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Sitting at Mal’s knee, looking up at his face, trusting him fully in that one moment as he took her and all of them on a journey ords, she’d had a hint of what surrendering to hiht mean He’d pointed out she was all too aware of that element between Danny and Dev Lord, Dev was a ave Danny that resonated in adifferent with Willis, iood wife and make him happy Mal touched on darker aspects of it, aspects that had to do hat Elisa sensed in herself, a wild, unta that could scare her with its ferocity when she felt it

She slid into her bed, shaking her head at herself Mal had told her to go to bed despite the "early hour," but maybe she should have helped Kohana with chores, worked herself into exhaustion She was going off in odd directions tonight What she was feeling noas hardly what that priest had envisioned, she was sure The pulse between her legs was beating hard, such that when she laid her fingers over it she drew in a breath Her flesh inside contracted, just as Mal had said She wondered, and her fingers passed over those petals, the tight bud of flesh at the top A shudder went through her lower belly, tightening her thighs, even though she’d only touched herself through the thin night rail

Trying not to think, at least not like a rational hu she liked the way the cotton of the gown felt, whispering over her indecently bare flesh beneath

She realized then she was tre Victor had brutalized her Mr Collins and Mr Pearlmuttonthey had stolen from her They had She wouldn’t have known that without Willis He’d persuaded her to offer her body, wooed her with a firm, pleasurable insistence MalHe was a whole different animal, but one that seemed to understand the dark, violent need that she carried over her heart When he touched her, he took that firm insistence to a different level

Danny had always touched her in passing, a flirtation, an indulgence When Mal touched her, his attention was fully riveted on her, and to be the center of a vaic, wasn’t it?

Remember, you back away from a predator slowlyIf you run, I will take you down

Pushing back the covers, she put her bare feet to the floor, ran her hands through her hair so the tie on it loosened The strands fell past her shoulders in brown curls, brushing her neck, the exposed part of her collarbone, like Mal’s fingers She reripped her there before, that collared hold, keeping her still,constrict, and not because he was coiven to romantic notions, but she had lived in a very real world that kept the wishful child and the grown-up servant separate Daydrea down your work oryou inattentive to your mistress or master She sed, and then in the quiet of her rooh as a whisper

"Master"

When they’d had visitors at the station, she’d heard female servants address their male vampires that way He’d heard Dev call Danny Mistress a few tiht in his eye, a tone to his voice that sparked an answering fire in Danny’s expression As if he taunted her with it, only it was the kind of taunting that stirred a woman’s blood A woman like Danny

Was Mal the kind of va hirasp on what it trulysuch silly games in the dark where it was safe and did no harm

It was odd, to have a room all to herself like this Since she’d been with Danny, she’d shared a room with an older woman Danny had intended it that way, to keep her out of trouble But here, Elisa was the only huuest She was the only one on this hallway that would receive the sun in theso isolated froht have h she didn’t knohen he was or wasn’t in her mind, she sensed that if she was in true distress, she could call out and he would come and help

He would couest Don’t be daft, thinking rolass offrom the bed, she moved to the door and slipped into the hallway There’d be no staff in the house at this hour They rotated shifts, so in daylight, but at this tihtworkers were still out or at the bunkhouses Kohana had gone with Chumani to help her with a construction project at the habitats Mal had likely gone back out after dropping her off Kohana had said he would take blood at dinner, but then he’d head to the open preserve and usually didn’t coru" her had put him behind

She padded down the hallway, her footfalls silent in the plush of the runner, then ht be a little bit of that bread Kohana had made, and perhaps she’d have that with soht, she ay too aware she hadn’t put her underwear back on or even donned a wrap over the thin gown, her lide of the gown over her bare arse, the way her thighs brushed together with no panties to s touched, tiny kisses againstsecret flesh

She clutched a handful of fabric in one hand, the banister in the other Alone in the house or not, she needed to keep her head on straight, and these were decidedly not wise thoughts It wasn’t entirely her fault, of course Serving in a vahts were barely a breath away, since they didn’t bother to restrain themselves when they had such desires MalMr Malachi--she fir it was safer that way--had certainly not curbed hi the leopards Or when he’d kissed her Or touched her collarbone with the fledglings

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she intended to turn toward the kitchen, but a light to the left drew her attention She paused, her heart accelerating Those senses he’d had her open wide today told her she wasn’t alone Mal was decidedly not at the open preserve

The French doors across the hall froht Using those sarunts and snuffles, and realized the lion pride had co through that open door and giving her a curious once-over, wondering if she was dinner or soged kind of cat, and she knew it Particularly when her feet turned toward the library, not the kitchen She h he could easily hear her, scent her, plumb her mind She wondered what he would find there, because she wasn’t quite sure herself Barely two days She’d been here barely two days What was she thinking?

But she’d spent the pasther orientation, he’d said that animals didn’t do that They lived in the moment, because every moment was about survival, an instinct even domestic animals didn’t seem to completely lose They ood s They didn’t knoould coone

Done and gone If she believed in such a heathenish thing as co else, like the people from India did, she’d want to be one of those sleek fe in the one She wasn’t sure she could do that thing with the baby irew shadowed as shearea and the stairwell She stopped at that dividing line between darkness and the block of light thrown out fro fro what she would do That only sharpened the feeling arrowing down her sternuoose bumps Could she trust him, this vampire she barely knew? Yes Because she reainst his chest in front of Leonidas Somehow she knew the more important question hether she could trust herself She should back away, pivot and go back to the kitchen, but she didn’t want to do so This was a place for wild animals, and wild animals did as their instincts told theht

He was at his desk and, as she anticipated, he had his attention on the door He had a pen caught between two fingers, yet he was idly tapping it back and forth against the desk, like a slow seesaw, or the ticking of a clock And, glory be, he’d shrugged off the T-shirt against the evening’s heat, the cool brush of air fro that bronzed skin

She’d been aware he had a tattoo on one arm, but this was the first tiood look at it It had a ridged appearance, because it had to be scarred with his own blood to enerative ability would sin circled his biceps, white and blue feathers printed through the dark ink and in a twisting pattern below A sinuous feolden eyes narrowed, her tail wrapped around the bend of his elbow and ending where his forear the broad shoulders Tas, his large striped tom, had fallen asleep with one paw stretched out toward the pen, as if he’d been playing with its ot bored and went into nap, either, a decision that hten between theaze, she wondered what he saw, and realized, with her being in the thin night rail, he le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">