my ribs like bowling pins.” With a cautious groan, he pushed himself up, giving Anwyn time to move the packs. Except for an initial moment of light-headedness, he was remarkably himself. “Wow. I feel like a superhero. How did I get here?” He gave her a sidelong glance. “Please don’t tell me that you carried me. Flesh-ripping pain I can handle; being carried by a girl will require ritual suicide.”
“Worse than that. Daegan did.” She gave him a mock grimace. “And though you weren’t carried by a girl, you were carried like a girl. He cradled you in his arms as gently as a mother. It was very touching. And impressive, considering how big you are.”
“Christ. Tell him next time to just drag me by one boot heel.”
“Letting your head thump, thump, thump down the stairs?”
“Well, you said that couldn’t hurt anything, right?”
Anwyn put a hand on the side of his face, her gaze sobering. “I am sorry.”
“Sorry for having to do it, or sorry for the fact you kind of enjoyed it?” He kept his gaze level with hers, no condemnation in the simple truth. She cocked her head, stroking her knuckles through the hair at his temples, teasing the light scattering of silver strands, and passed her thumb over his lips.
“I was immersed in your thoughts there at the end,” she murmured. “Though I’ve always known the relationship between pain and surrender, pleasure and release, there is something about what I am now that has made testing those boundaries that much keener. I felt how you let go to me, and to Daegan, and for a moment, despite how horrible it all was, it was . . .”
“Perfect.” He finished it for her, lifted a shoulder. “Whatever it is that you have in you, combined with what was before, found an answer somewhere inside me. Don’t know how to deal with it, how to talk about it. Hell, really don’t want to talk about it. Would rather just leave it there, you know. It happened, and that’s that.”
He was right. On the surface, the horror of it should have sent her straight into a seizure, watching his flesh slice open at her hand, the blood running down his back. Yet somehow, somewhere along the way, she’d let go of that as well, her consciousness and Daegan’s twining around the chaos of Gideon’s pain-wracked brain. A thought had come to the top of that spiral, from her servant’s mind. Something his brother, Jacob, had apparently said. The true meaning of utter trust and surrender, Gideon. Being stripped so bare that a Mistress could walk the avenue straight into the darkest room of a man’s heart, and he would want her there. Need her there.
“It happened, and that’s that.” He’d repeated it. She knew it was far more complex than that, yet she found his way of summarizing it uniquely him, and therefore appropriate.
“You’ve never been very verbal.” She watched him lace their fingers together, bring her knuckles to his lips.
“No, I’m not. Mistress.”
It flickered in her heart like a warmed flame, made her fingers tighten on his. His lashes fell against the proud cheekbones as he pressed his mouth harder to her flesh, holding it there.
“Well,” she said, somewhat unsteadily, “I’ve had one good thought, sitting here with you. As long as the two of us are connected to a supersecret agent like Daegan, it’s not likely we’ll often be required to be part of the vampire social scene.”
“Supersecret agent.” He gave a muffled snort against her hand. “I guess there might be one perk to hanging around with the arrogant bastard. Now all we have to do is get out of here alive to enjoy it.”
“True enough.” She spent several more precious moments stroking his face, the line of his shoulder; then he lifted his head.
“I seem to be wearing nothing, so maybe I should put some clothes on. If you have no objections.”
“I have plenty, but given the circumstances, I’m going to wait until we’re home to start imposing the no-clothing-except-when-I-allow it rule.”
He couldn’t tell if she was serious, God help him. He decided to leave that alone as well and rose to go to the closet. “Where’s Daegan?”
“One of the Council servants came and got him about two hours ago. You’ve been out awhile. I’m not sure what it was about. He told me not to worry, that no matter what, we leave here when he gets back.” She nodded toward her laptop, open on a