He’ll be home soon, Anwyn. You won’t have to worry so much about me then.
He was wrong, on both counts. Daegan wouldn"t come home until she invited him . . . and meant it. And she"d have balance only when they were both with her in this bed.
Since Daegan had given her blood to serve as her surrogate sire, she could talk in his head and he in hers. However, as Daegan hadn"t spoken in her mind since he"d left, she suspected he could be out of range. So she dialed his number on the cell and put on the earpiece so she could be hands free, tuck her cold fingers under her pillow. It was early afternoon, and she"d woken thinking of Daegan, what had happened last night. Gideon was on his afternoon run outside Atlantis, Brian was asleep, and of course Debra would probably be reworking the day"s notes.
She"d thought about everything for quite a while before reaching for the phone. She didn"t know what time it was there, but with a vampire, it didn"t really matter. If it was heavy daylight, he"d sleep through the phone ringing. Otherwise, he"d be awake.
He answered on the second ring. “Cher.”
She swallowed at everything that was in that one syllable. She didn"t want inane chitchat, didn"t want to circle around like a dazed moth uncertain of that flame. Not anymore. “I want you . . .”
To come home, to be with me, with us, even if I get angry again. But, remembering the night they"d met, she realized the words he"d said then covered it all for her, as they had for him.
He"d just been waiting on her to come to the same conclusion. “I want you.” During the long pause, she closed her eyes. Imagining how close his mouth was to that phone, she had a crazy, adolescent desire to press her mouth to her own receiver, as if it would bring their lips together.
“Slide your hands down to your throat. Overlap them.”
She turned to her back and did it, collaring herself with her fingers, and gasped at the immediate thought of it being his hand, holding her there as he often did, just enough pressure on the windpipe as he leaned down and sampled a breast, or nipped at the inside of her thigh, trailed his mouth over her navel and the quivering line of her upper abdomen.
“Now down over your breasts. Cup them, bring them together. Offer them to me. Arch your back. Don"t touch your nipples.”
It was hard not to do that, because she was itching to make a pass over them, imagine his mouth, his teeth, or the pinch of his fingers, but she did it, holding that position as the silence drew out. Was he touching his cock? Somehow she knew he wasn"t, though she was sure he was hardening. This was about his Mastery of her, and all his focus was on it, such that she could feel his intensity even from this distance.
“Down your stomach now, to your pussy. Spread your legs. Are you naked?”
“Yes.”
“You fucked Gideon before you went to sleep? His seed is still inside you, marking your thighs?”
“Yes.”
“Next time, you tell him to clean you with his mouth. He shouldn"t be leaving his Mistress messy like that.”
Her breath whispered between her lips, curving in a soft smile. “Daegan.”
“Cup your hands over your cunt. Seal in the heat, your desire. Let it feel the pressure of your palms. No fingers inside of yourself.”
As she did, a gasp shuddered from her, her clit spasming. “Now.” His voice had dropped even lower, and she heard it then, the note of the primitive male animal, the one he unleashed with her when he was at his most possessive and feral. Vampire. “Who do you belong to?”
“You,” she whispered. “Come home, Daegan. Please. I need you.” She swallowed, hard, and said what she"d never said to him. Never said to anyone in her entire adult life. “I love you. I hate you. I can"t be without you.”
“Will you still be angry with me?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “But I can"t get over it until you come back.” His chuckle shimmered over her like dark, erotic notes of music. “Spoken like the Mistress I know . . . and love.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Daegan.”
“More than life itself, cher. I will take your anger, your hatred, your love, and I will not fail you. I am yours, Anwyn Inara Naime. And I have been, since I walked into your club.”
“Come home.”
“I"m only a dream or two away.” He paused. “How is Gideon doing?”
“Debra took him from behind tonight, while he was inside me. It was a new experience for him. Messed him up some, but he"s out running it off.”
“But Brian did not touch him. Or you.”
Her body quivered under the cup of her hand at that tone, deadly and ferocious. “No. He didn"t. Only to place the sensors on me. He touched my throat lightly when he did that, but nothing else. You were right about him, Daegan. He"s a good man.”
“He was Gideon"s suggestion. It is Gideon who deserves the credit for his presence.”
“Mmm. I didn"t let him touch Gideon because Gideon doesn"t desire men. I know what the vampire world is like, but whenever I have control over it, I"m not going to let a submissive . .
. a servant of mine be forced to do something entirely against his nature just for my sake. He has no desire to be touched by a male. Not generally.”
“Not generally.”
She suppressed a smile. Gideon believed no male touch aroused him. He"d rationalized anything that had happened with Daegan as an ancillary symptom of his arousal for her.
She wasn"t going to force the issue or the truth. She was saving that pleasure for the specific, very territorial male who had aroused Gideon, no matter how much Gideon tried to block it from his mind or bury it.
4
WOMEN. Once they knew when Daegan was coming home, Gideon wasn"t surprised that his Mistress went into major to-do mode. The top three on the list were: she wanted Chantal to do her hair and toenails; she wanted to go with Gideon to pick Daegan up at the airport; and she wanted to drive.
The first part was easy enough. Pleased with her mood, and wanting to make sure she could hold on to it, he"d accompanied her upstairs, sat on the comfortable couch in the staff break room. With his booted feet crossed, long legs stretched out, he perused an entertainment magazine and listened to her talk to Chantal and some of the other “girls” during pre-opening.
It was just girl chat, but for all they"d dealt with these past few weeks, he found it soothing and somewhat charming, though he never would have admitted that. Chantal did the hair and had Ella do the nails, since Ella also worked at a nail salon.
As he watched them and her mind was distracted, he mused over the challenges of the upcoming days. They"d be dropping Brian and Debra off at the airport the same night they picked up Daegan. Brian"s work on the injection had improved to the point that for the past seven days her seizures had been low-level and easily predicted, between her vitals"
monitoring and Gideon"s perceptive senses. The restraints had been employed every time. In each case Gideon had had enough lead time to get her to a secluded environment, if she was no farther from one than her upper office. An added bonus was that the longer they spent together, the less vocal the nasty gremlins were. As long as their minds stayed closely interlocked. With Daegan back, it was just going to be a matter of continued practice and guarding against dangerous complacency.
Not much chance of that, though. For all the improvements, she still got antsy if Gideon got too far out of range. The flip side of the improvements was, when he was away from her, the gremlins were far more vocal, like trapped wild animals who"d been pent up in a cage. He"d started doing most of the necessary errands while she was sleeping, during the strongest hours of daylight, because if he left near evening, or worse, in the evening itself, the effort of keeping her reality separate from the nightmares they whispered in her brain, the images they delivered in front of her eyes, could exhaust her, as well as override Brian"s serum.
He knew it could make her despair, and he ached for her. He and Brian both reminded her it hadn"t been that long yet, such that they couldn"t know how things would improve as time went on. Still, it was as if, as they got hold of the one thing they could manage, the one thing they couldn"t was becoming stronger.
She was struggling with what every person who found their life significantly altered by a handicap faced. Depression, mood swings, intense flashes of anger. But he had to admire her grit as well. She worked through it, just as she had those first horrible seizures before they had the sire"s blood. In between those bouts, she was humorous, determined, clever and always ready to use sex as an outlet for her frustration. He was happy to help.
She"d caught that thought, for she glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyes glittering with humor. What are you reading?
He lifted the magazine. Reading tabloid trash was something he"d done to pass the time as a vampire hunter, those brief pauses in safe places like grocery stores and newsstands. Truth, he"d gotten a bit hooked on it. It was mindless fantasy, no connection to his reality, and often
had pictures of scantily clad starlets with augmented breasts. Most of the time they looked like they were ready to hurl themselves into a catfight.
She rolled her eyes at him, went back to talking to the women.
A lot of the staff had come through here to briefly hang out, talk to her, but this core group of women had stayed, surprising him at how close they were to his Mistress, who"d seemed so isolated to him up until now. James had expanded her alibi, said she was having some ongoing family issues that were limiting her working hours to brief visits during the pre-opening late-afternoon hours, while she handled most management tasks through her computer. He was impressed that they didn"t pry, but they all managed to convey sympathy and support, with warmth and obvious affection for their boss. She needed that, and he could tell she enjoyed her time with them, though it was a little odd to see her having “girl time” with women she"d commanded to strip and oil down his body on his earlier visits to Atlantis. The Dommes who"d tried to break him were giggling and acting like any gaggle of women he might see out together at a Starbucks.