"Lara." He kissed a path across her cheek and down her neck. She swayed her hips from side to side, rubbing against him.

Santo cielo. She wanted him. His passion escalated into a frantic need. He swept the edges of the velvet cape over her shoulders, then he undid the buttons down the front of her dress, stopping at her belt. He pushed the bodice and sweater back only to discover some sort of modern, strapless contraption barring him from heaven.

"It's not glued to you, is it?" He didn't want to rip something off her delicate skin.

Lara smiled and caressed his cheek. "It unhooks in the front. Shall I show you?"

"I can manage." He wrestled with the strange plastic hook, then suddenly, the clasp popped open. He sucked in a breath at the lovely sight. "Paradiso."

She shook her head, smiling and blushing at the same time. "They're just breasts."

"No, love." His eyes met hers, and he smiled. "They're your breasts."

Her blush deepened, and the scent of her sweet, rushing blood ignited his frantic need once more.

"I want you." He unfastened her belt and with vampire speed, he undid the rest of her buttons before the belt hit the floor. He pushed her dress wide open, then gripped her around the waist. Her creamy skin was shaded pink from the red glow of his eyes. He slid his hands up over her ribs, then he cupped her breasts.

"Yes." She arched her back, leaning into him so the pink-tinted mounds filled his hands.

With his thumbs, he circled the plump, rosy nipples. They pebbled before his eyes, and his groin seized up tight. He rubbed the tips of her breasts and felt them harden beneath the pads of his thumbs. His erection grew hard. With a tortured moan, he pinched the tips of her breasts and tugged slightly.

"Oh God." Lara grabbed his shoulders as her knees buckled.

"I've got you." He grasped her bottom and lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist.

He pressed her back against the wall and raised her higher so he could feast on her breasts. He shoved her dress aside with his face and latched onto a nipple.

She shuddered in his arms. "Jack." She held his head tight.

He suckled her and nibbled on the hardened tip of her breast. Then a slight dizziness swept over him, making him freeze for a second. The sun. It was approaching the horizon. Merda.

"Jack, please," Lara breathed as she gripped his hair in her fists.

He nuzzled his cheek against her breasts as he fought to remain strong. He had maybe five minutes left before his energy would completely seep away. If he fell into his death-sleep here, the sun would kill him.

He inhaled deeply, and the scent of Lara's arousal stirred him. So rich and heady. Santo cielo, he would make her scream before leaving.

He adjusted his hold on her so he was supporting her with one arm. With his free hand, he burrowed under her skirt.

"Look at me," he whispered as he slid his hand up her bare thigh.

She did. "Your eyes are so red."

"Yours are so blue." He reached the slippery folds, and she gasped.

"Oh God." Her eyes flickered shut.

He stroked her till she was quivering in his arms. He teased her clitoris with feathery strokes, then suddenly tweaked it.

She cried out. Her heels dug into his back. More moisture drenched his fingers, and he moaned. She was so sweet, so responsive.

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear. "Cara mia, I love you."

"Oh Jack." She panted, her breath erratic against his cheek.

His death-sleep tugged at him once again. He'd have to teleport very soon. He slipped a finger into Lara's wet vagina, and her inner muscles gripped him greedily. She was so close. His erection pushed painfully against his jeans.

The sun crept closer to the horizon. Sweat broke out on his brow. He inserted two fingers and stroked her slippery inner walls.

"Jack!" Her muscles clenched and she stopped breathing.

All was deathly silent for a moment. Even the serenade from below had stopped. Jack pulled his fingers out and tugged at her clitoris.

With a scream, she shattered. Her body convulsed. Pigeons, scared from their roosts, circled the bell tower with a flurry of beating wings. Jack leaned against the wall, dizzy with weakness as the sky lightened, announcing the imminent arrival of the sun.

With the last of his strength, he teleported them to his room at the townhouse in New York City. He collapsed on the bed with Lara landing beside him.

The alarm blared, set off by them teleporting in. Fortunately, no one was around to hear it, other than him. Phineas would be at Romatech, working. Jack fumbled in his jeans pocket for his keypad, then punched the button to turn off the alarm.

"What... what happened?" Lara whispered.

He breathed deeply as super vampire strength poured back into his body. The night was still young in New York. He had hours now that he could spend making love to Lara.

And that was exactly what he planned to do.

CHAPTER 15

Lara pressed a hand to her brow as she waited for the room to stop spinning. Everything had happened so quickly. She'd had such a huge orgasm, she thought she'd passed out. But now, she realized they'd teleported.

Jack shifted position beside her, causing the bed to jiggle slightly. Bed? She was on her back in a bed. On a black-and-red-striped bedspread.

Jack propped himself up on an elbow and peered down at her. "Are you all right?"

She caught her breath. He'd said that he loved her. "Jack." She touched his cheek.

"Cara mia." With a smile, he skimmed his fingers down her neck, then down between her breasts. "Where were we?"

"Where are we?" She glanced around the room. The black furniture and plain, cream-colored walls looked awfully modern for a palazzo.

He cupped her breast. "My bedroom."

"We..." She shuddered when he teased her nipple. An aftershock from her orgasm shot through her. "Oh God." He was so good. And he'd said that he loved her.

He removed his leather jacket and tossed it on the floor.

"We-we teleported, right?"

"Yes." He stretched out beside her.

"To your bedroom at the palazzo?"

He hesitated, then kissed her brow. "It doesn't matter. We're together, and we have all night."

"I..." She had trouble concentrating when he was nibbling down her neck. "Are we still in Venice?" She felt his sigh against her skin.

"We're in New York."

She frowned. "But I was having a great time in Venice."

"I noticed." He untied the ribbons that fastened the cape around her neck. "You were shuddering in my arms, drenching my hand, and nearly ripping my hair out."

Heat rushed to her cheeks, and another aftershock hummed between her legs. She'd never had an orgasm like that before. She'd screamed so loud, she'd probably afflicted permanent trauma on all the pigeons. But it had been so incredibly romantic. And Jack had said that he loved her. "I loved it there. Why did we leave?"

"We only planned to go for a few hours, remember? We wanted to do more work on the Apollo case."

"We're not exactly working here."

He smiled as he circled a finger around one of her breasts. "I was distracted by the lure of heaven."

She took a deep breath. "Venice was very romantic."

"We can be romantic here." He gave her a hopeful look.

He wanted to make love to her. Lara swallowed hard. It was one thing to get blindsided with his declaration of love in Venice. She'd gotten swept into a whirlwind of passion, and it had been glorious. Unfortunately, another teleportation trip had knocked her back to reality.

She still didn't know jack about Jack.

She'd asked him flat out how old he was, and he had evaded the question. She'd hoped to find out more about him on the date, but he'd managed to tell her nothing-except that he loved her. "I'm feeling a little frustrated."

He glanced at his jeans. "You're not the only one."

"Do you really love me?"

"Yes." He met her gaze, his eyes intense and sincere. "I do love you."

Her eyes blurred with tears. "Why did you take me to Venice?"

"I wanted to share my home with you. I wanted to know if you could love it the way I do."

"Jack." She touched his cheek. "I did love it. I didn't want to leave."

"Then could you see yourself living there? With me?"

She gulped. "That-that's kinda sudden." How could she live with a man she knew so little about? She knew he was sweet and loveable. She knew he had to be human. He felt emotions like a human. He said he loved her. And right now, he looked genuinely worried. She sat up and located her bra squished inside her dress. She refastened it.

Jack sat beside her. "You don't have to go."

"I think I do." She buttoned up her dress. "I seem to have lost my belt."

"I'll call Mario, and he'll have someone collect it. I can return it to you tomorrow night."

"You could teleport back tomorrow night?" When he nodded, she continued, "But you can't go now?"

He looked away. "No."

"That's not making any sense to me."

He remained silent.

Her shoulders drooped. "You're not going to explain, are you?" She blinked back tears. How could he say he loved her, if he didn't trust her? She slid off the bed and retrieved her underwear from his jacket pocket. His ring was still stuck to it.

"Lara, you don't have to go."

He looked so sad, it was breaking her heart. "I-I don't have my handbag."

"I'll bring it to your apartment later."

"I need it now, so I can take a cab home."

Jack sighed. "I'll be back soon. Don't go anywhere."

"Okay." Lara perched on the edge of his bed. He vanished in front of her eyes.

"Oh, shit." She collapsed onto his bed and gazed at the ceiling. She was falling in love with him. He had all the wonderful qualities she'd ever wanted in a man. But those additional qualities, those supernatural powers, gave her pause.

She'd been forced to the conclusion that somehow he was genetically different from the average human. Some sort of strange mutation had occurred in the human species that gave some people super powers and incredibly long life spans. And he wasn't alone. There were others like him, and they wanted their existence kept secret. Maybe they were afraid of being misunderstood or exploited. They had a point. If others thought they had discovered the fountain of youth, they would be hunted down for the secret.

But she would never do anything to hurt Jack or his friends. Why wouldn't he trust her?

She closed her eyes and remembered their playfulness in the gondola and their passion in the bell tower. My God, what passion. She'd never experienced anything that wild and exciting before. It would be so easy to strip off her clothes and climb into Jack's bed.

She turned her head to look at the pillows. She could spend the night here. Jack would give her a night of glorious sex. And she wanted him. She wanted him so bad.

But she wanted answers, too! How could she make herself completely vulnerable to a man who wouldn't tell her anything?

He'd said that he loved her.

Dammit! Lara sat up. If he loved her, he needed to trust her. She wanted to love him, but how could she make that final plunge when he kept so many secrets from her?

With a sigh, she dropped her underwear on the bed. She hung the velvet cape in his closet. She couldn't resist grazing her fingers over his other clothes. Damn, she was in so deep.

She used the phone on Jack's bedside table to call a cab. Then she took her underwear into his bathroom to search for a pair of scissors. There was no mirror above the vanity. How strange. She rummaged through the drawers. Toothpaste, razors, dental floss, the usual stuff. For a supernatural being, Jack could seem awfully normal.

She found a small pair of scissors and snipped his ring free. It was a heavy, golden ring with some kind of elaborate insignia on top. Very old-looking. Strands of her underwear were still entwined in the design. She pulled the strands free and set the ring on the vanity.

"Lara?" Jack's voice came from the bedroom. He must have just teleported back.

She quickly put on her underwear, then opened the bathroom door. "I'm here." The look of relief on his face touched her heart.

He set her handbag on his dresser. "I'd like to take you out again." He gazed at her with that hungry look that made her knees weak. "We have unfinished business."

Good Lord, if the man was any sexier, she'd have a heart attack. But what a way to go. "I-I had a wonderful time." Sheesh, what a lame thing to say.

"You screamed."

"Well, yes." Her cheeks grew hot. "I don't usually..."

"I liked it." His eyes glittered with a softness that made her heart squeeze painfully in her chest.

Oh, she wanted to run into his arms. She wanted to love him. "Jack, I'm so... tempted by you."

The gold flecks in his eyes started to gleam. "Cara mia, let me love you."

She sucked in a ragged breath and prayed for strength. "I can't. I can't get more involved with you until you tell me everything." She lifted her chin. "So, here's your chance. Talk to me. Let me into your world."

He grimaced with a pained expression. "Lara, there are several reasons why I can't tell you. If it was only me, I might risk it. But there are others like me-dear friends who trust me. Their lives depend on my silence."

"I wouldn't do anything to hurt you or your friends."