Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,184

in the maelstrom.

Reaching out, she caught that hand. He didn’t pull away, but he was rigid, stiff. Even so, she lifted his hand to her mouth, pressing her lips to his rough, large knuckles. She held her cheek there, just as she had with Evan.

“You were right. I was jealous.” She could swallow pride, an unusual indulgence for her anyhow. Her cheeks were burning, though. “I meant what I said. I’m here to serve you and Evan, however you need me. No matter what.”

“Both of us?” His voice was wooden, but she took heart from the question.

“Yes. I serve you both.”

“You slapped me.”

“Well . . .” She cleared her throat, keeping her eyes on his thick fingers. “Sometimes that’s a necessary service.”

Hearing a low rumble, she dared a glance up. He was chuckling. The anger dissipated, but it left the pain. She touched his mouth before he could tell her no. “I shouldn’t have said those things.”

“Do you think they’re true?” He met her gaze, his jaw tight.

“Does it matter what I think?”

“Aye, it does, lass.” He sighed, a resigned, weary sound she didn’t like. “You ken how to read people. There’s summat to what ye said, even if I dinnae want to hear it. Though it matters little now.”

“Maybe it matters more than you realize.” His accent had thickened, and she was starting to realize what that meant.

Putting her arms around him, she hugged as much of him as she could, a man of his bulk. They both faced death, and no matter how brave he was, it had to be unsettling to come to terms with the loss of all he knew. To lose Evan, the one continuous presence in his life. His family.

After only these few days, she had an understanding of what it meant to truly belong to another, to love and have a family. It was a far more precious thing than a functional, one-sided and mostly emotionless relationship. Burying her face in his chest, in the heat and solidity of him, her precarious world steadied as she tried to do the same for him.

She was glad he hadn’t pressed her for an answer to his question. She’d said she was sorry, not because she didn’t believe what she said, but because she was afraid she’d tear apart the fragile thing she’d been enjoying with them. That wasn’t very noble, but it was honest.

“Did Evan tell ye what he thought of ye and other men?” The rumble in his voice made her smile.

“You know he did. You just want to hear me say it. He said he’d take a belt to me.”

“Mmph. That’d make two of us.” He had a fondness for those hard squeezes of her backside, the ones that made her squirm against him, which she expected was his intent. When she punched him in the side, he chuckled again.

“You’re getting a feisty side, lass. ’Tis a guid thing, even when I want to strangle ye for it. Leave off, now. Let a man be a man and maintain his demons as he pleases. Women always want to turn us inside out, put that nonsense on the outside, make us soft. I’ll take care of the unloading; you go find Evan. He wants to make sure I didnae murder ye. I’ll leave all the nesting to you, so you willnae feel ye shirked your duty.”

“You just want me to do all the unpacking.”

“There is that. Go to him. Nerida and Miah want to meet ye.”

“All right.” Evan wanted her, and that required an immediate response, but she did pause to put both hands on his firm jaw. “Can you say ‘murder’ again? You’re so Scottish when you get mad.”

“I’m always Scottish, muirnín. No matter how far I get from the bloody place. Murder, murder, murrrdurrr. Here’s another you’ll like. Houghmagandie. That’s sex for pleasure, not for procreation, a right sinful thing, ye ken.”

She smiled, then sobered, curling her fingers against his face. “Whatever the truth is, Niall, I didn’t intend to hurt you.”

He closed his hands on her wrists, holding her there. “Ah, lass. I guess I started it, didn’t I? I wouldnae have reacted the way I did to ye talking about other men if you didnae matter to me far more than you should. Three hundred years since a woman captured my heart, and ye did it in less than a week.”

When her eyes stilled on his, he continued, “I do hope guid things for you, but maybe, once things are