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He raised a brow. "Problem, my lady?"
She shook her head, which of course meant nothing. "Why are there always people like that?" she demanded. "Those who take advantage of someone weaker, in a position of less power? You use your sadism as a gift, a way of cherishing and giving pleasure. You understand what power is. It's a gift or a curse, a tool or a poison, but in its purest form, the way it's meant to be wielded, it's..."
"Creation," he said. "You can create good things from it. Relationships that last, a stable foundation, a kingdom, a household, or build a rocket and fly to the moon."
With a sigh, she shifted her gaze to a clump of crimson exotic flowers beside the path. As she did that, he closed the distance between them. He didn't touch her, which got her attention, especially when he crossed his arms, gave her a neutral look. "It's also a way to help a submissive know when she can let go. When it's not her job to take care of things."
"I know you could have broken him in half. But you would have lost your job. He knows that, too. That's what I hate. It turned him on, being able to order you around like you were nothing. Nothing." When she closed her eyes, he put his hands on her shoulders.
"You've been there."
"Every made vampire has been. Probably most of the born ones. It makes you determined never to be one of those treated like nothing, ever again. An incentive program for upward mobility, if you will. I get that. It's how we survive. But pointless cruelty like that, just to make him feel better about himself... I try not to let hate consume me, but I could cheerfully tear his limbs from his body and watch him bleed to death."
"Probably best not to go that way," Garron advised. "Theodosius has a limit on the number of guests we can kill each month. I think we've reached our quota."
"Oh?" Her lips curved, despite the shadows in her eyes. "What does he do with them?"
"Feeds them to his Kraken, of course. And the Kraken can only have so many a month. Don't want him to get fat."
Her shoulders eased down and he massaged them, tilted her chin up with a thumb. "It's okay, my lady. You're a woman used to being in charge, no matter how much you crave submission. Correct?"
Her brow creased. She wasn't sure where he was going. That was okay, because he was going to be crystal clear on this one.
"During that first fight we had, I made it pretty obvious that I won't let you walk over me. You received that message, else we wouldn't have been able to go any farther. Understand?"
She frowned. "I don't know."
"I'm saying that if I choose to embrace a subservient facade, I have a reason for it. It doesn't touch who or what I am." He wondered if she understood the underlying significance of that. From the sharpening of her gaze, and her shoulders tensing under his hands again, he thought she did. He'd leave it there, but he wanted her to keep chewing on it. Despite the displeasure of dealing with him, the obnoxious guest had provided a good opening for that, at least.
He looped her hand into his elbow. "Come on. I need a swimsuit."
Chapter Seven
The apartments on the fringes of this end of the resort weren't as posh as guest suites, but Theodosius treated his employees well. The rooms were comfortable and had lots of windows to provide good views of the ocean or forest. Their spacious, open air layouts were reminiscent of homes Garron had seen in Hawaii.
He'd never played with a sub here, even a staff member. He'd never had that kind of connection with one, where she was given permission to see what kind of Dom he was in his personal space. He kept it in the confines of Club Sin or the areas designated for BDSM play because he understood when he let a sub cross this threshold, he was considering a relationship, something that would include yet expand the Dom/sub dynamic significantly.
He hadn't reinforced to Kaela that she had to stay out of his mind, but she didn't seem to be listening now, because she had no reaction to those thoughts. Which was probably good. After he turned on the entry way and kitchen lights, he turned to watch the beautiful vampire drift through his main living area, taking in everything, what his decor said about the man he was.
He winced at the thought. He was a minimalist when it came to decorating. The living room had a futon with a quality cherry wood frame and a bamboo coffee table. He had a bookshelf with a few titles on it, a compact, hi-powered stereo system for music. The kitchen was stocked with what he needed.
As she stepped out onto the deck, fingering the potted plants there, most of them arranged by the Eden landscapers who put their touch on everything, he went to his bedroom to find his swimsuit. He didn't really go for the Speedo look because it always felt like he was wearing bikini bottoms, but one of the staff subs had talked him into a pair of shorts that hit high on the thigh and were snug enough to make the girth and length of his cock measurable to the eye if he was hard.
"Master Garron, if your sub gets a good look at you in those, she'll do anything for you."
He'd snorted at that, but had agreed to them, as well as a pair of normal swimsuit shorts for leisure swims. He'd actually found the tight style worked well to do his laps in the ocean in the morning, but women had other reasons for appreciating the aerodynamic fit.
He didn't angst over the drawbacks to his scarred appearance, so emphasizing the attributes he knew would please women was a matter of practicality in his profession. But Kaela wasn't about his job. As he decided to wear the shorts for her, he realized his motives were somewhat different than usual. It was the first time in a while he'd thought about whether a woman liked his appearance overall... Or chosen what to wear because she made him feel good about himself and he wanted to honor that feeling with extra effort on her behalf. Kaela made him feel as if she liked...well, all of him.
He shook his head, found himself smiling. He was an idiot.
Turning his thoughts back to her, he expected she was enjoying the view of the water from the deck. A light screen of plants for privacy and barrier was followed by the beach sloping down to the water, about a hundred yards off. He'd stood on that porch during storms, watched the surf get closer. One time it had reached the deck, sloshed over the edge, wet his feet and ankles. He'd turned his face up to the howling wind and driving rain and thought how that fury had felt almost soothing on his scars. Funny, because he typically didn't enjoy wind in his face because of how it made them feel. But a storm was different.
He slept on the futon, so his bedroom was just to hold clothes, his workout equipment and a desk to handle his paperwork and bills, not that there were many of those. Lodging, healthcare and utilities were part of the job perks, so that just left groceries and the infrequent impulse buy. Didn't need anything like life insurance, because he didn't have any beneficiaries for it, so no point. He didn't really care about how they disposed of his body.
"You should," she said. "It has served you well, suffered for your choices."
He turned. It had been years since he'd turned his back on a door when someone else was in his house, yet he had with her present, without thinking about it at all. When she spoke from behind him, having moved with that unconscious vampire stealth, he hadn't started. Perhaps because they were sharing minds, she felt as present as his own self.
More than that, he felt safe with her. It was more than the thought he'd had at the pool. He genuinely felt as if he could trust her to watch his back, the way he watched hers. There weren't many in the world he'd say that about. Definitely none who'd accomplished that in less than two days.
Her gaze flickered. "Here I was thinking you only had crude reasons for watching my back."
"Well, there are a lot of good reasons to watch your back. No reason to limit myself to just one." He took her hand, tangled their fingers. "I can't seem to keep you out of my head, my lady."
"I was trying to stay clear, until you left the room. I missed you."
She said it simply, yet it wasn't simple at all, the way the words made him feel. She stepped closer, into the shadow of his body. She gazed up at him, lifted her hand,
traced the scars on his face again, followed them down to his neck. She liked touching them more than any woman he'd ever met. It was as if she knew they were the vital key to who he was at the bottom of his soul. Her stroke soothed the raw edges that came along with them.
She'd been honest, and he gave her back the same. "I like hearing you in my head. When you talk, I don't have to strain to listen. I can almost tune out the verbal, focus only on the mental, even though I have to sort it out with your thoughts, what's speech and what's thought." He smiled faintly. "Could cause some embarrassment if I mix those up."
She continued to study him, her hand drifting down his chest, nestling into the T-shirt he'd donned at the club. He put his hand over hers. "What are you doing?"
Listening. Just...listening. Her lips curved, her eyes thoughtful. Being in your mind is like listening to the ocean. It whispers and roars, murmurs and laughs...it doesn't mind others listening to it, because it's self-contained. It knows who and what it is. It's both a place full of mystery and shadows, yet sparkling light in so many colors and brutal honesty...
He thought he could feel her there in his mind, like the touch of her hand in places that so often remained untouched. His heart, his soul. Had he opened his soul to a woman, ever? He gave a vital part of himself to subs. That was important, for it to be as powerful as it should be, but did he open up this layer? Though he'd thought about finding that door inside her, the one that, if the third mark was shared, could be opened to him if she so chose, he hadn't thought about that same door in himself, or the sudden desire to give her that access. That reciprocal access was a way to an even more powerful connection with a submissive he wanted to keep for his own? Keep forever?
Her gaze flickered up to his, held. "If I gave it to you here...would the third mark be the same as the second? Temporary? Gone once I leave?"
"Vardalos and I didn't talk about it," he admitted. "But it stands to reason, doesn't it? If the second mark goes away, and that's a prerequisite for the third..."
