talk to her about a contract. Arnold is searching for a cure for lycanthropy, so there’s a greater chance I won’t turn Were. In exchange for offering us sanctuary, I’ll be yours on more than paper.”
His black eyes were pitiless cold pits when I met them. His voice was low, smooth, as empty of emotion as his eyes. “Explain.”
Though I wanted to hide away, to flinch from him, to escape this life and start over somewhere new, I had no time to come up with a better solution. The words spilled from my mouth, hollow, dry, like someone else was saying them. I needed to remember to breathe or I might very well pass out from the strain of offering what shreds were left of my soul to this monster on a silver platter.
“I won’t fight you, I won’t try to seek vengeance, and I won’t try to avoid it like I have in the past. I’ll submit to a blood bond, and offer my blood to you willingly. It’ll be yours to take whenever you want.”
Chapter 30
“No.”
I blinked, the haze of shrieking terror clamoring in my mind receding at his unexpected response. “Excuse me?”
“I won’t take what isn’t offered freely. You’re selling yourself out of some misguided sense of obligation. You do not want me or what I have to offer, and I won’t accept the blood of a donor who doesn’t truly desire to be in such a position. Not when my survival is not dependent upon it. Despite what you may think, and regardless of how other vampires may operate, that is not how I choose to treat those who have contracted themselves to me. It’s too intimate an act to ask so much of another.”
I sat there for a long moment, too stunned to speak. Royce had never given me the impression he wanted anything but to have access to parts of me I’d never thought I’d be willing to give him. That he’d essentially pointed out I’d be reluctantly whoring myself to him—though not in as many words—was enough to set me to blushing furiously, running my palm down my face as I tried and failed to come up with a reply that wouldn’t make me look like an even bigger fool.
“Might I make a suggestion?” he said, once it became clear I was too embarrassed to speak. At my hesitant nod, he continued. “Perhaps an offer of friendship is in order. We have not had much opportunity to get to know each other outside of life-threatening events.”
I gradually lowered my hand from my face, staring at him blankly. He was as still and calm as before, lounging, relaxed and sated, in the cushions, much like he’d been placed just so to model how truly appealing he could be.
To say I was thunderstruck would be like calling the sky blue. Next obvious observation, please.
He spoke softly, in a light and pleasant voice, as though we were chatting over tea. “If that doesn’t suit you, I often need people to cover various functions at my businesses—catering, kitchen work, security—any of which you might be able to assist with if you’re needed on short notice. For as long as you’re here, if you can help with those activities when asked, and perhaps during those times when your potential condition is under control, I would consider that acceptable.”
“Royce,” I said, further embarrassed at being choked up by tears, “I don’t—I’m not—”
“You don’t need to sell yourself to me,” he stated quietly, unfolding so as to lean forward in one smooth movement and take my hand in his. His fingers were cold but reassuring nonetheless. “When you’re ready—and only then—I will gladly show you that being beholden to me is not as terrible as you imagine it to be.”
I lowered my head, hiding my tears from him with my free hand. Of all the things I’d ever expected him to be, generous was not one of them. This was not the first time he’d extended an offer of friendship, though I’d thought during previous times that his version meant friends with some really icky benefits. His insistence in the past had led me to believe that he would stop at nothing to have me under his thumb. My naïveté and paranoia had often led to my embarrassment before, but never anything on such a spectacular scale.
The strangest thing yet was that he moved from the chair he was on to settle next to me, wrapping an arm around my