Free Betrayed by D. B. Reynolds

profile, but in a public location. Security will be heavy, but the site is nearly impossible to seal off. Our boy should have no difficulty.”
    “Do it.”
    “At your command, my lord.”
    “Tell me, Jared, now that the time has come to leave Colorado , do you regret your decision to join me in Malibu ?”
    “Never, my lord. It will be an honor to serve at your side.”
    Raphael smiled to himself, pleased with Jared’s response, although he’d expected nothing less. He’d been fortunate in his children. He heard Cyn’s voice down the hallway and his smile widened. And even more fortunate in his mate. He turned as she drew closer, climbing the foyer’s marble steps to meet her at the top.
    “I’ve been looking for you,” she purred, sidling close and slipping her arm around his waist. “It’s nearly dawn, fang boy.”
    Raphael bent his head to her upturned face and kissed her. There was actually a good hour until sunrise, which Cyn surely knew. He lifted his mouth from hers, and she licked her lips as if savoring the taste of him.
    “Quite right, my Cyn,” he murmured. “Jared,” he called over his shoulder as he and Cyn started down the corridor to their private quarters. “We depart tomorrow at sunset. Sleep well.”
    * * * *
    Cyn was waiting right behind him as he closed and secured the vault door. He turned into her embrace, her arms going around his neck as she gazed up at him solemnly.
    “Promise me, Raphael,” she said, her green eyes as clear and serious as he’d ever seen them. “Promise you won’t take any stupid chances with this thing. We’ll find this guy. You don’t need to put yourself out there with a bull’s-eye on your back.”
    Raphael pictured himself with a target pinned to the back of his suit jacket. His tailor would be appalled. He slipped his arms around Cyn’s waist and snugged her closer, marveling at how perfectly their bodies fit together, two parts of a single whole.
    “I have no intention of standing by and letting some human thug use me for target practice, my Cyn.”
    She rose up on tiptoes and bit his chin. “That’s not a promise, fang boy, and don’t think I don’t know the difference. But I’ll take it for now, and only because I’m going to be watching you.”
    “Only watching, lubimaya ?” he asked, shrugging out of his suit jacket and throwing it on a nearby chair.
    She laughed and kissed the very spot she’d so recently bitten. “If we’re leaving tomorrow, I guess I have to pack, huh?”
    Raphael scooped her up into his arms and strode across the room. “You can pack in the morning,” he growled and, placing a knee on the mattress, dropped them both onto the big bed. He stretched out on top of her, still fully clothed, and began tasting her, a nip of her neck, a stroke of his tongue along her cheek, a lingering kiss that nearly undid him. He lifted his head and found her watching him, her eyes no longer clear but hazy with desire.
    “I love you, my Cyn.”
    “I love you back, my Raphael. So why are we still wearing so many clothes?”
    He laughed. “Insatiable, as always. Fortunately,” he flexed his hips against her, letting her feel the hard ridge of his arousal, “I am up to the task,” he added smugly.
    “Talk is cheap . . . my lord.”
    Raphael growled and dipped his head to bite her neck a little bit harder. Not breaking the skin, not yet, but letting her feel the sharp edge of his fangs. Cyn’s heart kicked against his chest, her arms tightening reflexively around him.
    “Raphael,” she breathed.
    Raphael stood rapidly and stripped off the rest of his clothes, watching hungrily as Cyn drew her sweater over her head before shimmying pants and panties down her legs and tossing them to one side. Her bra was last, a delicate confection of some beige silk that was like pretty wrapping paper torn away from the true beauty of her breasts as they tumbled loose, drawing his eye like a magnet to north.
    She’d no sooner slipped the bra