Yes, which is why I’m denying you. Tell her no.
Niall turned to drop the towel on the sink. Then he swung back, caught her by the waist, twisting her to the wall with her arm behind her back. Using his knee thrust high between her thighs to keep her pinned, he held her with easy strength. As she struggled, trying to figure out ways to throw him, he stayed alert to any signs of distress. There were none. When she deduced he was making a point, not an attack, she stilled, submitting to his dominance in the matter. It sent a healthy surge of blood to his cock, but he put that aside.
“Evan and I are not quite what ye expect in a vampire–servant pairing,” he said against her perfect ear, taking a nice breath of that haunting scent. “You’ll come tae no harm at our hands. But you try something like that against me again, I’ll turn you over my knee, no matter what price I pay for it. I’m not a docile man, and I’m near three centuries your senior, lass.”
“My intent is to serve your Master, not to disrespect you.”
“Hmm. He said no to the kiss. For now.” Which of course meant now he was thinking about it far more than he should.
But while her breath had shortened, her emotions seemed blank. Maybe Evan had really stepped in it with this one. Yet when nothing else had eased her suffering, the two of them had been able to do so. Some things a man did, not because they were wise, but because they were the honorable thing.
It was a philosophy that had determined most of the forks in Niall’s life, and he didn’t see that changing anytime soon. Especially if it involved a fascinating lass.
inned, he held her with easy strength. As she struggled, trying to figure out ways to throw him, he stayed alert to any signs of distress. There were none. When she deduced he was making a point, not an attack, she stilled, submitting to his dominance in the matter. It sent a healthy surge of blood to his cock, but he put that aside.
“Evan and I are not quite what ye expect in a vampire–servant pairing,” he said against her perfect ear, taking a nice breath of that haunting scent. “You’ll come tae no harm at our hands. But you try something like that against me again, I’ll turn you over my knee, no matter what price I pay for it. I’m not a docile man, and I’m near three centuries your senior, lass.”
“My intent is to serve your Master, not to disrespect you.”
“Hmm. He said no to the kiss. For now.” Which of course meant now he was thinking about it far more than he should.
But while her breath had shortened, her emotions seemed blank. Maybe Evan had really stepped in it with this one. Yet when nothing else had eased her suffering, the two of them had been able to do so. Some things a man did, not because they were wise, but because they were the honorable thing.
It was a philosophy that had determined most of the forks in Niall’s life, and he didn’t see that changing anytime soon. Especially if it involved a fascinating lass.
3
ALANNA wasn’t sure what to feel. She’d never experienced a servant like Niall, or the type of Master that Evan seemed to be to him. Something about their interactions, experienced through the one-sided communication of Niall, reminded her of the way Adam had related to his friends, before he’d departed with her for the InhServ program. Another difference between her and her brother; he’d had friends, had maintained those connections as long as he possibly could, while her focus had always been on her future.
Though she’d been oblivious to their attentions, his friends had been intrigued by her looks, much as Niall was. Adam had been protective of her, and not only because he was her brother. A female or male Inherited Servant came to the in-house training program an untouched virgin, never even romantically kissed. She expected that had presented more difficulties for Adam than it had for her, but he’d never complained about it.
Once the private plane landed at the airport in Asheville, North Carolina, Niall guided her to a battered Range Rover and took the wheel. As they drove through town, a postcard blue-green mountain range as its backdrop, she saw it was not a large city at all, not compared to Berlin. In short order, they were off the main highway and winding up smaller roads, headed deeper into the mountains. Despite the fall season, the sun was warm, so he kept the windows down. She wrapped her hair into a twist on the back of her head to keep it out of her eyes, and inhaled the scent of trees, water, mountains and sunshine. The rolling landscape and increasing solitude were a very different experience from the past few weeks, one she didn’t mind at all.
He’d said little after the kiss incident. She didn’t sense he was closed to conversation, just waiting for her to initiate it if she desired. Her main question, how best to serve his Master, had received such a hard-to-interpret reply, she wasn’t sure where to go from there. She’d have to figure it out as she went, which might not be a bad thing, having her mind occupied by that instead of when the life would be choked from her, her heart seizing in her chest because Stephen’s had been staked.
She tried not to dwell on such a thing, because of the fear it could incite. Not of death, but of that afterlife reunion with Stephen. Her temples pounded, a warning of the headache that could come if she thought of him too much, even with the blocker. Lord Brian had explained Stephen’s invasion into her mind had caused such trauma to her body that it would protect her if she turned her thoughts toward him. She was glad to have a sanctioned excuse not to think of her Master.
“Do you like music?”
She turned her head, holding back the few shorter wisps of hair that had escaped the bun and were dancing in the breeze. “If you’d like to play some, I don’t object.”