narrow her eyes. But when Dante turned toward the couch-bed and began to strip off her much too small T-shirt, she quickly closed the door between the rooms and then locked it. The clicking noise it made as she did so had her wincing with displeasure. While Mary had wanted it locked, she hadn’t really wanted him to know she was locking it. After all, it suggested she suspected he might come creeping in the middle of the night, and how egotistical was that?
Shaking her head, Mary quickly unlocked it again. She then shrugged out of her robe, laid it across the foot of the bed, and crawled under the covers. The moment she’d situated herself on her side facing the wall, Bailey scooted up behind her to curl against her, back to back. Mary smiled faintly at the familiar heat of the dog’s body along her spine. Joe used to insist the dogs they’d had over the years sleep on the floor, but Mary wasn’t Joe, and Bailey had been sleeping on the bed since his passing. She liked it that way. At least she did when Bailey wasn’t hogging the whole bed, she thought with amusement. Many was the morning she’d woken up to find herself curled up on a corner of the bed, feet hanging off the side while Bailey lay spread out next to her. Bailey liked the bed much better than the floor.
Shaking her head at the thought, Mary reached back to give the dog an affectionate pat, then closed her eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.
Seven
Dante finished stripping, and then picked up the clothes Mary had set on the corner of the couch-bed and shifted them to the table before climbing between the sheets. He preferred sleeping nude. The only time he wore clothing of any kind to bed was when he was on one of those protection gigs he’d mentioned to her. The possibility of having to wake up and jump directly into action was enough to make him wear his leathers to bed in those instances.
He was pretty sure that wouldn’t happen tonight, however. They had lost his kidnappers today when she’d turned off the highway onto the road where this campground was situated. Dante had no doubt that his kidnappers were searching for them by now, but he’d walked the grounds while out with Bailey and the camp was situated in the curve of the river with just the front facing the road as a possible approach. However, that was lined with a high, barred fence with the entry gate in the center and the owners had apparently closed and locked the gate after their arrival. At least, it had been closed by the time he’d led Bailey that way. And it was a good sturdy gate that had to be opened from inside. There were also cameras trained on the gate to discourage anyone trying to force it open. Dante was quite sure that his kidnappers wouldn’t want that kind of attention, especially when they couldn’t be certain he was in here. They’d probably go check out the other camps first if they were easier to enter, and then simply come back to wait for them to leave. At least, that’s what he was hoping for. Dante was sincerely hoping they hadn’t given up on him completely. He needed them to tell him where Tomasso was.
Frowning, he shifted to his side and slid one arm under the pillow his head rested on. Today had been a roller coaster ride for him. Waking up in the cage, escaping, having to leave Tomasso behind, getting run over, and then realizing that the woman who had run him over was most likely his life mate. His emotions had been up and down like a yo-yo.
Blinking his eyes open, he glanced toward the door to the bedroom. His life mate. He’d never expected to find her so early in his life. Many immortals waited centuries or even millennia to find their mate and yet here he was with Mary. Dante had found in life that God often gave even as He took, but sincerely hoped this was an exception. Finding Mary was the best thing to happen in his life, but at the same time, losing Tomasso would be the worst and there was no way one could balance out the other in his mind.