Her eyes widened.

Her smile returned.

So did the pleasure. So much pleasure. Enough to make a man lose his mind.

His fingers twined with hers. Her legs lifted and curled around his hips. When he thrust, she arched into him. Her sex was slick and—judging by those sweet moans—sensitive from her release.

It didn’t take long until she was coming for him again. Her sex contracted, squeezing him. Slick and eager. He pumped into her, driving as deep as he could possibly go.

The second orgasm left him feeling hollowed out, sated, and more at peace than he’d ever felt.

He knew it wasn’t the orgasm that had truly done that for him. It was her.

In the aftermath, he pulled her closer against him. Pressed a kiss to her cheek.

And slept for the first time in centuries with a woman in his arms. He’d never been able to hold another while he slept. He’d feared that his nightmares would bring fire—and that he’d wake to see death and hell.

But the fire wouldn’t come with Cassie. It couldn’t.

She brought peace.

The faint light of dawn pressed onto Cassie, and she blinked, slowly opening her eyes. Something was on top of her—something warm and strong and heavy.

Dante.

He was sprawled half on top of her, with his arm wrapped around her stomach. His eyes were closed. His face relaxed.

He’d always looked so fierce. So dangerous. Now, he just looked . . . handsome.

Her hand lifted. Her fingers were trembling. After last night, how could she still feel nervous around him? But her fingers shook as she brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen over his forehead.

At her touch, his eyes immediately opened. There was no grogginess in his gaze. Too alert, far too aware, that gaze locked on her.

Since it was her first official morning after, Cassie wasn’t 100 percent sure what she was supposed to say. Actually, she wasn’t even 10 percent sure, so she offered him a smile.

Dante didn’t smile. But then, he never did.

One day, he will.

“There’s no going back,” he said.

No, they’d crossed a line last night.

“We’ll leave this town,” he continued and his fingers stroked over her shoulder. “Head north. I had a place in Canada once that I think—”

Wait. She stiffened beneath him. “I still have to get to Mississippi. I have people there who are counting on me.” He knew that.

A furrow appeared between his brows. He sat up, pulling the covers with him.

She was naked. That fact hadn’t embarrassed her at all last night. But it wasn’t last night, and right then, her face flamed as she yanked the sheets away from him.

Dante frowned at her. “Those people . . . want to use you. If you go back, Genesis—what’s left of it—will keep hunting you.”

Yes, he was right. They would.

“I can’t leave the people in Belle. They need me.” She was the only one who could help them. “The other phoenixes are going to meet me there and—”

Dante’s hands locked around her wrists. “Other phoenixes?”

“I-I thought that your memory was back.” Surely he remembered the female phoenix in New Orleans. He’d gone to New Orleans to find that woman because—Oh, crap. Because phoenixes have a history of killing each other.

Since phoenixes could come back from nearly any death, they didn’t have many natural enemies.

Just their own kind.

In order for a phoenix to truly die, he had to be killed during the moment of his regeneration, the moment when the flames burned at their brightest—a moment when only another phoenix could get through the fire. Those fireproof suits that Jon’s men had worn certainly hadn’t been strong enough to get the job done.

“Sabine doesn’t want to hurt you,” Cassie said, referring to the only female phoenix she’d ever met. Cassie clutched the sheet closer to her body. “Don’t you remember? She just wanted—”

“I remember Sabine.” Flat. Cold. “Her vampire tried to transform her.”

Cassie nodded. Sabine’s lover, a vampire, had tried to turn the phoenix, but the results hadn’t been quite what Ryder had anticipated.

“Sabine never wanted to hurt you.” Cassie tried to make her voice sound soothing. “You don’t have to worry about a threat from her.”

“And her vampire? You think he will want me to keep living, knowing that I can kill his woman?”

Cassie’s heart was pounding too fast. Her death grip was about to rip the sheets. “Are you planning to kill her?” Before Dante could answer, she grabbed for his hand and dropped her sheet. “Sabine wants to help us! She’s working with me to try and find a cure for Trace—”