The kiss that followed was slower than the others they'd shared, deeper somehow, and Laura's hands slid around his neck as she pulled him down against her while the fire crackled nearby and the ancient stones stood silent around them like witnesses to something they couldn't name.

Dante's hands moved over her body with a different kind of hunger tonight, less frantic than before but somehow more intense, like he was trying to memorize every curve and dip of her skin under his palms, and Laura found herself responding the same way, her fingers tracing the hard planes of his chest and shoulders as if she could map him by...