“The council?” Mary murmured with confusion, but Francis had already slipped out the door and was closing it behind him.
“The council is basically our governmental body,” Dante explained, his deep rumble sounding directly behind her.
Mary turned sharply and he immediately drew her into his arms.
“Good morning,” he growled just before his lips covered hers.
Mary sighed into his mouth and slid her arms around him as they kissed. But when he began to back toward the bed, pulling her with him, she broke the kiss and dug her heels in to stop him. “Francis and Russell are outside.”
“Good. They can stay there,” Dante muttered, his mouth moving to nuzzle her neck.
“They’re taking us to breakfast,” she breathed, tilting her head to give him better access despite her hunger.
Dante paused, then sighed and slowly straightened. “Food.”
Mary chuckled at his expression. It looked to her like he was weighing his different hungers in his mind. Food or her? She helped him out by saying, “I’m hungry.”
“So am I,” he admitted, and then muddied the water by grinding against her so that she could feel the morning erection he was sporting.
Mary moaned, and then pushed herself away from him. “Food first.”
“You are a hard woman, Mary Winslow,” he complained, turning to move back to the bed to grab up his jeans.
“I’m not the one who’s hard,” she said on a laugh and headed for the door.
“Sassy wench,” he said with affection as she slipped from the room.
Fourteen
“Did you have any trouble replacing the mattress?”
Mary glanced up from the bacon and eggs on her plate at that question from Dante and followed his gaze to Russell as the man shook his head. They were in a mom and pop restaurant up the road from the hotel. The décor wasn’t much to look at, but Francis had assured her the food was extremely good when she’d joined him and Russell in the hall back at the hotel. He’d then led her to the room next door to the one she’d woken in, and made her feed on three bags of blood in a row while they waited for Dante to dress.
Mary hadn’t thought she’d been feeling that kind of hunger at the time, but Francis had insisted it was better to be safe than sorry, especially since they were going out among mortals, and the moment he’d handed her one of the bags, her canines had dropped down into fangs. So Mary had gone through the three bags he’d handed her and even asked for a fourth when those were gone. As he’d said, better safe than sorry. The last thing Mary wanted was to find herself attacking some poor waitress or store clerk on her first outing as an immortal.
“The store manager was very accommodating,” Russell said now, drawing her attention back to the conversation. “She arranged to have the new mattress delivered right away and even had her deliverymen take away the old one.”
“Yes, and we did not even have to use mind control to get her to do that,” Francis said, then added with amusement, “After Russell gave her one of his sexy smiles, she was smitten. I think she would have dragged the mattress out herself to please him if she had not been able to get ahold of her moving men.”
Russell just shook his head and said, “We did have to use a little mind control with the movers. They were a bit alarmed when they saw the blood on the hotel mattress.”
Dante grunted and nodded as he took a bite of his toast, apparently not surprised. Once he’d chewed and swallowed, he said, “Thank you for handling it.”
“It was no problem,” Russell assured him, and then cast Francis a teasing look and said, “Francis likes to shop.”
“Shopping for mattresses is not my idea of the fun kind of shopping,” Francis said with a sniff, then smiled at Mary and added, “Now clothes shopping for you, though? That will be fun.”
“Clothes shopping?” Dante asked slowly.
Mary smiled with amusement at his expression. He looked as pleased at the prospect as she would at the idea of visiting the dentist.
“Yes, clothes shopping,” Francis said with exasperation. “Just look at her, Dante. Mary needs clothes.”
Dante didn’t look convinced. Mary wasn’t surprised. Joe had always hated going clothes shopping too. Taking pity on him, Mary said, “Dante doesn’t have to come with us. He could head back to the hotel and get some more sleep while we shop.”
“No,” Dante said at once. “I will come with you.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, thinking it would probably actually be nicer for her if he wasn’t there, looking miserable and bored.
But Dante nodded firmly. “I will accompany you.”
“Mary, honey,” Francis said with amusement. “Now that he has found you, Dante probably will not let you out of his sight for . . . oh . . . a good century or so. We will just have to deal with it. Although,” he added, turning to Dante. “Your coming with us means I will finally get the chance to tweak your wardrobe a bit.”