Inferno's Kiss (15 page)

“I have some concerns about letting you go to the convent.”

“Like what?” Cleo narrowed her gaze at him. If he even mentioned her lack of special abilities, she’d deck him.

“You carried out an execution without a partner, despite knowing what the standing rule is in Rome.” There was a sharp edge to his voice that said he wasn’t going to give way easily.

“I told you why I didn’t take a partner,” she snapped. “I would have needed to explain my reasons for grilling Angotti, not to mention my methods.”

“It was reckless.”

“Reckless implies that I rushed into the assassination without a plan, which isn’t true. I planned Angotti’s assassination carefully, and while the Praetorians were a bit of a surprise, I knew it was more than possible they might turn up,” she said in a matter-of-fact voice. “I weighed all the options, and my plan was a risk I was willing to take. Angotti had the information I wanted. If there had been another way to get what I wanted, I would have taken that route. There wasn’t.”

She worked hard to keep from appearing defensive as he studied her with a careful look she was already starting to recognize despite having known him less than a day. His expression of assessment and calculation reminded her of Lysander when he was evaluating a decision he had to make. He even tilted his head in the same way Lysander did when considering something.

Now that she could see Dante in the full light of day, the resemblance between the two men was pretty remarkable. She scoffed at the notion. She was going off the memory of what Lysander used to look like. It had been more than a year since that night in a Chicago warehouse when they’d found Lysander with half his face peeled off.

Still, there was something similar about the man who was like a big brother to her and the Tribune standing in front of her. The two men looked enough alike to be brothers. She brushed off the thought as her imagination was running wild this morning. As she studied his face, she could tell he was thinking long and hard about how to respond to her. Did he know she had no special Sicari abilities? It was common knowledge in the Order that she was different. She flinched at the thought.

Dante folded his arms across his chest and eyed her carefully. He knew. Cleo was certain of it. It was why he was looking at her like that. Lysander always had that look when he was about to tell her something she didn’t want to hear. Now Dante was going to tell her she couldn’t go with him on the mission because she wasn’t a true Sicari.

“An assault on the convent is far too dangerous—”

“
Don’t
. Don’t even
think
of going there,” she snapped fiercely. “Just because I don’t have any Sicari abilities doesn’t mean I can’t fight. Like
this
.”

With a quick move, she kicked her foot out to hook it around the back of Dante’s leg and tugged hard. He easily thwarted her attempt to drop him to the ground by twisting his body in midair as he fell backward. In less than a second he landed in a push-up position, and his foot lashed out at her leg. She drew in a sharp breath as she quickly jumped to one side. She was crazy. She’d just attacked a Sicari Lord.

Instinctively, she danced backward as he sprang upright. The expression on his face said he wasn’t happy. No big surprise there. Invisible fingers wrapped around both her arms as he slowly used his telekinetic ability to draw her toward him. She knew better than to resist, and instead, she deliberately threw herself forward.

The move surprised him, and as she slammed into him, her momentum threw him off balance. An instant later, he was on his back and she was on top of him. With her face inches from his, she was able to see the color of his eyes for the first time. They were the shade of an angry sea at night. Dark blue and mysterious.
Christus
, his voice wasn’t the only thing about him that would easily make a woman forget who she came to the party with.

As their gazes locked, she breathed in the tangy aroma of spice. The potent male scent of him stirred up an image of a warm night, hot skin, and tousled silk sheets. Beneath the palm of her hand, she could feel the racing beat of his heart. The sound of ragged breathing caught her attention. Was that sound coming from her?

No, not only her. His breathing was just as harsh and shallow. The tension in him was palpable, and her own heartbeat quickened as the sudden pressure of his erection swelled against her inner thigh. Her gaze drifted downward to his mouth, and an impish desire to break through that restrained manner of his swept through her.

She didn’t think. She simply acted on the impulse of the moment and bent her head to brush her lips across his in a tentative kiss. She’d only meant it to be a quick touch, but the taste of fresh mint made her mouth linger against his. His body went rigid beneath her.

Desire coiled through her belly to spread its heat through her limbs. His arousal hardened further, and she shifted her hips until his hard length was pressing into the apex of her thighs. His mouth moved against hers, and she nipped at his lower lip with her teeth.
Deus
, even without trying the man had her so turned on she was willing to forget he was a Sicari Lord.

She stiffened against him. He was right. She
was
reckless. First she’d hit a Sicari Lord, and now she was attempting to seduce one. Embarrassment slid its painful net around her as she broke the kiss and lifted her head. The world suddenly shifted, and Dante rolled her over until he was the one on top.

His expression was harsh as he stared down at her. If she hadn’t been so humiliated by her seduction attempt, she might have thought him embarrassed as well. She swallowed hard at the way he quickly got to his feet and stepped back from her. The stiff way he moved gave her the impression that he felt soiled being so close to her.

Not that it would surprise her. There were a lot of Sicari men who’d found her lack of abilities unattractive. Except Michael. He’d not cared until the day she’d lost the baby and her ability to have children. But that had made his rejection all the more painful. Without any order from Dante, she scrambled to her feet. Head bowed, she breathed in a sharp breath.

“I’m sorry,
il mio signore
, you were right. I’m reckless and deserve whatever sentence you hand out.”

Humiliation held her rigid in front of him, and she jumped as he uttered a violent oath beneath his breath. Her gaze jerked upward at the sound. Desire, anger, and confusion hardened his expression into an icy façade as he turned away from her.

“It’s not your fighting skills I’m concerned about,” he ground out.

“I don’t understand.” Puzzled, she shook her head in bemusement.

“It’s
who
you are that’s the problem.”

“Who I—”

Cleo stiffened as the full impact of his statement slammed into her. Marcus Vorenus. Suddenly, now that people knew she was the daughter of a Sicari Lord, she needed to be handled with care. Well, she refused to let anyone treat her like some precious object.

“I want to talk to him,” she said with a quiet hiss of air breaking past her lips. “
Now
.”

His features expressionless, Dante turned his head toward her. Those dark, stormy eyes of his studied her for a brief moment before he nodded sharply.

“Come.”

Without waiting for her response, he turned and headed toward the corner of the garden. Cleo followed him with a rigid stride that matched his. She was going on this mission whether Dante Condellaire or Marcus Vorenus liked it or not. In the far reaches of her brain a trigger went off, but she didn’t pay any attention. All she cared about at the moment was making sure she was included in the rescue mission.

She’d put too much effort into researching, analyzing, and planning the assault on the convent not to be included on the mission team. There was no way of knowing what her information might bring to the table in terms of a rescue plan, but it was clear Dante didn’t have enough information to move forward with his own plan.

If he did, he wouldn’t have tried to pressure her into telling him what Angotti had revealed. It would explain why he was so angry last night. He’d been furious that he’d not arrived before Angotti’s execution.

As she followed Dante into the house, she fought to gain control of her anger. If she were going to convince Marcus to let her participate in Marta’s rescue, she needed to sound logical and rational when she spoke to him. They passed through several rooms via the corridor that surrounded the courtyard until they turned into a smaller hallway that led to a monitoring room.

It took her a moment to adjust to the low lighting, and when she did, she saw almost twenty different video screens that surveilled the perimeter of the mansion. The young man and woman watching the video feeds immediately jumped to attention as Dante entered the room. He waved them to stand down and turned to the woman.

“Mary, contact White Cloud and get His Eminence on screen.”

“
Si
,
il mio signore
,” the woman said as she spun her chair around to face the console.

Cleo winced. Eminence. The word made Marcus sound even more important
.
While the woman at the console worked quickly to connect them, Dante stood beside her with his arms folded across his chest like a silent guardian waiting to be summoned back to duty. She was certain he expected Marcus to override her protests. Ironically, so did she. The silence in the room was almost suffocating as they waited, but she refused to let her anxiety show.

She was about to go head-to-head with a powerful Sicari Lord, and even if he was her birth father, it was still an intimidating thought. One of the monitors flickered with movement, and her throat closed tight with fear. Hell, facing those two Praetorians last night hadn’t scared her like this. The realization made her angry.

She didn’t have anything to fear. This was her life, and she was entitled to live it as she pleased. As Marcus’s face appeared on the screen, Dante gestured toward the headset the young woman at the console offered her. Cleo hesitated for only a second before she stepped forward to take the mike and sit down in front of the video screen. She wasn’t quite sure how to begin, and Marcus cleared his throat.

“I’m glad to see you’re safe and well, Cleopatra,” the Sicari Lord said quietly. “I understand you ran into a slight bit of trouble.”

Cleo glanced over her shoulder at Dante, whose expression hadn’t changed. She looked back at the monitor and nodded. “Nothing I couldn’t handle, but the Tribune’s assistance made it easier for me to get to a healer.”

“Healer?”

She saw Marcus frown darkly, and Dante growled with displeasure directly behind her. So the Tribune hadn’t told Marcus everything about last night. Was it possible Dante hadn’t mentioned his plan to rescue the women in the Convent of the Sacred Mother either? She was suddenly certain he hadn’t. She liked that. It gave her leverage. She shook her head.

“Just a cut on the leg. I was fine.”

“Good.” Although a hint of suspicion still remained on his features, Marcus seemed reasonably satisfied with her answer.

“We do have a slight problem, though,” she said in a firm voice. “I have some personal business here in Rome that I’d like to wrap up before I return stateside.”

“Personal business?” The questioning note in his voice matched the wariness of his expression.

“A friend of mine I want to spend time with,” she said smoothly. It was true. She did want to see Marta again. “While I was here, I thought I could offer up my skills to the Rome guild, but the Tribune here seems to think my bloodline should limit me to duties that involve less . . . risk.”

“I see,” Marcus murmured.

Cleo locked her jaw as she watched the monitor screen closely. For the first time, she could see a resemblance between herself and the man who was her father. He was clearly calculating a response designed to keep her in check without appearing to be manipulative. She wasn’t about to give him time to back her into a corner.

“I’m glad you understand, because I’m certain my mother will have informed you by now that I do not like to be treated any differently than anyone else.”

“I wasn’t suggesting you should be, Cleopatra.”

The Sicari Lord’s use of her formal name grated on her nerves. She really didn’t like it when people called her by her full name. It always made her feel like she was a kid again, about to be scolded by her mother. Although, come to think of it, she didn’t really mind when Dante used her full name. It sounded soft and lovely when he said it. She focused her attention back on the conversation at hand.

“Good. The Tribune here had me worried that I was suddenly on lockdown just because we happen to . . .
know
each other.” She stared hard at the screen in front of her and saw a flash of frustration darken her father’s face.

“No. You’re free to carry out your duties,” Marcus replied with a growl. “All I ask is that you keep in mind that the
Prima Consul
will blame me if anything happens to you.”

At the mention of her mother, Cleo grimaced. The man wasn’t playing fair. Just because Cleo was still angry about being lied to didn’t mean she didn’t love her mother. And she knew her mother loved her. But she still wasn’t ready to deal with the issue yet. It remained a raw wound that needed a little more time to heal. She tilted her chin slightly in defiance before nodding sharply.

“Understood,” she bit out. “Although, we both know the
Prima Consul
has no one to blame but herself.”

“You judge her too harshly, Cleopatra,” Marcus said quietly.

The observation was the exact same one Ignacio had made when she’d first learned the truth about her father.
Merda
, was Marcus still in love with her mother? She drew in a deep breath. She sure as hell didn’t want to face that question at the moment. It was hard enough coming to grips with the fact that she had a Sicari Lord for a father, let alone the possibility that he might become a permanent presence in her life.