The Scientific Method: A Vampire Queen Novel (Vampire Queen Series Book 10) Read online

  Her heart rate accelerated at the forbidden words, even as his fingers circled her wrist, stroked that rapid pulse, steadied it.

  "But," he added, with emphasis, "I don't want you to think of my feelings, but your own. This is not the career or relationship you envisioned having."

  No. That was certainly true. She met his gaze, saw it darken with the pain of her thought. "Do you remember Lord Theo?" she asked. "When he contracted the Delilah virus, he chose to die with his servant, rather than taking the cure, letting her sacrifice her life for him. The ironic thing is he opposed Lyssa's stance on giving servants more protection and rights. But when it came to his own servant...he refused to relinquish his connection to her. She told him she would take the serum, allow him to live. He told her he was worried if their connection was severed by death, he wouldn't find her in the afterlife, and he refused to let her go."

  When his brow creased, she shook her head. "What I'm trying to say is it's very hard to understand what love is, my lord. And focusing on what I might accomplish for myself, the recognition I receive, is not the same as the deed itself, the results of it. I may not have envisioned you as the male of my dreams, or this as my career, but before you, I imagined love according to the experiences of the human world. You opened me up to far deeper things that I wanted, that weren't part of that world. I didn't make the wrong choice. I have never regretted it."

  Now he was the one who looked surprised. She felt him probing her mind for the truth of it, and saw the change in his face as he realized she meant it. She trembled at that look.

  "I have simply longed for more," she whispered. "That was the source of my unhappiness, thinking I could never have all of you that I desired. I could not possibly leave you, my lord." She reached up, framed his face with her hands again. "You are my Master, my heart and soul. Just fill them with yourself and your desires, and I will never regret anything but not having all eternity to be with you."

  The words made her twice as vulnerable as she'd been the night she'd told him she loved him. But everything he'd done these past few days, and especially tonight, had given her the confidence to hope. To believe.

  His hands tightened on her, a silent acknowledgment of her thoughts. Then he drew her up to kiss her mouth, her eyelashes, her forehead, his arms sliding around her, pulling her even closer between his spread thighs on the chair. She dug her fingers into his back until he broke the kiss, pressed her head to his shoulder and just held her. She thought the world could turn forever and she'd be content just like this.

  But her Master had a way of always giving her more delicious things to want.

  "And just what does my servant want now?"

  She smiled against his shoulder, lifted her head to stroke a hand through his thick hair. "It's something best demonstrated, my lord."

  The flare of interest in his gaze told her she had his leave to continue. She slid her hands beneath his coat, pushed it off his shoulders. He helped her, shrugging out of it as she left him to that and began to open the shirt down the front, caressing his chest as she did so. Her fingers rested briefly on his sternum, trailed down to the base of it. "I have a great deal of interest in the superficial front line myself, my lord."

  "Hmm." He pursed his lips. "But the superficial front line skips a key area I feel will require in-depth attention. With your mouth, your hands..."

  She grinned and pushed the shirt off his shoulders as well, letting her fingertips linger on the fine architecture of bone and muscle. Crowding closer to him brought her breasts against his bare chest. She let out a tiny sigh at the wondrous feel of it. He clasped her waist in strong hands.

  "You wanted me to fill you with my desires," he observed. "Just how much filling do you need?"

  "I'm not sure, my lord. Perhaps you could just keep filling the cup until I say stop."

  He chuckled at that, then he cinched her close, lifting her to her feet as he rose so her toes didn't touch the ground when he kissed her. "And another thing," he added. "You will never attend another vampire event without me. Period."

  She thought it might be possible to shatter from such an overload of feeling, too much to process.

  "Nothing to process tonight. Just feel, Debra." He met her lips in another wine-saturated kiss. This one had an even sweeter wine with it, such that she curled her fingers in his biceps, held on, delighted as he made the kiss so long, the world just swirled away.

  When he finally lifted his head, let her feet touch, she was breathless, but his eyes gleamed in that way she'd learned to anticipate with delicious anxiety. "I think I do want to enjoy the water with my servant." His gaze slid down to the panties. "But she's overdressed."

  He still wore the belted slacks, his shoes. "Same goes, Master."

  He gave her a mock stern look, but hooked his thumbs in the thong himself, had her step out of it as he went to his heels and let her hold onto his shoulder to steady herself. The contrast between that and Graham kicking Jia-Li for being unable to stand on contorted feet underscored the difference between the two vampires, and demonstrated in one act all the promises Brian had just made to her. Her eyes stung with tears, but she battled them back. She wanted this to be all about pleasure.

  She drew in a breath as he bent and lifted her in his arms, carrying her through the patio door and toward the pool. He didn't carry her often. She liked it.

  I'll do it so often you'll tire of it.

  She doubted that could ever happen.

  When he used the zero entry slope to walk them into a curve of the lotus-shaped pool, she found the water a pleasant temperature, neither too cold nor too hot. Her Master let her down, but he backed her toward one of the rafts that had been tossed into this end of the pool, tangling his hands with hers as he maneuvered her toward it. Then he scooped her against him with one arm, the two of them drifting in circles as he kissed her, let her twine her legs around him. She let all the fears go, let herself be swamped by love for him.

  As she'd told him, her pain and regret came not from the choice itself, but in longing for the choice to live up to her expectations. This moment exceeded them. Then he took it even further.

  He opened his mind to her.

  Not just the surface level where they solved research problems. His heart and soul, where she could sense the collection of feelings gathered there. This was new for him, too, allowing himself to express his feelings for her, rather than being focused on suppressing them. And he wondered why he'd ever done anything different.

  This feeling is worth dying for, Debra. That's what Lyssa and Jacob knew, and why they chose not to hide it.

  She couldn't agree more. The water should have concealed her tears, but he kissed every one of them amid the water droplets. The raft was against her back, a cushion between her and the pool wall, not that she would have even noticed the scrape of the concrete with his mouth on her. But then Brian lifted her onto the raft and tender emotion became something else.

  It was one of the inflatable rafts outfitted with four Velcro cuffs. Her Master's order came through her mind, along with a surge of erotic intent. Lay your arms out to your sides and spread your legs.

  It was like being on a waterbed, the gentle roll and bob. He held it steady as she complied, his heated attention sliding over her naked form. It made her body dampen and tighten for him in ways he could see, scent. Those hazel eyes reflecting the pool lights became even more silver-green, and she trembled under his touch when he wrapped the cuffs around her wrists and ankles. If the raft turned over, she would be face down, trapped, unable to breathe. While technically that couldn't kill a fully marked servant, she could lose consciousness, experience the same panic that any mortal could. But she wasn't worried. Her Master was with her, caring for her.

  Brian caressed her calf. He drew the raft over to the steps so he could take a seat on one, a position that let him lean over her and touch her how he desired. She bit her lip as he traced her breast, flicking a nipple taut from the cool touch of the
water. Then he slid down and cupped her between her legs, slipping his fingers into her. She lifted her hips to him, responding to the penetration, the stroking touch. When he withdrew, he slicked the fluid gathered on his fingers over her outer labia. She trembled, eager to serve him. Eager to please.

  He'd been the first to understand that she wasn't two separate entities. There was the driven, detail-oriented scientist who spent whatever time or energy was necessary to solve a puzzle, the one who would fight for the theories she knew were right and worth pursuing, whether she was at the bottom of the totem pole in the first lab she'd worked, or arguing a point last week with the vampire who'd made her his servant. But that woman was the same as this one. The all-the-way-to-her-soul submissive who hungered to tear herself open and give herself completely to one Master. The Master touching her now.

  He pressed his fingers back inside her, deeper this time. Finding the right places to stroke, make her come apart. "Completely, hmm? Tell me. Out loud."

  "Yes, Master. Everything. I'm...yours." She panted over the words as his clever fingers worked her, had her shuddering and twitching on the raft. Brian rose then, keeping his hand in her as he used the other to move them out of the lotus pool into the flow of the lazy river. He kept pace with her in the current, holding onto the raft with one hand, still playing with her pussy with the other. She moistened her lips, heard the rush of water and realized they were headed for the mushroom waterfall.

  "Butch says its temperature is far colder. But there are some advantages to it that the warm water can't provide."

  The noise of the falling water became loud enough she anticipated its touch, but the cold and pummeling impact still made her gasp as he eased her feet beneath the flow. She writhed, her nipples becoming even tighter points as gooseflesh swept her upper torso. Brian kept moving her forward, so water pattered up her shins, her knees, her thighs. The beating rhythm was strong, inexorable. Then he adjusted her so that pounding cold water was on her exposed cunt, her swollen clit.

  "Oh...oh." She bucked and shuddered while her Master's avid eyes watched her body strain against the Velcro straps. The raft's water bed movement gave her an erratic rhythm that made the impact of the water against her genitals torment and pleasure both, a climax building and yet held out of reach.

  "Lord Brian, you look as if you require assistance."

  Butch had appeared above her head, and those gray eyes were covering every inch of her exposed skin, the responses of her body, feeding on them in that way that vampires did, with total absorption. With the right set of vampires, and her Master firmly in control, being viewed this way brought her a surge of additional pleasure.

  At Brian's gracious nod, the Texas overlord steadied the raft, freeing both of Brian's hands. Her Master cupped her breasts, his body pushing down on the inflatable enough to tilt her in his direction. His heated mouth closed on her cold nipple, worrying it with heated tongue and lips.

  She cried out at the sensation, convulsing under the water's flow. More hands closed around her calves and ankles, and she felt other mouths on her there. The tender crease between her toes and the ball of her foot, her ankles...the insides of her spread knees.

  She was too disoriented with lust to lift her head, look through the waterfall and see who was responsible, but there were at least two men down there touching her, caressing her. Possibly Dix, Butch's servant, and maybe one of the other vampires, since she sensed the restrained strength vampires usually exercised to avoid crushing bone.

  Brian dipped under the raft, came up on the other side. Slicking back his hair, streams of water etching his shoulders and chest, he bent to attend to her other breast.

  "Oh God..." It was impossible to come, the raft having too much random movement, but the water beating on her clit and labia kept pushing her toward that pinnacle. She saw Tucker and Aila sitting on the concrete lip of the lazy river, eyes intent on her helpless thrashings.

  Brian took his time with her breast, indulging his own pleasure until she was mindless, almost savage. When he gripped the side of her face, thumb passing over her lips, she bit. He pushed further into her mouth so she was sucking it frantically as his lips and tongue kept lashing at her nipples, the heat at odds with the cold of the falling water.

  When she was practically screaming with the constant barrage of sensation, she was moved further forward, so the curtain of water was falling on her abdomen. Another heated mouth closed over her cunt. She shrieked. Her Master straightened then, his hand sliding down over her neck, fingers tangling with the only thing she was wearing. His necklace, the signet ring catching on his thumb as his other fingers closed on her throat, reminding her she had to have his permission.

  "Master, please..."

  "Do you wish to come for me?"

  "Yes." She wailed it.

  "Then please me. Wait until I say you can."

  Oh God. Whoever was working behind that curtain knew what they were doing. With her legs bound she couldn't stop the sensations from overtaking her. She held his gaze though, put everything she needed and wanted to give to him in it. The fire and hunger in his gaze almost consumed her.

  "Now," he said.

  The climax hit her like a wall of water ten times as forceful as this one, especially when he bent and sank his fangs into her breast. She bowed up, seeing Butch's lust-fired gaze, feeling his fingers tangled in her hair, holding her head still as Brian took blood from her breast, as her cunt pulsed and gushed with her climax, as she screamed with the force of all of it, sending echoes throughout the pool area.

  The waves kept coming and coming, a mix of their sexual talents and the stamina she had as a third mark. All proof of just how truly helpless she was in her binding to him. A binding she never wanted removed.

  Brian lifted his head, sealed blood-tinged lips over hers, letting her taste the blood with which she nourished him. Which strengthened the bond all the more. She whimpered into his mouth, pleaded for God knew what, as aftershocks as violent as climaxes shook her.

  He lifted his head, traced her face, watched every reaction, drinking it all in as his due. "You want more, need more. Insatiable sweet girl. My servant."

  She nodded, panting, wide-eyed, pleading. Brian straightened, looking toward Butch. "I think she has far more to give us. Wouldn't you agree, my lord?"

  She had few brain cells left, but enough to know the formality had been intentional. Brian hadn't rejected the tradition of what might be due to their host. He'd only retained the right to make the decision, limiting her access to those who would care for her, ensure her pleasure was part of the equation.

  Butch inclined his head. "I think she might at that. Dix?"

  Dix came through the curtain of water. His spiky hair was so short that even wet it stood up, but she liked the way the water made the color gleam, and how drops rolled down the angular planes of his sun-browned face. She wanted to touch, to lick. Brian was right. She was all mindless sensuality now, his creature to offer and serve pleasure. Her gaze sought Brian, that connection to her Master. Though he didn't look at her, he felt her regard, answered it.

  Watching you serve at my command is something I plan never to deprive myself of again.

  God, a threat had never sounded so wonderful.

  Butch directed Dix to change places with him, hold the raft while he shifted out of the way. "I think Lord Brian wants you to suckle his servant's breasts and get her ready for his cock again."

  "With pleasure."

  That was only part of the equation, though. When Dix bent over her face to put his mouth between her breasts, nuzzling his way up the rise toward a nipple, it brought him close to her as well. She could reach his elbow and part of his forearm where her wrist was bound, so she curled her fingers over him, lifted her head to lick his sternum, reach his nipple with her mouth. The nub was beaded with water. As she sucked and licked at it, he nipped hers in response, but she also felt his breath catch. She was giving him pleasure.

  Watching
them was inspiring the vampires to take a more active role themselves. When Dix clutched the raft by her shoulders, the jolt of his body, the resulting rock of it against the inflatable, told her he was being fucked as he did his Master's bidding. From the mingling of scents, she could tell it was Butch. A flick of her gaze showed Butch's fingers curved tight over Dix's shoulders, holding him steady as he worked his cock into his servant.

  Most servants lubricated themselves well for such gatherings, both males and females. Dix's grunt against her flesh said that his Master was a challenging size, even with the right preparation. But all servants knew some types of discomfort only fueled pleasure. When his nipping and licking became less focused, more frantic and sharp, desire unfolded in her once more, stoked by the sexual energy swirling around them.

  Another pair of hands had locked onto her ankles, a mouth teasing and sucking on the network of fragile bones. However, the rhythm and vibration of movement from behind that curtain of water told her whatever servant had been ordered to put his mouth on her there was being fucked as well. It had to be the sous chef, which meant the big Viking, Balen, was taking his pleasure. Tucker was still watching poolside, his blue eyes sharp and measuring. He seemed to be the dominant vampire of the pairing, Balen and Reed performing for him.

  Her Master's hands slid down her waist, her thighs. Through glazed eyes, she saw him cut through the waterfall, and then he bent to put his mouth where Dix's had been. Any hope at deductive reasoning flew away, her arousal spiking high once more as he lapped between her legs, making her shudder and moan again.