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But Rand couldn't argue with the look, which highlighted Dovia's delicate features, yet also underscored the set of her chin, her firm lips, that spoke of resolve. Determination. The ability to survive.
He expected Darcy, Fane and Lynn's fashion-conscious teen daughter, had likely suggested the cut. While Dovia wouldn't be able to see it in the mirror, when she woke, Rand bet money the shifter teenager would be ready to show her the magazine picture.
He remembered paging through one of those magazines the night before they went to rescue Dovia. It had been a culture shock dip into the world he'd been away from for over two years. How fast did vampire hair grow? Not as fast as visible wounds healed, but Rand expected it grew faster than a human's.
Idle thoughts. Normal things like that, they hurt and comforted at once. He remembered Sylvan's boys playing catch, the smell of Sheba's fried chicken...
Cai's eyelids were drooping again and Rand let his eyes half close, figuring their ease would help draw the girl back to the same kind of slumber. It did. She was drifting back into a doze, he could tell, even as she pressed closer, nuzzling her face in his chest.
A half hour later, he returned to a wakeful state. He wasn't exactly sure why, until he realized Dovia's hands were moving over his chest, then down, under his arm. She was...caressing him, her touch drifting around to his back, fingers exploring with obvious sexual intent.
He couldn't have been more startled if she'd turned into a two-headed wolf, right before his eyes. He stiffened when she slid both hands down to cup his ass, and knead. His gaze shot to her face. Her eyes were closed but her lips were slightly parted. Her body moved more urgently against his. She was asleep, mostly. In a half-waking dream state, somewhat conscious but not.
He should speak her name, wake her fully, but he honestly had no clue how to handle the situation. It made no sense to him. After what she'd endured, no female would want... What the hell was happening?
It wasn't manly, but panic rarely was. Cai? Cai.
"Cai," he hissed. Lifting his head, Rand realized, with both relief and annoyance, the vampire was awake and watching her progress. Cai lifted a "what?" kind of brow.
"We need to wake her. Now. She couldn't possibly want...this kind of thing." Rand spoke low but aloud. He'd hoped Daegan was asleep, but his wolf senses told him he wasn't, so he wanted to be sure the male with the lethal sword knew he wasn't encouraging this.
Cai's eyes sparked with humor, making Rand's teeth grind. "She's a vampire," Cai answered, just as low. "Remember, vampire libidos are like ten times that of a twenty-something human male's. It's as much a part of us as the need to drink blood, so claiming that for herself, doing it right now? It's a good sign that she's reaching for that. Even if in her sleep."
"But I...I don't..."
"It's okay." Cai put his hand on the young woman's shoulder, sliding his fingers along her arm, down to where it curved over Rand's hip. Cai covered her hand on Rand's backside, closing his grip on her wrist, caressing. As he gently brought her touch away from Rand, he spoke quietly.
"Dovia. Wake up, princess."
He eased her arm into a folded position where her hand was by her shoulder, and dipped his head to kiss her fingertips, an easy gesture. Her head dropped back on his shoulder.
"I'm awake," she murmured.
Rand had been wrong. She was awake, and her half-closed eyes were on him, her pupils big and dark, the tips of her fangs showing.
"I want him," she said, with an almost animal note to her voice that startled Rand anew.
She's a fledgling, Cai said, another reminder. When she wants blood or sex, her impulse control is almost non-existent. Take the stress of the past few days, add it to being safe now and wanting to reinforce that, by feeling in control of something... You're what she wants. A servant.
She's so young, Rand thought desperately.
She's twenty-two. Remember Giles and Petra? She wouldn't have used them only for blood. Lyssa said born vampires start combining blood and sex in their early to mid-teens.
Rand barely digested the information. His wolf was still struggling with the more immediate issue.
She wants me to have sex with her.
She intends to have sex with you, Cai corrected. She's a vampire; you're a servant. In this mode, she sees herself as in control. Rand, it's okay. You don't have to do it.
Cai wasn't sure why the wolf was looking so distressed about it. There were other ways to deal with Dovia's need. Nobody would question him if he denied a fledgling the right to enjoy his servant, since she had no authority or rank over him.
No. Rand's jaw set. If that's what she needs...to feel better, to feel more in control, I can do it. I just...I don't know how.
Cai blinked. It works pretty much the same as it does with a guy. Just a different orifice. Usually. Though she might take that as an option.
No. Rand shook his head vehemently. I understand the mechanics. I want it to be pleasurable for her, and I don't...know how to do that.
The male's ears were turning pink. He was blushing like a damn school boy. Holy fuck. He'd never... Cai lifted both brows.
What about Sheba? You had a litter together.
Yes. We mated as wolves, because that was easier, more instinctive for me, more straightforward for her, not as difficult with her grief for Sylvan still so fresh. Not...man and woman.
"Ah." It struck Cai as ridiculously sweet, the wolf shifter wanting to make sure it was pleasurable for Dovia, do it right. And willing to do it against his own preferences and nature simply because Cai had told him it would help her heal the wounds that were far deeper than the physical.
Rand was strong, but a gentle male, too. With a hell of a tempting service sub streak.
Dovia's moist lips had parted. She slid her hands up Rand's chest to his throat, fingers stroking, digging in. Her nails had been cleaned and trimmed. Even painted, a delicate pink hue. Rand wet his lips and she stretched up to brush her lips over them, her fangs grazing his mouth. His wolf was still figuring things out. Slowing things down, Cai slid an arm over her chest and tightened his grip. It kept her from deepening the kiss and won a small annoyed hiss.
"Don't get petulant," he told her, putting his other arm at her waist, giving Rand some distance. She stiffened, but Cai wouldn't let her get caught up in a waking nightmare.
"See?" he whispered as she curled her fingers over his forearm. "It's like I said. They didn't take a damn thing from you."
It was nowhere near that simple, but Cai knew right now it could be. If it had only been her and him in the bed, she wouldn't have been capable of contemplating, let alone feeling, this kind of sexual hunger. A servant was different. A servant was theirs, completely under their control. Under her control. A way to feel back in control.
Today, Cai understood it, in a way he knew he wouldn't have, only a few days before. He remembered the first few times he'd had sex with his human prey, after leaving Goddard's fold. He'd practically received a contact high from holding the reins, having full control of a human's pleasure during sex. Cai could bring that reaction to the edge of pain, and inspire a thrill-ride kind of fear.
It made him want Rand all over again, to do it even better, harder, edgier. Cai wanted to explore those feelings a hundred ways with him, because it would never be the same with the shifter.
It was the difference between day and night, that desire and how Goddard took and gave nothing back. Hell fucking no. But having the right and ability to control a servant's pleasure? Dovia's naturally Dominant desire for that was feeding her already enormous fledgling hungers.
"I want him," she repeated. "I'm hungry."
"That's up to me, isn't it? He's my servant, and if I say he's off the table, he damn well is. Right?"
