be fighting his desire to thrust, rough and fast, into that wet mouth. Damn third-mark made it impossible not to be aroused, but what was making him hotter and harder had nothing to do with that, not really. It was something far more disturbing.
Her fists had clenched in frustration at her sides and he wanted to do the same with his own. Looking down, he saw her feet were bare. Since the other women servants wore shoes, he assumed it was a further punishment, no emotional or physical armor. That was what vampires were all about, weren’t they? Stripping their servants down to a shivering soul. The vulnerable pink soles, the round heels, made him wish he could be anywhere else. Jacob, how did you do this? How do you do this?
Hang in there, Gideon. Anwyn again. Focus on my mind. You’re doing fine.
Don’t worry about me. I’m all right.
I know you are. You are a brave, good man. When we get through with this, I will personally hold your head while you throw up.
He closed his eyes, his throat tightening. Yeah, he hated this. But the trigger factor here wasn’t the physical stimulation. It was that Anwyn had commanded it. That was what had him thick as a steel beam, stretching Alanna’s jaw. The aphrodisiac was doing this at a Mistress’s demand. No. His Mistress’s demand.
A pause, where he felt his acknowledgment of it hit Anwyn. Her internal reaction made him want to groan in need. But she kept her mind voice steady, cool. You understand why that is. It’s in your unconscious, but every day it comes closer to your subconscious. It’s why you can do this now. It’s why you sought me to begin with.
He wanted to keep his eyes closed, but that made the sensation that much more acute. Taking advantage of the fact that the vampires were still involved in their inane small talk, he laid his hand on Alanna’s hair. Curling his fingers around the shell of her ear, he grazed the side of her throat where he could feel her swallowing back the sobs.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“Torrence,” Lord Stewart spoke then. “With Lady Helga’s permission, I’d like to add to Lord Stephen’s little sculpture. Let’s see how the vampire hunter endures being staked himself. Go replace that dildo with your ample attributes.”
Fuck. Helga’s servant, Torrence, was a mountain. When Helga nodded, the man wasted no time, unbuckling the kilt he wore and draping it over the back of her chair, his eyes alight with vicious anticipation. Great. Gideon figured he’d probably blown up one of his family members, too. So much for Hell being an after-death experience.
Torrence bent over Helga, much as Gideon had touched base with Anwyn first. She stroked a hand up his chest, cradling his jaw with affection. Her favorite pet grizzly. As he moved away, she leaned back against the kilt, watching him.
So did Gideon, because when Torrence emerged from the cover of the table, rounding the corner around Lord Belizar, he revealed an organ the size of a fucking tree branch. However, it wasn’t that which put Gideon’s mind into full refusal mode. He knew he should be able to do it, that it was just putting Tab A in Slot B, and a whole fucking heap of pain, but as Anwyn knew, it was a hell of a lot more than that. It wasn’t sex Barnabus had been after. It had been humiliation, subjugation, torture . . . It was different, so different, from what he’d allowed Anwyn to do to him in the bathing chamber and every day since, no matter how compelled he felt at times.
The barbaric anticipation in the room was suffocating. This was only the beginning. It was a test to see what he’d endure, for their obscene curiosity as well as punishment. They intended to see his blood tonight, one way or another. He’d known it, thought he’d been prepared for it, but the reality was different from the plan, right?
He shouldn’t be thinking these thoughts, should be able to close it all down. Probably for the first time since he’d been marked by her, he wished with every cell of his body that he could keep Anwyn out of his mind. He didn’t want her in there when this happened. He couldn’t even look toward her, afraid of what he’d see, or not see. He was starting to get the shakes, deep in his abdomen and spreading out to his chest.