Page 72 of Vampire's Choice

He touched her mouth, sending a shimmer of pleasure through her lips. “Play another.”

“Okay.” She already knew which one she wanted, and scrolled through her vast library for it. “But you have to answer another question for me. Do female and male sex demons mate?”

“I haven’t spent much time with my kind, but what I know is they breed, but rarely mate. The sexual hunger, the drive to feed, isn’t conducive to permanent attachments.”

“But you belong to another race as well. How about angel kind?”

“I don’t feel I’m part of that race. Not enough to be influenced by it.” He assumed an impassive look she was starting to suspect was a cover, when his answer wasn’t entirely true, or didn’t cover all the relevant information.

She didn’t press him on it. “Most vampires don’t mate with other vampires, either. Hard to commit to someone for that long. Some might be together for a few decades or even a century, but then they’ll go their separate ways. Sometimes they get back together, years later, but not that often.”

She paused. “The longest continuous relationship in a vampire’s life is usually with their third marked human servant. Servants live for three hundred years, and the vampire holds all the power, in theory.”

“In theory?”

“My father is my mother’s Master, but he’d do pretty much anything for her happiness and wellbeing.” Her gaze shadowed. “My world has requirements that sometimes don’t gel with what you’d prefer your priorities to be. So you have to fight for whatever space you can give them, if that makes sense.”

She frowned. “I think it’s hard for vampires to fully trust one another. Their nature is either to fight for dominance, or look for the opportunities to take control. With servants, there’s more room for that trust to develop, because a third mark is a full soul bond. There’s nothing they can hide from their vampire. Oh, this is a good one.”

Removing her own earbud and putting both in his ears—giving her the chance to incidentally stroke his hair and brush her fingertips along his sexily stubbled jaw—she stood up on the branch to dance. She could pick up enough of the beat through her vampire hearing. She gave the song the full hip action treatment, incorporating a hairbrush move as she rocked down to her heels and back up again. “‘There’s nothing holding me back…’ Shawn Mendez. It’s hard not to dance to this one. Listen to the lyrics.”

He was obviously doing that, while watching her in a way that had her skin prickling with heat. She spun to the drumbeat, working around his outstretched leg. Then he held out a hand and she took it. He rose, put one earbud back in her ear…and launched them.

She wondered how Shawn would feel if he could have the chance to spin through the sky and clouds to the upbeat drum beat and guitar plucking in the song.

Nothing holding me back…

Merc gave her that feeling. When he landed at the base of the tree, she was breathless, laughing. She’d noted he hadn’t smiled, not once. When they’d started the music marathon, he’d told her he wanted her to talk and act how she would if he was actively engaging with her—without him actually doing so.

At first, she thought it would feel like she was on a stage, but she’d realized how much it pleased him, not needing to give her anything…but his absolute attention.

She leaned against the trunk and looked up at him. He had his wing curved over his shoulder, close to her right side. She stopped herself from touching it, because it was different from brushing her feet against the trailing wing tips. He projected a certain reserve when he wanted her to ask permission to do it.

“Since we don’t have a performance tonight, a few of the troupe are going into town,” she said. “There’s a club with live music. If you’re not interested, we could explore a couple parks I heard about. One has a waterfall. If you don’t mind flying us there, so we can get in after closing.”

“You prefer to be with me rather than going with them?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Because I can give you powerful orgasms.”

“Don’t be a jerk. Because I want to spend more time with you. Isn’t that why you’re with me right now?” She shrugged. “The orgasms are a nice bonus.”

“I might join you in town,” he said. “I have some other things to handle for Marcellus first.”

She noted a tight look around his mouth, suggesting a problem, but the look also said he didn’t want to talk about it. “Okay. But you might miss karaoke.”

After she explained what that was, his look of horror had her stifling a giggle. “What? Can’t sing?” she asked.

Her smile faded as he put his hand to her mouth again, tracing the shape. “You say you don’t kiss, but everything about you says you might like to try it,” she whispered. She thought about lifting on her toes, just that slight amount to close the distance, but he put a hand on her shoulder.

“No,” he said. “And don’t let Caleb touch you again. I don’t like it.”

Then he was gone, leaving her blinking with shock.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

After Merc left her, Ruth wondered if that tight look was caused by what she’d suspected? Was he not allowed to leave the Circus without Marcellus’s express say-so?

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