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So he was going to do something he rarely did. Let his feelings lead him. Standing in a room with the world's most powerful vampires, seeing how most of them felt about their own servants, he felt a new, refreshing determination to try something different from what he'd been raised to do.
"You serve me very well, Debra. Your generosity of spirit and submission run so deep, you make it entirely possible for your Master to be a bastard of the first order."
Her gaze snapped up to him. "My lord --"
He shook his head, stopping her. "We'll deal with the generosity of spirit later. The submission has been a bit of an unfilled well of late, hasn't it?"
Her brow knitted. Curving his hands over her hips, then sliding down to grip her lovely backside, he brought her even closer. As he kneaded, enjoying the pleasure of fondling his servant and how she responded to his touch, he spoke in her mind.
When I spanked you yesterday, your mind opened up. I've been depriving myself of that well, splashing around in the shallows. You need to feel the strength of your Master's will more often. And his hand.
She looked confused, but her body was responding to his touch. As was her pounding heart. She didn't know how to respond, since Yes, Master might seem self-serving. He liked confounding that sharp mind. Not to diminish it, but to see what other things came forth when she gave herself to sensation and pure feeling.
"Mason is right. We're at a good place on our ongoing projects." He gave her a leisurely perusal. "So tonight we stop at midnight. I'm in the mood for stargazing on the south lawn, where we can see the moon rise. It will be a warm night. I want you to wear sheer white lace panties and that low cut bra that goes with them. Put on your highest heels, as well as your lab coat. Leave it open." He threaded her pony tail through his fingers. "Leave your hair down. You don't wear it that way often enough. That will change."
"Yes, my lord."
He touched her chin, made her lift her wary gaze to his. "I may be your lord, but there's one thing I am that belongs to you alone, Debra. It pleases me when you call me by that name."
"Master." It came out a whisper and he nodded, restraining the overwhelming urge just to take her right then and there. He wanted to drive up her anticipation, help her knock a layer off that wall he'd forced her to build. He could feel her fear as much as her anticipation, and it curdled in his gut, the things it told him about her...and himself.
"Good." He stepped back. "Let's get to work then."
Chapter Four
Debra spent the early evening dealing with mixed emotions, as well as grappling with the shocking idea that Brian was randomly listening to her mind. But that wasn't the only thing he did that kept her in a distracted state. As he went back and forth between workstations, several times he detoured to where she sat at her desk. He nudged her hair aside, kissed her throat, his hands at her waist coming up to casually cup her breasts, stroke. As he did, he asked how her data was going, solicited feedback from her. Sometimes he just put his hands on her shoulders, kneaded the tight muscles there and in her neck. The sexual undercurrent was there, but it was fueled by the intimacy, rather than him actively trying to arouse her.
When he asked her to get them a candy bar at ten, he took a bite of the snack from her fingertips, nipping them lightly. After she took the candy back to her desk, she had a couple more bites, but left half of it for later, because he called her back over to him. It wasn't work-related, however, at least not immediately. He brought her close, inhaled her breath, licked a bit of the sugar off her lips.
"You have a sweet tooth, my... Master."
"I do. I should indulge it more often." As he delved deeper, his tongue tasting the chocolate flavor that lingered in her mouth, he leaned against the counter, his arm banded around her waist to keep her steady. When he raised his head, her knees were quivering at the look in his eyes.
"You'll get sick," she managed.
"Maybe. Lady Helga thinks we should assign a much higher priority to vampire digestive issues, especially when it comes to chocolate."
"Of course." Trying to appear casual about all of it, she straightened as he let her go, adjusted her lab coat under his amused gaze. "Coming up with the vampire version of Tums is far more critical than resolving the fertility limitations that could result in species extinction."
His grin warmed her from head to toe. Then he glanced back down at what he was doing. "Can you put that equation up on the board so we can both look at it? Something's not coming out right."
She complied, and he shifted to stand by her side. Her brow creased, the variables arranging themselves in her mind. She could see what concerned him. As he hooked a thumb in her back waistband, hip comfortable against hers, he opened his mind to hers.
"What about that value there?" He pointed. "If we switch that out, replace it as an unknown..."
They sorted and rearranged. At a certain point she couldn't tell which of them was working which part of the problem, but then she stepped forward, using her fingers on the touch screen to eliminate one part and add in other variables as they'd done in their minds.
"Yes." His eyes lighted up. "That's it."
She nodded. "That will remove one of the limiting assumptions. It will make the calculations more complex, but then we'll definitely have better control of the overall study."
"Excellent. We might just have time left over for that Tums development after all."
She chuckled at that, shook her head, and went to attend to the change in her files. As confused as she was, it was the best day she'd spent with him in a while. She felt in s
ync on every level, not just in the research they were doing.
Then she realized the rest of her candy bar had vanished off the counter. Quick as a shot, she ducked under her desk and caught the small fist about to jam the rest of the candy into an open mouth. "Kane, no," she said sharply.
The born vampire, not much more than a toddler in age, gave her his mother's jade you-will-die-puny-mortal stare. Ignoring that, she nevertheless had difficulty wresting it from him. Fortunately, Brian came to her aid. "You are getting to be a strong little cuss," he said, but took the candy out of range. "How many times do we have to tell you that chocolate will make you sick?"
"You ate," Kane said sullenly.
"Yes, a bite. You were about to swallow half of it whole. John?"
As Brian raised his voice, the young man appeared outside the lab door. He'd no doubt followed Kane, but had hung back when he realized Brian was present. When it was just Debra, he usually came right in. She had a great fondness for John. The young man was in lanky adolescence, but he had a maturity and patience far exceeding his age, likely a genetic boon from his grandfather. Elijah Ingram had the patient steadiness of a stone, and a foundation of compassion and generosity of spirit structured with steely self-discipline. His grandson showed all those burgeoning traits. It made her miss her own grandfather all the more when she was around either one of them, and was another reason she'd bonded with John.
"Sorry about that, sir." John crouched in front of Kane. Studying the chocolate smeared on the little vampire's mouth, he gave him a gimlet eye. "Your daddy is going to whip your butt for sure if he finds out you got hold of that."
"I should have put it away," Debra said.
"No," Brian said. "He knew it was wrong. You don't learn self-control by not testing it. Here." Pulling it off the table, Brian knelt by John and handed it back to Kane. "Take the rest. Eat it. See what happens."
"My lord," John said, surprised, but Brian gave him a sharp look.
The boy subsided, pressing his lips together. Though John was clearly protective of his friend, he didn't sass his elders, human or otherwise. It was respect rather than fear, however, for Debra knew no one on the estate except his grandfather would ever touch a hair on his head. Lady Lyssa's protection was upon the human child as much as that of her own son. Not only were the two children fast companions, it was an oath she'd made to Elijah Ingram when he'd agreed to be majordomo of her estate.
