He molded his body against her rigid back. "Just a sip, one nick. What could it hurt? He'll never know. He's human and can't see the marker."
"But I'll know," she said, swallowing hard. "I wouldn't be able to live with that."
"But could you exist with that?" he murmured and waited, feeling her resistance dissolving under his hold. "Twenty-something years and never going all the way? We're vampires?" he said softly. "Masters need it every night and once you go there, you'll understand."
"I can't miss what I've never experienced." She shrugged out of his hold and crossed the room, wrapping her arms around herself. She looked at him hard, her eyes blazing in the darkness. "I will not desecrate his house! He built it for me. This is our home. So stop it."
"Your eyes are glowing red," Yonnie whispered, his voice like silk. "You really haven't ever been with a master, have you?"
She looked away, not able to stare at the glowing red orbs that confronted her.
"One deep plunge in the throat, and I guarantee you won't care whose house this is."
"I said stop it, or get out."
"You're trembling where you stand, girl. Why are you fighting your nature like this?"
She didn't answer. She simply went to the refrigerator.
"I thought we were supposed to be rationing." He chuckled and watched her open a bottle and slam the refrigerator door. "That is so cold." He smiled as he saw her take a shaky sip and close her eyes. He crossed the room and gently took the bottle from her hand. "Let me warm that up for you," he whispered, taking a generous swig from the bottle and opening the top button of his shirt to expose his throat. "Just lose the silver collar first."
For a moment, she stared at his jugular, then at the crimson dampness on his full, lush mouth, then looked away. "No, thank you. We'd better rest and regenerate."
"How old is he now? Almost forty-five, fifty human years?"
She nodded and walked away, leaving Yonnie the bottle. "Yes."
"And we may very well be the last of our kind in this territory, no other masters on the planet so far... and Carlos missing."
"What's your point?"
Yonnie polished off the bottle and cast it to the floor, shattering it. "He's almost fifty, I just ate, you've never been where I can take you-"
"Please stop," she said quietly, the request coming out as a plea. "You know what happened to me, and how I was made."
He nodded and went to the bed, circling her once, but finally lying down. He put an arm over his forehead and stared at the ceiling. "Yeah, I do," he said quietly. "You didn't deserve that." He felt her telepathically probe him for answers, and opened up to allow her to see how he was made.
"You didn't deserve that, either," she said. "But I'm glad Carlos tried to make it as right as he could."
"Yeah. I owe him and therefore his posse, big time, I suppose." It hadn't helped that he could sense that she had tears in her eyes. The fact that she cared was not in his original plan. "It's safe to lie down and rest," he said. "I ain't gonna bother you."
When she didn't move, he turned his head to stare at her. "For real. I'm cool. I'm not gonna keep messing with you. I know it's in my nature, but even I have-"
Her eyes had gone to a deep crimson, stopping his words.
"I should have never locked into your thoughts. I've never locked with a master before. Give me a minute."
She turned away and he could hear her stop breathing for a moment as she fingered her silver necklace.
"When's the last time you visited him?" Yonnie pushed himself up to lean on his elbow as he studied her.
"A year ago."
For a long while, neither spoke.
"I love him. So don't do that again. Please."
Yonnie reclined slowly and nodded, closing his eyes, trying to get her lavender scent out of his mind. "It works both ways, you know. And finding out how genuine you are wasn't something I expected, either. Not from a female vamp. Shit."