Free Sure as Hell by Julie Kenner

the proposition for a second. Especially not once he saw the warm light of interest in her eyes.
    “Do you mean that?”
    He considered denying it; after all, he had no idea what she did. But the words wouldn’t come. Instead, he uttered an emphatic, “Of course.”
    It was all fantasy, though, and it was best he remembered that. He might want a future with this woman, but right now, the future extended only into the night. Only into bed.
    That wasn’t enough for him.
    Right then, though, it would have to do.
    Once again, they were skipping a meal. But Lucia didn’t care. She was full up on Dante, and he on her. At the moment, she was tasting his sweetness, her teeth nibbling at his earlobe as she curled up, languid, against him, her body completely sated and happy.
    “You’re amazing,” he said, his voice low and soft with sex.
    “We’re amazing,” she said, and as she spoke, she realized that was true. Together, they seemed to be more than the sum of two individuals. He completed her, and she dared to think that she completed him.
    A shiver cut through her, and she squeezed her eyes shut. That was not the direction her thoughts needed to be going. Love and commitment were all well and good . . . just not for her. She had a different kind of life. She knew that. She’d accepted it centuries ago.
    And no matter how sad her reality might be, she was in the end a pragmatist. And no matter how appealing it might be to revel in the fantasy that she could chuck it all and go work with him . . . well, a girl had to live in the real world.
    “Hey,” he said, stroking her cheek. “Where are you?”
    “Right here,” she promised, pushing the mood aside. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
    To prove the point, she covered his mouth with hers, tasting his sweetness. Beneath her, she could feel the press of his erection, rock hard again despite having satisfied her so thoroughly only minutes before.
    She reached down and stroked it, her body tingling with emotion and need. He felt like velvet and steel. Most of all, he felt like hers.
    “I want you,” she said.
    “You’ve got me.”
    “Now.” And as if to prove it, she straddled him, then took him, demanding with her body that he never leave her, and that she never leave him. It was a lie, of course, an illusion. But what a sweet, sweet fantasy.
    And as they rocked together, their bodies throbbing with heat and lust, she forgot who she was and what she had to do. And for those few minutes, it was good.
    “You’re beautiful,” he whispered sleepily, his breath tickling her ear.
    Lucia snuggled closer. They’d made love all night, and she’d willingly lost herself over and over to the fantasy that her time with Dante was the reality, and everything else was somehow just a dream.
    It wasn’t, though, and in moments of clarity, she had to acknowledge that. After all, each day she’d been scoping out the hotel, planning the assassination. Her investigation had made it clear that her usual plan of getting close to a subject wasn’t going to work here. The time frame her father had given her had almost expired, and the man still wasn’t on the premises. That meant that she’d have to go the old-fashioned way, abandoning a syringe for the messier approach of a sniper’s bullet.
    Not a big deal, really. After all, she’d taken out many subjects that way.
    Still, there were risks. She lived in the mortal world, and murders were investigated.
    This time, however, that didn’t matter. Once the deed was done, she’d be abandoning her old life and taking over her father’s empire. Things like pesky police investigations would never bother her again (and, really, such things had only ever been an annoyance, not a true threat).
    She was only a day away from finally being done with this life, this career. And yet instead of being happy, she was drowning in melancholy.
    Beside her, Dante had fallen asleep, oblivious to her turmoil. But Lucia couldn’t sleep.