SovereignsChoice Read online

  I never want it to end but Aiden pulls me away long before I’m finished.

  “Enough.” He is panting, his large frame shaking with some emotion. Lust? Desire? “Dessert is over now,” he tells me, tucking himself away before I can protest and helping me to my feet. “It’s time for bed.”

  My legs are all pins and needles from kneeling so long and I wobble as I stand. Aiden scoops me up at once, cradling me in his arms like a small child.

  “I can walk,” I protest as he carries me effortlessly through the house as though I weigh no more than a feather.

  “I don’t want you to.” He smiles at me. “I want to carry you to the bedroom and tuck you in myself.”

  I don’t complain anymore after that. I simply lay my head on his broad shoulder and wonder if every dinner with my Master is going to be like this.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Once in the bedroom, he bustles about, getting me ready for bed. After removing my collar, handcuffs and nipple clamps—and pausing a moment to suck my sore, tingling nipples as he does—he puts me in the shower stall. There he washes me himself, with long, loving strokes using a big, puffy sponge. He doesn’t seem to mind when the spray gets him slightly wet.

  I wish he would touch me more intimately, that he would discard the sponge and soap me with his bare hands. But he seems intent on teasing me, touching me just enough without actually giving me any satisfaction. It’s maddening but I sense it’s all a part of the game we’re playing.

  A game I’m beginning to like much too much.

  Aiden washes and conditions my hair, then gets me out of the shower and dries me thoroughly with a large fluffy white towel. He dries my hair with another and throws both towels in the hamper before pronouncing me ready for bed. He’s just about to tuck me in naked, between the crisp cotton sheets, when I protest.

  “But Aiden…Master, I’m not really tired yet. And it’s only…” I glance at the grandfather clock standing against the far wall. “Eight o’clock.”

  He frowns. “Don’t humans need at least ten to twelve hours of sleep at night to be at their best?”

  “Sure, if I were only three years old,” I say, feeling slightly exasperated. “I’m twice eleven. I normally don’t go to bed much before midnight. Six or seven hours of sleep is all I need.”

  He raises an eyebrow at me skeptically, as though I’m a naughty child trying to dodge bedtime. “Are you sure about that?”

  “Of course I’m sure.” This time I can’t keep the exasperation out of my voice. “You were human once—don’t you remember?”

  He shakes his head. “Emma, it’s been well over a century since I was human or had anything to do with humans. And when I was turned, a great many of my mortal memories faded—that is always the way with my kind.”

  “Well, take it from me,” I say. “I don’t need to be put to bed early like a child. I’m wide awake. I’d just be miserable lying here in the dark with nothing to do.” I look at him shyly. “Unless…unless you were, um, planning to come to bed with me?” My heart beats fast and I’m not sure how I want him to answer.

  Aiden smiles. “My curious little virgin. I would love to join you in bed and spend hours exploring your body. But not tonight—you’re not ready yet.”

  I want to ask when I will be ready but I decide not to push it. “What are you going to be doing until bedtime?” I ask, wondering where he sleeps for the night and for how long.

  “I have some work to catch up on. I was going to do it in the study.”

  “Well…can I join you?” I ask awkwardly. I sit up and snag another fluffy white towel from the stack to wrap around me. “If you’re busy I promise not to interrupt. I can be very quiet—just give me a book to read.”

  He looks thoughtful. “I must confess that I usually don’t enjoy anyone’s company but my own. But you are growing on me at an alarming rate.” He nods. “Yes, you may join me in the study.”

  “Thank you…Master,” I say, smiling. It’s becoming disturbingly easy to remember to call him that. I try not to think about it.

  He smiles back. “We should change clothes first. I’m nearly as wet as you are from your shower.” He eyes the towel I wrapped around myself. “And you are very overdressed.”

  I bite my lip. Crap. I was just getting used to being covered again. “Couldn’t I keep it on?” I ask softly. “I’m still wet and it’s chilly in here.”

  “It’s not that chilly—” Aiden begins but I cut him off.

  “Not for a vampire, maybe. But for a human…” I wrap my arms around myself and shiver theatrically.

  He gives me a skeptical look and then sighs. “All right, I’ll find you something.”

  He rummages in the wardrobe, changing out of his business suit and into a pair of faded, comfortable-looking jeans and a white T-shirt that shows off the width of his broad chest nicely. For me, he produces what looks to be a long satin smoking jacket in deep emerald green.

  “It’s mine,” he explains, removing my towel and draping it over my shoulders. “From a time when such things were fashionable. It’s not the style anymore, of course.”

  “Of course,” I echo, smiling. “Unless you’re Hugh Hefner.”

  He laughs. “Yes, well. I kept it because it’s comfortable. You may wear it as long as you leave it open.” He strokes my cheek and then his hand trails lower to cup my breast and casually thumb my nipple. “Any time I look at you, I want to be able to see your luscious body. You must never hide it from me, Emma.”

  My breath catches in my throat as his touch starts an all-too-familiar fire under my skin. “Yes Master,” I whisper, almost without thought.

  “Very good. You’re being so obedient all of a sudden.” He looks extremely pleased. Then he lifts me gently and walks out the door toward the study.

  “Why are you carrying me again?” I ask, mystified. “I really am capable of walking, you know.”

  “I’m carrying you because I can. Because I like it.” He gives me a warm, lingering kiss on the mouth before setting me on my feet, just inside the study door. “Because you’re mine, Emma,” he says softly and then goes to sit behind the huge desk in the big black leather chair. “Now I must work. Find a book to amuse yourself and don’t bother me.”

  The abrupt change takes me aback somewhat but when I study him under my lashes, I can see that there’s nothing malicious about it. He simply switches modes with supernatural speed, from pleasure to work—it’s like a light switch with him. He can turn it off and on whenever he needs to. Very practical and utterly vampiric.

  I can’t help envying him his amazing concentration and control—my skin is still warm and tingling where he touched me and I can still taste his kiss on my lips. It’s useless to think of anything else but his hands on me—still, I do try. I scan the shelves again for something to read but once again I find nothing.

  Finally I settle for the copy of Farrow’s Handbook of Spells,which I was perusing earlier. I handle it carefully but to my relief, there are no shocks from the worn leather cover this time. There’s a choice of two other seats in the study—one is a comfortable-looking brown leather loveseat drawn up before the fireplace that dominates one end of the room. It’s all made up with a stack of logs just ready to be lit but of course there’s no fire. In Florida’s nearly year-round heat, I bet Aiden doesn’t get to use the fireplace much.

  The other seat is a wooden, straight-backed chair sitting across from Aiden’s desk. After a moment of internal debate, I take the copy of Farrow’s and settle onto the hard wooden chair across from him.

  If Aiden notices my deliberate choice to be closer to him, he doesn’t let on. His eyes remain fixed on the screen of his laptop and his fingers keep flying over the keyboard with vampiric speed, making them look like nothing more than white blurs.

  Sighing to myself, I open Farrow’s and read over the familiar spells. This handbook is one of the first that any young witch is given to study. By the time she’s twelve or thirteen and h