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"Can you tell me about the fertility results?" Butch asked. "Lady Annette showed us overlords the report, but would be nice to hear it from the horse's mouth. The scuttlebutt is that vampires and servants who are too friendly with one another are far more likely to conceive."
The official public report had removed "deep romantic love" and replaced it with "closer relationships". The Council wasn't ready to throw the other term out there. However accurate, they felt it was too much of a paradigm change, too soon.
"So if I care too much for Dix, I could get him knocked up?" Butch ventured.
She tried to smother the chuckle. Butch grinned at her. "You better leave her here, Brian. She's awful pretty when she laughs."
"Born vampires have been known to have occasional surges of disembowelment-inducing instability," Brian noted. "You might remember that."
His tone was dry, and he didn't take his eyes from his screen as he spoke. But Debra looked his way anyhow. He wasn't usually possessive, even in a teasing vein.
He lifted his gaze, met hers. This time his expression was far more readable, causing a pleasant flutter in her chest.
Butch snorted. "You still didn't answer my question about Dix."
"Get him pregnant, we'll be opening a whole other research wing," Brian returned. "And you'll need someone else to move your cows around. Restrain your fondness for him, because I expect it's far more difficult to find a good foreman than to get him pregnant. Now, back to the questions..."
The night she'd left with Gideon and Anwyn, she'd told Brian if the worst happened, he'd merely need to find a new lab assistant. She remembered the way he'd looked at her, what he'd said.
"You think that is all your value to me?"
"I never assume my worth is greater than what it is."
He was making it impossible for her to adhere to all the things he'd taught her about vampire-servant relationships.
Sometimes what we know and believe needs to change.
She stilled at the sensual murmur in her mind. She could feel his attention on her again, but this time she kept hers on her task, watching the overlord's blood fill the vials. At the dinner tonight, she was going to need all her shields in place. She couldn't afford to make herself too vulnerable. So she lifted a shoulder, an acknowledgment but not an answer, and focused on the work, the one thing that could never confuse her enough to risk her soul.
SS
It took a couple more hours for Brian to get what he needed. Dix didn't stay for the whole thing, coming and going to check in with the housekeeper on matters Butch wanted verified for the dinner, but during the times he was there, it was clear there was an exceptional rapport between the two men.
Gathering extra data for other qualifying projects like the fertility study and vampire-servant relationships took more time than they'd scheduled, but it was worth it to corroborate what they had so far. Though the personal value of a servant was an issue most vampires didn't feel comfortable discussing, Debra had helped him develop the questions that produced indicators the vampire wouldn't directly supply. This time, such obfuscations weren't necessary. Butch cut through the subtle phrasing after no more than two questions.
"You want to know how I feel about him," the Texas overlord said. He had an amused gleam in his eye. "Don't look surprised. We all know you born folk don't expect any better behavior out of us made rabble. Ironically that means I can be more honest about it than you, no offense intended. Dix has saved my ass more times than I can count these past decades. He's the best part of my day and night, and I'd rip the heart out of anyone who tried to take him from me. Yeah, we're vampire and servant and I love wrestling him down to his hands and knees and teaching him who's boss, but we're a team. That clear enough for your survey?"
"Crystal," Brian said. "Given the conclusions we reached from the fertility study, it's actually a shame he isn't female."
"Not from my perspective," Butch said. "I love a woman's cunt and pretty, high-sitting tits like your lab assistant here has, but faced with the choice between them and a man's tight ass, I'll go for him every time. Just how I'm wired."
Debra was staring at the Texas overlord, but when Brian glanced toward her, she ducked her head, tapping on her tablet again. He suppressed his frustration. She'd been nigh inaccessible to him this evening, and he wasn't sure why she was so determined to focus on nothing but the work, not allowing her thoughts to stray left or right from it.
He'd have tried a deeper probe of her mind, but they were on a timetable. The visiting vampires from Butch's territory had passed outside the study several times throughout the early evening, but they hadn't stepped in to speak to him. Butch had explained he'd told them Brian was doing important research, and they weren't to be interrupted.
"Otherwise we'd never finish before dinner." The overlord winked. "I've taken pains to invite three of my more interesting and less stuffy territory vampires, so it should be more relaxed than a Council event. My chef is also better."
Brian chuckled politely at that, half his mind caught up in the data Butch had provided them and how it meshed with the ongoing studies. Despite Butch's relationship with his servant being far more casual than the norm for an overlord, it appeared to have no negative impact on his effectiveness. Clearly comfortable with leadership and command, the man reeked alpha and Dominance in the same breath.
The two traits weren't always interchangeable. Brian knew he himself was undeniably a Dominant, but not necessarily an alpha. As a researcher, he was more concerned about the pursuit of knowledge, and had no difficulty deferring to Lyssa and the Council for other matters, though he could aggressively assert his viewpoint when necessary.
Mule-headed was what Lord Uthe called it, last time you argued a point with him.
He'd opened the conscious level of his mind to Debra to trade data points. She was obviously pleased enough with that connection to allow for some humor, but he still felt that tight reserve inside her. It hadn't pleased him that she'd been gone when he woke, but she couldn't be in two places at once, and their work was important to her, too. He couldn't be an ass, adding to her stress by making her to stay with him while she had tasks pending. Even if he had noticed the nightmares disappeared when he went to sleep with her next to him.
Lab assistant, Butch had called her. The overlords and Region Masters they met often referred to her that way. Even the Council members. At the Savannah facility, they had second marked, actual lab assistants, techs who did vital support work. But there was a distinct difference in education and status between a lab assistant and Debra. She operated the entire research facility in Savannah during daylight hours, doing analysis, review and making testing decisions, just as he did during the night.
She was his partner, a researcher on an equal level with himself. God knows, he wouldn't have been able to tolerate anyone working with him who wasn't able to keep up, and she did more than that. She had areas where she surpassed him, seeing things intuitively that he came to by logic. It made them a very good team. Just as Butch said, right?
"With respect, my lord," he spoke abruptly. "I have to correct you. Debra is my servant, but she isn't my lab assistant. She holds two doctorates and quite frankly has areas where she can kick my brain's ass."
> Butch glanced his way, the shrewd gray eyes studying him. He gave a nod, his lips twisting. "My opinion of you just went up a few notches, Lord Brian."
As for Debra, she'd come to a complete standstill. Brian suspected only his servant's normal tightly wound state was keeping her jaw from dropping. Since she was standing between Butch's knees, taking his vitals, listening to his heart and lungs, Butch picked up the stethoscope and tapped lightly, making her start. "Doctor Debra, then. My apologies, doctor."
Brian suppressed his irritation as Debra recovered enough to give the overlord a gently admonishing look, but there was a faint smile on her face, her cheeks flushed. Butch had re-settled his hands on her hips. Women responded to that personality type, didn't they? Handsome, charismatic and intensely attentive, a male like Butch could make a woman feel like the center of the universe, even a vampire's servant.
Dix returned then, reporting on some sundry ranch issue to Butch. It gave Brian some breathing room from his inexplicable jealousy to pay closer attention to what was happening. Though he might be having difficulty picking up anything from Debra's mind, Butch's attempts to get her to smile and relax seemed more purposeful than flirtatious, even more noticeable when Dix behaved in a similar manner toward her. He also noticed Dix watching Debra closely, with concern.
Damn it, why was he watching another vampire-servant pairing to figure out what was going on with his own? He was done skulking around the edges. No matter if it skewed the data or delayed dinner, he dove beneath that wall around her thoughts. He was going to find out what was going on, direct from the source.
It didn't take long for the effort to bear fruit. Butch had risen from the chair since the data collection done, and was shrugging into his shirt. Dix told Debra he'd see her at dinner, giving her hand a squeeze.
Her mind pinged like a submarine target.
Dinner. She was dreading dinner. And not the dread that came with enduring a social nicety. This was like she anticipated facing a firing squad.
Brian's brow furrowed as quiet descended on the library and she moved over to her laptop to finish her own computations. For a woman who didn't expect him to be in her mind, she kept things strapped down at a surprisingly cavernous level of her consciousness. But he'd just pointed it out to Butch, hadn't he? This wasn't an average woman's brain. Her brain was a tool she exercised and honed incessantly. She could likely manipulate data in her mind, classify and file it as securely as she could on a laptop.
