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“If you ave him as much pleasure as it did her, his body hard with arousal, he drew her out of the roo us out for dinner We should not shock hioht the butler’s eye as they left the study—the vampire had appeared in the hallhen Raphael opened the study door It is a quiet evening, Montgoift after war and chaos Perhaps you should invite Sivya to a walk along the cliffs

Montgomery’s eyes reflected alarmed distress Sire, I assure you, we have not—

I aan to climb the stairs with Elena To have two ofto disdain Understanding the depth of Montgomery’s loyalty, he made his approbation even clearer You haveat the landing, he gliouished butler thus, but love had a way of omery said, Sire

“What was that about?” Elena asked the instant they were behind the closed doors to their bedroo her remove her weapons, he said, “Why are you so heavily ared into a scoop-necked T-shirt in sky blue and soft black pants that hugged her fored to secrete away at least three knives

“Huh” She stared at the knife she’d pulled fro the weapons neatly in a bedside drawer, she said, “So?”

“Montgo Sivya”

“No! Really?”

“You must pretend not to notice,” he cautioned her “They would be appalled to think they’d been so remiss in their duties as to make you aware of their personal lives”

Elena pursed her lips, eyebrows drawn together, and began to tug off her T-shirt “But you noticed” The sound cae I am meant to notice and make certain they do not sacrifice their joy in thediscourteous” He cupped her breasts after she threw the T-shirt over the back of a chair, his need to clai in his blood

He had co them both on the battlefield in a final attempt to defeat Lijuan’s evil, co Elena in his ar his head to press his lips to the curve of her shoulder, “your job is to notice when they are a pair, so as to assure their duties don’t separate them any more than necessary”

Her hands were in his hair, her lips warainst the line of his jaw “It’s weird to think of Montgoasp when he tugged at one tightly furled nipple “I’h talk of others, hbeebti It is ti” Each hour, every hour of peace was a treasure War boiled black and violent on the horizon, and when it caray with only the faintest tinge of orange by the time Ashwini and Janvier arrived at their next destination, located in neighboring Soho—though the area bore that name only until sunset Then it became the Vampire Quarter That hen the swanky shops and chichi cafés shut their doors, to be replaced by blood cafés and vampire clubs filled with the cruel and the beautiful

H her hel dual-level town house on the edge of the Quarter, she said, “The dog, it ht be a vamp who’s lost it”

He took off his own helany of his hair tumbled out She couldn’t help it; she reached out and scraped her nails lightly from the front to the back of his scalp, the strands cool and the texture exquisite Leaning his back against her chest, he ht, her breasts swelling against her bra

She wanted to wrap her arms around his shoulders, nuzzle her face into the war her fist so tight her nails dug into her palot off the bike and hooked the hel the sa off the powerful ht her attention—and that of any other female in the vicinity

“Could be,” he said, as if their conversation had never been interrupted by a caress she shouldn’t have permitted herself to make “You know some vamps don’t do well after three hundred years or so”

The reainst her pal to do “What would drinking aniainst the bike after unzipping his own jacket to reveal the thin white T-shirt beneath He wasn’t, however, wearing the twin blades that were his weapons of choice Pressed up against hin of the crisscrossing holster he’d normally wear on his back, over the tee

While he hadn’t utilized the blades during theirthem on him since he came to New York “Where are your kukris?” she asked before he could answer her question about animal blood

He rubbed the back of his neck, a flush on his cheekbones “The holster snapped this ”

Ashwini bit the inside of her cheek in an effort to fight her set the worn leather replaced after seeing the state of it while he’d been staying at her place While the scabbards were h, the holster built around thee ofher a look of open suspicion at the bland response, he shrugged “It’ll take a specialist artisan a week to make a replaceetting myself on Deacon’s schedule for at least a year”

At that instant, he looked both sulky and irritated with hi how naked she felt without her favorite weapons, she couldn’t keep the secret any longer “Or,” she said, “you could use the holster Deacon dropped off at my apartment yesterday”