Her eyes laughed up at him as she traced a quick finger along his jaw, her mouth softening and getting serious at once. “Of course you do. You belong to me, Gideon. I want you here, and so does Daegan.”
“It’s too much trouble to slough him off. Like a wart, it’s easier just to accept he’s attached.” Daegan offered her his right arm. “Are you ready,
cher
?”
Shifting to take Gideon’s left arm, she smiled at them. “Yes. And thank you both for going with me.”
“Actually, I’ve got several supermodels holding a table for me. I’m only hanging out with you two losers until I get there,” Gideon mentioned. When Anwyn pinched him, he grunted. “Ow. That was entirely unnecessary.”
“I should have pulled out the harness to keep you in line tonight,” she threatened darkly. “One with a phallus that vibrates, so you’d worry more about coming during dessert than teasing me.”
“Promises, promises,
cher
,” Daegan said. “I wouldn’t mind seeing you in one, so you would be deliciously wiggling and squirming. Perhaps each one of us could put a hand on your thigh under the table, tease your pussy while you ate—”
“I’m leaving,” she decided, freeing her arms and skipping to the door. “You are not going to tempt me, Daegan Rei. Not tonight. Tonight I am going
out
to play. Coming, boys?”
Exchanging a glance, they moved to follow her. Daegan held the door for her, though when he gestured Gideon forward, the vampire hunter shook his head. “After you.”
“Don’t trust me at your back, vampire hunter, or did you want a chance to grab my ass?”
“I never trust anyone at my back. And was that a request?”
Anwyn turned in the hallway. Had Gideon actually just flirted with Daegan? Anticipation leaped in her own breast as Daegan’s eyes intensified to flame, the sensual lips curving in a dangerous smile. “Better start getting used to having me at your back, Gideon. I intend to have you both tonight, and I will.”
With that remarkable and tantalizing statement, he gave Gideon a shove, sending him out the door ahead of him.
7
I
T had been a long time since Gideon had participated in any group event that wasn’t crashing a church barbecue or pancake breakfast to get a low-cost homemade meal. This high-dollar event was about as alien to him as the tux, but the food was good. Their private table was close to the stage, where a jazz band provided entertainment. Between sets, there were presentations about the food from the chefs who’d made it, or discussions of the vintages that were being poured. They were on the outer edge of the front row, so Gideon didn’t feel hemmed in. He suspected Daegan liked the position for the same reason. In contrast, they chose seats on either side of Anwyn, protectively flanking her.
She’d slid out of her shoes and curled her feet beneath her, so she was now leaning toward Gideon. Daegan was rubbing her bare feet with idle fingers, moving in easy circles. Her hand lay on the chair arm, and when Gideon joined his hand to it, she sent a smile his way, her head cocked, listening to the jazz selection being played.
In this light, he could see the faint reddish hue of her irises beneath the normal color, but it was a trick of the light, not a warning of an attack. A couple of times in the car, she’d gotten tense, but he’d teased her out of it and Daegan had followed his cues to do the same. Now she was as relaxed as she’d seemed in a while. Still, mindful of the lessons learned and the system they’d agreed upon, he kept his antennae cued to her mind at all times, ready if that changed. Faithful as a diabetic, she also discreetly used the monitor Brian had given her to check her blood and temperature reading every fifteen minutes.
Daegan looked a little less pale. He’d gone out briefly at dusk, before they’d gotten dressed, and apparently found someone to take care of his breakfast. Anwyn had noticed, picking up the perfume of the woman from whom he’d taken blood. While she hadn’t seemed particularly pleased about it, she hadn’t said anything. Guy had to eat, after all. And it sure as hell wasn’t going to be Gideon.
“So why don’t you have a servant?” he asked Daegan, not wanting to go back to that sticky subject, in case Anwyn caught the stray thought.
Daegan shrugged. “The life I currently lead wouldn’t work well with a constant companion. There’s less liability in hunting alone.”
Another thing they had in common. Great. A computer dating service would pair the two of them up in a heartbeat. “At least, I believed that to be the case,” the vampire added, his serious gaze turning to Anwyn. Lifting her hand, he kissed her fingers. Anwyn brushed their tips against his jaw.
“You couldn’t have predicted that. And I’ve forgiven you for it,” she said softly.
“I have not.” He nipped one of the fingers, but then shifted his glance to Gideon. “When I’m with Anwyn, she has been my primary blood source. When I am traveling, I get it where I can. Like today.”
“You’re not worried about the Delilah virus?” Gideon asked. The virus, genetically engineered by a splinter group of vampire hunters, had been spreading enough in recent years to create concern among the relatively small vampire population.
“I am immune to it,” Daegan said, surprisingly. But before Gideon could pursue that, Anwyn broke in.
“And exactly who
was
breakfast this evening?” she asked sweetly, the tips of her fangs showing, a quick gleam.
Daegan wound his fingers in a lock of her hair, gave it a tug as his eyes warmed on her. “A woman in her fifties, very attractive. She was at the park, sitting on a bench that backs up to the wooded area, not actually a very safe place for her to be. She was reading a vampire romance novel and getting quite caught up in it. I helped her enjoy the fantasy for a few moments, and when she revived, she found herself on a bench in a more populated part of the park, with a very handsome fiftysomething park ranger asking if she was all right.”
“Breakfast and matchmaking.” Gideon gave a snort. “Don’t believe him for a second, Anwyn. He took out his straw at the first hot blonde with big boobs that crossed his path.”
Over Anwyn’s chuckle, Daegan shot him a dark look. “More comments like that, vampire hunter, and your throat will look far more appetizing next time I need blood.”
“Yeah, you and your army can try to take it, anytime.” Gideon picked up the delicate wineglass by the bowl, hoping he wouldn’t break it, and downed a couple of swallows. “You’ve had a servant before you worked for the Council, right? I mean, no vampire goes seven hundred years without one.”
At Daegan’s silence, Gideon’s brow rose. “You’re shitting me. You’ve never taken a servant. Ever?”
Anwyn looked between them. “I assume that’s rare?”
“It’s beyond rare. So it’s more than the liability and hunting thing, isn’t it?”
Daegan lifted a shoulder, returned his attention to the stage, clearly not caring to elaborate, but Gideon was remembering the conversation they’d had, soon after Anwyn’s attack.
I’d rather have spent my whole life with no one, than have given her a moment of pain
. In that conversation, Daegan had as much as admitted he’d not given his heart to a lover in all his life. Nor had he ever chosen the closest bond a vampire could have with another, that with a servant. He’d wanted Anwyn as his servant, but had chosen to respect her wishes.
She was apparently his one and only. It was unsettling and entirely remarkable, not only for a vampire, but for anyone who lived a life long enough to yearn for companionship. No matter his antipathy toward the vampire species, Gideon knew that having a servant was more than just convenience or function. It was comfort. Like sitting down with family every night for dinner instead of strangers, having that sense of connection to another.
It was so remarkable, Gideon decided to respect Daegan’s obvious desire not to pursue it more deeply. He gave an offhanded shrug. “Mind you, I’m not throwing any stones, not with the number of hookers I’ve chosen over an actual relationship. We’ve both chosen blood and sex over intimacy.”
He wondered how an eHarmony profile application would write
that
one up.
“Probably for the same reasons,” Anwyn observed in a saccharine tone.
“Yep.” Gideon gave her a direct, intent look. “You weren’t available.”
He was rewarded by a softening of her expression, a mock sniff that pretended he wasn’t off the hook, and a sensuous curve of those full lips.
“Well played, hunter.” Daegan smiled as well, but there were shadows in his eyes as they both touched their glasses to Anwyn’s. She gave them a look torn between pleasure and exasperation.
“I think it’s a matter of maturity.” Reaching out, she ran her finger and thumb over Gideon’s lapel, caressing the man beneath the cloth, increasing his attention on her. “I’ve only had a servant for a little while, but it’s a lot like having a full-time sub. There’s a certain level of trust, an acknowledgment of a need for others, an interdependency that goes with having a human servant. You have to reconcile it with this vampire sense of superiority, much as a person rationalizes the desire of having a dog or cat. But it goes to the deeper connective need, and you have to be mature enough to realize and handle that.”
“Woof,” Gideon said, covering his surprise that she’d practically regurgitated his own thoughts. It earned a laugh from her, a short chuckle from Dagean.
However, when she focused on his face with that scrutiny he found discomfiting and welcome at once, he had to ask the question that had been floating in his head since they’d left.
“So why didn’t you do what you threatened . . . with the harness? I know you like that kind of thing.”
She shrugged. “Being a Mistress isn’t so much about what I want as what you need, Gideon. That’s what gives me pleasure. Teaching you to trust yourself as much as you trust me. Everything we do up to that point is just an appetizer.”
The implication and threat of that stewed in his mind, boiling uneasily. She squeezed his arm. “I’m sorry I’ve been too preoccupied to devote the time to it I’d like.”
“I’m not a damn client session,” he muttered into his cup. “As I’ve said, you don’t owe me anything. I’m here for you.”
“We’re here for each other.” Seemingly unoffended, she plucked at his sleeve. “Like this. You helped make this happen, both of you, and it helps me. What’s going to happen in the future is going to be bad, but I know as long as I can have moments like this, my pleasures won’t change all that much. Maybe not even my worries, though they’re a tad more intense and dramatic.”
When he shrugged, self-conscious at her compliment, Anwyn cupped Gideon’s face, her fingers tracing his jawline. “When you saw me and Daegan tonight, your first thought was you didn’t belong with us. Didn’t belong here, in a place like this.” She frowned. “That’s not your decision, Gideon. That’s mine, and you fit perfectly.”
Gideon lifted a shoulder, uncomfortable. “My brother’s the civilized one. Took nearly a year’s worth of training to know how to serve a vampire queen, but it was in him before that. He was playing Sir Galahad in the backyard when we were young, squiring around ladies, asking for their favors. Most days I don’t even remember if I put on clean underwear, or any at all. I’m good at killing. That’s about it.”
“I see.” Leaning forward, she met him eye to eye. He was vaguely aware of Daegan’s attentiveness, their conversation taking a more intent turn. “What do you see in my mind, Gideon?”
Since the injections, she’d gotten better at using the curtain screen between them when she was calm. While he was glad for what it meant to her, it had given him a peculiar sense of loss. He knew it was a necessary thing for her, to learn that control. To learn what she did and didn’t need. One day soon, the moments he could just reach into her mind would be a rare flower, offered only when she desired it.
She’d learned something new, though, because not only did her mind open to him; it pulled him in, as if he were in her arms. He saw her reaction to him back at the apartment, when he’d been standing in his tux, looking at her as if she was the most important thing in his world. From there, she turned the wheels of her mind back and he saw her in her bed during the late-afternoon hours. The way she’d woken several times, restless, but once she’d reached out with her mind and found where he and Daegan were, she’d been able to go back to sleep, reassured by their presence. She liked the way he and Daegan bantered, how it surrounded her and made her feel even more cocooned and protected. And now, in this present moment, as he held her one hand and Daegan the other, she felt content. More at peace, despite her unsettled mind, than she had at any other time in her life.
He raised his stunned gaze to her face. “As I said,” she said softly, “surrender is something different for everyone. The problem is not whether or not I need you, or the feelings I’m willing to explore with you. The problem is your boundaries, your shields. You keep trying to run away before we can throw you out. You’ve belonged nowhere for so long, you believe that’s the truth. The simple fact is you’ve been searching for your home all along. With us.”
“You don’t know that. You can’t even predict that.” Desperate, feeling like he was on quicksand, he went for the low blow of reminding her how precarious her state of mind was, how new this was to her, too new for any of them to make any kind of permanent decisions.