the deepening pleasure of the kiss. That twist constricted into a tight fist when Niall exploded into life, kissing him back.
He finally let himself feel it, get lost in it. For the first time in his life, he could steep himself in another man’s desire. As a result, it felt much like the sunrise he’d described. An unfolding moment of possibilities, stretching out before them.
Evan threaded his hand into his servant’s hair, taking a firm hold as he explored him thoroughly with tongue and fangs, obviously enjoying the taste of him against that dark tapestry of trees waiting for the kiss of dawn.
Waiting for the possibilities of God’s work, for the sadness of endings. For the ephemeral and yet eternal nature of it all. That’s what affects your wame, neshama. The forest will be here long after both of us, but this moment will be part of the impressions that linger here, that an artist will sense, even if he hasn’t witnessed it firsthand. Our passion will guide the brush.
“You asked what I see,” Evan murmured, at last pulling back. Niall realized he was gripping the male’s shoulder in one hand, a lifeline. “I see your soul, Niall. That is what I see.”
It was their first kiss.
So aye, he kent well what Alanna was saying. Vampires had a peculiar obsession with the human soul, particularly their servant’s.
The first time Evan had seen a camera, a huge piece of machinery with a cover in the back, Niall had thought the vampire was going to dismantle it right there to figure it out. It still surprised him when Evan experienced the same wonder at a new invention that a human would have. He expected vampires to reach the point where nothing seemed new or different, but that never happened with Evan. In fact, Niall was far more likely to react with jaded cynicism than his Master.
Coming back to their present-day surroundings, Niall saw Alanna leaning back on her arms, tilting her face up to the moonlight.
The spirit endures through the physical, no matter how time has decayed and destroyed the original vision. Reaching out, he touched her bare throat. When she stilled, registering the questing nature of his caress, he stroked down that graceful line to her sternum, tracing the curve of her right breast under her rib cage. He remembered how he’d quivered under Evan’s touch, understood when she did so now. He’d grown up since then, and understood even better the feeling that swelled in his chest in response to it, the desire to take what she was unconsciously offering. Instead he rose, leaning over her. He caught a brief glimpse of the deep brown eyes, the dark rings around the irises that made them even more compelling, before he brushed his lips over her forehead and straightened. Pressing his hand into her shoulder, he left her, seeking a higher spot to take a nap. The fragrance of her skin, her hair, would be pleasant company in his dreams.
Alanna turned to watch Niall go, her skin still tingling along the track his fingers had made. When he stretched out on the grassy knoll to the left of Evan, forming the center point of a narrow triangle of space between the three of them, she shifted her attention to Evan. The vampire didn’t react to his servant’s familiarity with her. However, she agreed with Niall’s warning. There was something about Evan, even when he wasn’t looking in her direction or Niall’s, that made her certain the vampire was aware of every move and thought they had.
Niall’s sexual caress made her feel uncomfortable, but only because she wasn’t sure how to classify it. She sighed. What did it matter? Even now Lord Daegan was hunting Stephen. She could be in the middle of deciphering her precious structure and rules, and drop dead. Her heart did a funny jump, as if she could feel it getting ready to explode in her chest, supposedly what happened when a vampire Master was staked. She knew better than to think about this.
Alanna, do you paint?
She looked toward the vampire. “I can sketch. I was taught the basic arts.”
Come up here then.
She rose, moving up the slope. Following a compulsion, she deviated from her track enough to stop where Niall reclined. As she stepped over him, he cracked his eyelids and gave her an absent half smile. Bending, she studiously brushed away a cadre of bread crumbs caught in the stubble of his hard jaw. Satisfied, she