SovereignsChoice Read online

  The doorbell sounds again and then I hear a gentle rapping at the bedroom door. “Ms. Krist?” Barnes says in his aristocratic British accent. “There is someone at the door. Are you expecting company?”

  “Yes!” I manage to gasp. I’m clawing at the vibrator now and somehow I turn it up to what has to be its maximum setting. To my mortification, the low-pitched hum instantly becomes a loud buzzing. “Yes,” I repeat, trying to pull the damn thing out of me and shut it off at the same time. “I…my friend…my cousin…”

  The vibrator finally pops free and lodges itself against my throbbing clit. At once my spine arches as the pleasure rips through me like a hurricane. I’m still on edge from everything that Aiden has been doing to me the past three days and there’s no stopping the impending orgasm. Oh Goddess, I’m going to come! I’m going to—

  “I don’t understand, madam,” Barnes says through the door. “Is it your friend or your cousin or both? Should I make lunch for two or three?” Out in the main part of the house, the doorbell chimes again.

  “Three!” I gasp as the purple vibrator takes me to heaven whether I want to go or not. “Or no, two. Damn it, Barnes, I don’t know.”My spine is arching and my clit is tingling with the much needed relief. I try to take a step but the tight leggings trip me and I fall to the floor with the vibrator still going to town.

  “Ms. Krist, are you quite all right?” the butler asks, sounding concerned. “Did you fall? Should I come in to assist you?”

  I’m flat on my back, having what feels like multiple orgasms, tangled up in the harness and leggings with the vibrator buzzing between my legs like a freaking chainsaw. The doorbell is ringing nonstop now and the butler wants to come in and “assist” me. I think I’m going crazy.

  “No,” I moan, finally managing to shut the vibrator off with trembling fingers. As soon as it stops teasing my clit, I feel more in control. My pussy is still throbbing but at least I’m not coming anymore. It’s amazingly hard to think while you’re having an orgasm—something I guess I never really noticed before. “No,” I say in a more normal voice—which is to say, I’m not moaning like a porn star. “I-I’m fine, Barnes, honestly. I just dropped my uh…my hairdryer, that’s all.”

  “Is that right?” He sounds doubtful. “Well then, if you do not require assistance I shall answer the door. Whoever is seeking entrance to the house seems most impatient.”

  Yeah, that sounds like Lexy. “You do that,” I croak. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

  With a little more fumbling, I’m finally able to release the other side of the harness. I put it on the bed and pull up my leggings, feeling strangely empty and undressed without it. But freer too, I remind myself. And now I don’t have to admit everything to Lexy.

  Taking one last look at my flushed face in the mirror, I smooth my tangled hair, take a deep breath and run out to meet my cousin.

  But it isn’t Lexy standing in the open doorway when I finally get to the front of the house. It’s just a UPS man and he looks strangely familiar. He’s muscular and swarthy with thick black hair on his arms and legs that almost looks like a pelt.

  With a start, I realize it is Emil Sanchez, leader of the Curved Horn Satyr clan. He’s in human form today, which is to say the bottom half of him isn’t noticeably goaty—well, aside from all the disgusting body hair, that is. He has on a baseball cap, probably to hide the two stubby horns growing from his forehead. Maybe he’s spent too much time in his satyr form and can’t go back to his human form without them. When he looks up at me and smiles, my theory is proven correct—he also has the slotted yellow eyes of a goat.

  “Hello, pretty lady,” he says, grinning. “Got a delivery for you.” His eyes flicker over my blouse, taking in the way my nipples tent the thin fabric and his grin widens.

  I cross my arms protectively over my chest. When he looks at me like that, I smell smoke and somewhere, someone is lost in the darkness, crying. I shake my head, trying to get rid of the strange vision.

  “Madam, this person appears to have a package you need to sign for.” Barnes turns his blind eyes in my direction. “Were you expecting something?”

  “Uh, no.” I give Sanchez a hard look, which he returns with a lascivious grin. “What is this about?” I demand.

  “Just doing my job, ma’am,” he says with deceptive mildness. “Got a package for you.” He shoves a clipboard at me as well as a greasy pen which I take with distaste. I’m sure my fingers are going to smell all goaty and nasty just from touching it.

  “Who’s it from?” I ask, scrawling my signature on the line he indicates and giving back the pen. I still think it’s strange that the leader of a powerful satyr clan is a lowly UPS man in everyday life but I guess everybody has to work.

  “Someone important.” He gives me a most unpleasant grin before pushing a small brown cardboard box into my hands. He tips his hat briefly, which exposes his stubby horns. “Have a good day, ma’am.” And then he’s gone.

  I watch him leave with relief. I’ve never liked Sanchez or any satyr for that matter. They take mindless lust to a whole new level so unless you’re really into being raped, they aren’t the ideal Friday-night date. Thankfully, I almost never have to see him or his kind outside supernatural gatherings. But when I do see him, he always finds a way to say something nasty or make a lewd gesture. Actually, this encounter was remarkably mild.

  “Is madam ready to close the door?” Barnes asks, reminding me that I’m standing there with the large front door open, “air conditioning the great outdoors” as my aunt would say.

  “Uh, yes.” I clear my throat and step back, clutching the box to my chest.

  “Thank you, Ms. Krist,” he says formally and closes the door with a snick before turning to me. “May I ask again if there will be two or three for lunch?”

  I flush, remembering the state I was in last time he asked the question. “Just two, Barnes,” I say, speaking as formally as he did. “Thank you.”

  “You’re most welcome, madam.” He nods at me, perhaps a touch less frostily. “Would it please you to have lunch by the pool?”

  “Oh yes, that would be wonderful!” I’m getting excited now to show Lexy the house. It’s not as if I own it but if you live in a mansion, you might as well make use of it. And having lunch by the pool sounds so perfectly la-di-da. She’s going to love it.

  A very small smile touches Barnes’ thin lips. “Very well. I’ll set everything out for you.”

  “Thank you,” I say again, really meaning it.

  He nods and leaves me alone. I look after him until I realize I’m still gripping the mysterious box. What’s in it? I lift it to my ear and shake but I don’t hear a thing and it’s very light, almost as though it were empty. Who would send me an empty box and why? There’s no tingling in my fingertips so no magic is involved. At least, nothing overt.

  I take the box back in my room before I open it. Inside is a single slip of paper and on it, in elegant script are written these words:

  Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O. When may it suffice?

  Soon.

  I stare in confusion at the piece of paper. It seems to be some kind of a quote or warning. But by who and about what? Too long a sacrifice—is someone trying to say that a year is too long for the designated Sacrifice to serve the Sovereign? Well, what good is it going to do to tell me that? It’s not like I can change anything.

  I’m still puzzling over the box and its confusing contents when I hear the front doorbell again. This time it’s Lexy with a laundry basket full of clothes and—oh joy!—my cell phone. She even remembered the charger.

  I give her an enthusiastic hug and then she steps back to look around. “Wow, this place is swanky! But what the hell is the deal with all the glass walls?”

  “Aiden likes sunlight,” I say, with a shrug. “He says he went without it for too long and now he wants to make up for lost time.”

  “A vampire who loves sunlight.” She shakes her head