Page 79 of The Vampire’s Temptation

Chapter 20

Alessandra sat beside Kenton on the riverbank, hand in hand with him. The connection between them felt so strong, as if it had been forged in iron. Together they looked down at the dark water. Then he reached out to touch her, sending a spark of warmth through her chest and down to her toes, and as she leaned forward to touch their lips together.

Their mouths opened at the same time, and what was sweet to start turned decidedly wicked as his tongue demanded more. She couldn’t get enough of him, and apparently Kenton felt the same way. The small ripple of desire grew and grew until it became a great big wave that still hadn’t crested. He reached down to open her shirt and then—

“Hey, sleepyhead.”

The riverbank turned wispy, and Kenton’s urgent touch was replaced by a nudge to her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, she’s perfectly decent,” said a faint female voice.

This made no sense.

“Though she apparently doesn’t want to move this morning.”

“Always the night owl.”

What the—

She sat up in bed and confirmed what her foggy mind had just told her. Her brother Garrett sat down next to her on the mattress. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Before you get all huffy—”

“Too late,” she said, darting a glance at his co-conspirator.

“Sorry,” Toni shrugged. “Though to be fair, I was on the porch when he showed up. I couldn’t turn him away.”

These two really had to get a grip on the difference between night and day. “What is it, like 5:00 a.m.?”

“Hardly, genius. The sun is up. It’s 7:30,” Garrett said, pulling her toward him for a hug she would have given him gladly if it weren’t so frigging early. Oh, and if he hadn’t ignored her instructions to stay put in his information-finding mission.

She looked up at his hair. “Too short,” she murmured, rubbing her eyes.

It was a long-standing joke between them. His floppy, young Leonardo DiCaprio hair had always looked so cute when they were young. Any time he cut it too short, Alessandra and her mother both gave him hell for it. All the more reason for Garrett to do it, of course.

She should have played reverse psychology on him, but her brother was too smart for that.

“I told you not to come,” she groaned.

And especially not so early in the morning, she added silently.

“Yeah, I know. You can rail at me all day for my misogynist tendencies.”

“I’d never say that about you—”

“Uh-huh.”

Alessandra looked to Toni for help, but she put up her hands and shook her head. “I’m just the courier. I have to finish getting ready for work. Some of us in this house actually have a job.”

“I have a . . .” Realizing too late she shouldn’t have taken the bait, Alessandra snapped her mouth shut.

“Later, kids,” Toni said. “Lunch at Trousseau?” she called back, not waiting for an answer. She knew Alessandra didn’t have any particular reason to deny her. “Join us, Garrett.” Her voice echoed from down the hall.

“So,” he said, and Alessandra crossed her legs.

“I went through the box last night . . .”

The box. Though their mother had tossed away all of their father’s clothing after the funeral, burning all evidence of his existence from their lives, she had packed up a box of his belongings and asked if either of them wanted it.