The Vampire Queen's Servant (28 page)

Lyssa released the tongue of the
doubled-over belt with pewter stars, letting it dangle along the line of her
thigh. "Son of a…" Jacob closed his eyes, a veritable flood of fire
writhing across his left buttock where she'd struck him with it. He swore the
imprint of those pewter stars would be tattooed there for all time. If he
hadn't been wearing the jeans, he'd be sure of it.

Her jade eyes watched his every
expression as he fought not to clamp his hand over his ass like a chastised
three-year-old about to wail. Sliding the other belt out of his hand, she took
them and the clothes he held over to the male salesclerk. "We want both of
these," Lyssa said. She returned to Jacob's side and slid her hand into
his back pocket, finding the wallet holding her credit cards and his own. His
lips pressed together as she caressed the part of him she'd abused. She had to
struggle against the desire to cup her other hand over the generous package of
testicles and cock brushing against her thigh, separated only by two thin
layers of denim. She wanted to feel him harden under her touch while his ass
stung from her punishment.

"I used less effort to do
that than you use to breathe, Jacob," she observed. "Think I can't
handle myself?"

"I don't know. Breathing is
not easy at the moment, my lady."

"Let me make it harder
then." Slipping in front of him, she rose on her toes and captured his
lips. "Double entendre intended."

His response was immediate.
Banding his arms around her, he brought her full against his body, his
lengthening cock rubbing insistently over her abdomen. Nipping at her, he
muttered a curse into her mouth. She curled her fingers in his hair, tugged
hard.

It was the salesclerk's question
that had Jacob blinking, breaking free of the kiss.

"Is there anything else you
need?"

Lyssa startled him by making a
little hop and wrapping her legs around his waist with lithe strength, settling
her crotch and ass right on his groin. She increased the pressure there by
leaning back to the full reach of her arms with her hands on his shoulders.
Dropping her head back, she looked at the mural of clouds painted on the store
ceiling.

"Flying clothes, made to
look like birds. Interesting."

She was certainly in a mood.

"Does it look like I need
anything else?" Jacob asked.

The salesman grinned. Lyssa
reeled herself back up and whispered in his ear. Jacob sighed, brushing his
cheek against hers as he held her with one arm around her back.

"Socks. I do need two pairs
of black dress socks. Thank you, my lady." He brought his attention back
to her. "You're not going to make me wear that belt."

"No." Her expression
was feline, the green eyes glowing. "I like the one you picked out. I like
the other one for other reasons."

"That what I'm afraid of."

"Just think of it this way.
Instead of being angry about having to stand behind my chair for dinner, now
you'll be grateful you don't have to sit. Don't you ever pinch my ass
again." With that, she unhooked her legs and slid down his body. Wiggling
free, she wandered back out of the store without a backward glance, torturing
him with the swiveling sight of her tight, entirely pinchable ass.

He was beginning to understand
it did no good to ponder how she could piss a man off and make him rock hard at
the same time. It was a gift far surpassing a man's understanding. When he
rejoined her outside, she scampered ahead, stopping at a cluster of children
watching a double-level carousel. When she looked over her shoulder at him, it
took his breath. The way the straight hair of the wig fluttered back and
feathered revealed the dangling earrings he'd chosen for her. They pattered
against her delicate neck, drawing his attention to the curve of ear as well as
the mystery of what expression her sunglasses hid.

Thomas had said his lady had a
wicked sense of humor, a rapier wit that could cut someone down to size in a
moment, but he'd never hinted at this playfulness. Had he uncovered a side
Thomas hadn't known about? Ground they'd never shared together? The idea gave
him a ridiculous rush of pleasure.

He snapped out of that
self-indulgent thought when he noted the sales associate's attention to her was
being mirrored by many other men in the mall. She didn't tend to blend, his
lady, and it reminded him his primary responsibility was protecting her
anonymity.

When he reached her, he put an
arm around her shoulders, imitating the many pairs of college students and
teenagers they'd seen moving in the flood of people around them.

His lady was quick. After a
contemplative moment where he felt her narrowed gaze upon him, even through the
shaded glasses, she lifted her left hand to his on her shoulder, linking their
fingers loosely so their hands were joined in a suggestive arch over the top of
her breast. Sliding her other arm around his waist, she hooked her thumb in his
waistband, the tips of her fingers in the top of his back pocket, squeezing the
area she'd so recently abused.

"You after my wallet
again?"

She slanted him a glance.
"I've had you thoroughly investigated, Jacob Green. As of Monday morning,
you had a grand total of eighteen hundred and twelve dollars and six cents in
your savings account, nine hundred and two dollars and thirteen cents in your
checking account. You live paycheck to paycheck, with no long-term savings or
investment plan, a ridiculous way for a thirty-year-old man to live."

"I'm not quite thirty. Plus
I'm working this gig to become the kept servant of a rich vampire. That should
take care of me for the next three centuries or so."

When he'd helped her with her
makeup earlier, he'd wet her lips with cherry lip gloss. He realized that had
been a mistake, because when she smiled he smelled it and wanted to lick it
off. He resisted the urge to get close, brush his lips along her temple, the
fair cheek, but he couldn't stop his thumb from tracing a discreet line along
the top of her breast under the linked bridge of their hands.

"A gold digger. My rose
garden is fertilized by the bodies of men after my money."

"And beautiful roses they
are. Would you like to ride this, my lady? It's slowing down."

"Which horse do I want to
ride?"

"The black one," he
said automatically. With that mysteriously satisfied smile, she darted through
the turnstile, sliding her grip to his hand so she yanked him onto the platform
with her. Putting his bag of purchases down on a bench flanked by two swans, he
placed his hands on her waist to lift her onto the black horse, which had
stopped on the upward rise. "Since levitating would cause too much
attention," he pointed out.

She kept her grip on one of his
shoulders. "I think you use any excuse to touch me."

"Every excuse and any
situation I can create," he agreed. "There's a midnight movie here. A
vampire cult classic,
Fright Night
. I'll take you if you promise to
throw yourself in my arms at the scary parts."

She laughed, such a powerfully
seductive note it reached out and turned the head of every man within hearing
distance. Not wanting to do anything to ruin this carefree side of her nature,
nevertheless he stepped closer, helping her guide her leg over the horse's
withers. He kept his tone light, careful.

"Are you certain you're not
using those pheromones, my lady? You're about to embarrass some of these lads
in front of their dates. Get them in all sorts of trouble."

"Perhaps a little,"
she said, startling him. She removed the sunglasses, hooking them in her jeans
pocket. When he raised his gaze, Jacob found her green eyes had the ability to
mesmerize him like a snake, seducing him to self-destruction. "Perhaps I
don't think you're besotted enough with me, Sir Vagabond."

Perhaps everything tonight was
an act. She could be sitting deep inside the casually dressed body, behind the
screen of her flirting, calculating her next test of his mettle. Or maybe she
was being true.

All he could offer her was his
honesty. He pressed closer. "I'm hard as a rock, my lady, and my heart is
fair bursting with the heat of your smile. I'd worship every inch of you in
whatever manner you wish if you'd give me the privilege." His voice lowered,
and he let her hear the raw desire in his voice. "If you'd let me, I'd
drag you off into a dark forest, spread you beneath me and fuck you until you
screamed and raked my back with your beautiful nails. You'd have trouble
walking afterwards, vampire recuperative powers or no."

On that note, he withdrew,
taking the white unicorn next to her. Lyssa tipped her head back to watch the
mirrors and baroque depictions of cherubs and goblins spin above as the
carousel started. It gave her blood time to settle from the images his
declaration evoked in her mind, far more dangerous than he could know. When she
finally trusted herself to look at him, it didn't help.

From the snug pull of the denim
over his crotch from the astride position, she could tell he wanted her. It
made saliva gather under her tongue. She wondered what it would be like to see
that powerful body synchronized with the motion of a flesh and blood horse. She
suspected it was something worth seeing.

"You have a natural
seat."

"Jouster, remember."
He gave her a strained smile.

As she held the pommel to keep
her balance, the curl of her fingers could not help but make Jacob think of her
hand curled around him. It was a bitch to ride a horse with a confined
erection.

"I'd like to have you show
me your horsemanship sometime." She surprised him, reaching out and taking
his hand, her grip sure and strong. She even smiled throughout the ride, amused
but persistent as they had to let their hands slide from grip to a brush of
fingertips and back to a grip again as their horses rose and fell counter to
one another.

He decided it wasn't an act,
simply because he didn't want it to be.

When the carousel stopped, he
brought his leg back over and slid off his mount to give her a hand. Lyssa
didn't need it of course, but she liked the courtesy, his hands on her waist,
his eyes coursing over her breasts and throat, lingering on her face.

She was going to break her fast.
She would take him to her bed tonight and feed on him. The intensity of his
blue eyes, the brief tightening of his hands on her waist, told her he knew it
as well. Somehow she'd resist giving him the second mark. She wanted him. He'd
earned her attentions tonight, after all.

They strolled onward, not saying
much now, but she allowed herself to slide her arm back around his waist as
before, leaning into him as he resettled his arm over her shoulders. "The
Ferris wheel, my lady?" he asked. "Or are there other things you want
to see?"

"The tea shop. I want to
try a couple of the new flavors I saw through the window. But… oh, look at
that."

She stopped in front of the
wishing pool that was the centerpiece of this leg of the mall. The fountain
jetted out sprays of water in graceful arcs, splashing over the faces and
bodies of a group of young women sculpted in ceramic. They held their skirts
up, baring their thighs. Pushed wet hair from their faces. Some of the
expressions were animated, as if they were calling out to their friends. Others
were pensive, their eyes closed, heads tilted to the spray. In an act of
whimsy, there was a dog, droplets of water cleverly emitting from him,
enhancing the impression he was shaking the water off. The nearest sculpted
woman held her hand out as if to Hock him, and she was laughing. The women's
clothes clung to them without vulgar display, but it was sensuous, playful,
reflecting the fantastical adult landscape the mall attempted to create. The
lagoon the walled pool emulated backed up to a tall moss-covered rock. About
ten feet up, water poured from an invisible source into the lagoon. A fog
system at the base created misting clouds where the water dove into the main
pool.

"I want to go in,
Jacob." Lyssa turned to face him. "Carry me. I want to feel the
waterfall on my body."

He displayed no
self-consciousness, not even hesitation. Stepping over the wall into the pool,
the water rising to his upper calves, he swung her up into his arms in the same
movement.

Cold. She could tell the water
was vibrantly cold, possibly with just a trickle of heat from the lights
beneath the water's surface that spotlighted the sculptures and made the water
glitter. She shivered as he moved through the sculptures, turning her as needed
to keep her feet from hitting them. When she stretched out an arm to feel the
water on her palm, he moved her directly under the fall as she'd requested,
drenching her cotton shirt. As she clamped her hand around his neck, he spun
her in a circle, knowing that was what she wanted. Her precognitive servant who
didn't know he was precognitive, who hadn't even stopped to consider his answer
when she'd asked what horse she wanted to ride.

Water was everywhere, a flood of
sound and diamond crystal, blinding her with the pleasure of it.

It was foolish, she knew it was.
But she didn't let that stop her. Trusting him to hold her, she spread out both
arms, letting the magic gather and flow from her fingertips. It reached out
like the water, only the marble wall couldn't contain it. It wrapped around and
embraced the young people pointing and laughing at them, pressing up closer to
the barrier. They were already bolstered by Jacob and Lyssa's audacity. They
wanted to follow, teetering on the edge of the decision. It even reached out to
older adults who had slowed to watch, who were unsure how to react. Disapprove?
Or wish they had the courage to be like the younger ones?