by Kim Dare
Liam felt his spine stiffen. His grip on the arm of his chair turned white knuckled.
“Even if he doesn’t want to harm you, he could easily hurt you by accident,” Jenny went on.
Liam shook his head. “You don’t know him.”
“I know that just because he treats you better than Ralph did, it doesn’t mean he treats you well enough,” Jenny said.
Liam stared down at the back of his hand. There wasn’t the slightest mark lingering there anymore. “Marcus has been nothing but kind to me,” he whispered. “And believe me, I’d have tried the patience of a saint these last weeks.”
“Oh?” Jenny said.
Liam said nothing; he just continued to glare at his fingers as if they were to blame for all his troubles.
“He’s feeding from you?” Jenny asked.
Liam shrugged. “Sometimes. I wouldn’t mind if he did it more, but he says he can’t take more without it hurting me.”
“And you two are…?” she hinted, more delicately.
Heat rushed to Liam’s cheeks. He stopped worrying about appearing too pale.
“Sweetheart, I’m not trying to embarrass you,” Jenny said, leaning forward and taking hold of his hands. Her palms were warm against him, her touch comforting without demanding anything in return. “But I know vampires, and I know what kind of bastards you’re used to. You need someone looking out for you.”
“Liam already has someone looking out for him.”
Liam jerked up his head.
Marcus stood in the doorway leading in from the hall. He was still wearing his coat.
“Marcus!” Liam snatched his hands away from Jenny and scrambled to his feet, only to hesitate before stepping forward. Part of him wanted nothing more than to race across the room and throw his arms around the vampire as if he hadn’t seen him for years, but he didn’t dare. Marcus’ expression didn’t invite anyone to come within five yards of him.
Liam looked from Marcus to Jenny and back again. “I…”
I’m not bi.
He couldn’t force the words out. He wasn’t even sure if he should be trying to get them out or not. If Marcus thought that he and Jenny were sneaking around behind his back the moment he stepped out of the door, then which way Liam swung was really the least of his troubles and—
“Liam.”
He met Marcus’ eyes at the sound of his name.
“You’re not in trouble.”
Liam let out a breath he hadn’t been aware of holding.
“Everything’s fine,” Marcus told him. “Go down and see Mrs. Jenson—I’m sure she’d appreciate some company for a few minutes.”
Liam glanced toward Jenny.
“Liam,” Marcus called again.
Liam found his feet carrying him across to the other man without his brain having any further say in the matter, drawn to Marcus like the tiniest iron filing to the most powerful magnet in existence.
The other man reached out to him as soon as Liam stepped within arm’s length of him. His hand slid across Liam’s cheek in a gentle caress.
Liam’s eyes dropped closed as he savored it.
“Go ahead,” Marcus ordered. “Jenny and I will be fine.”
“He’s right, Liam,” Jenny piped up from behind him. “You really don’t need to worry about me.”
Not seeing what else he could do, only knowing that he suddenly felt more nervous than he had in months, Liam took refuge in obedience and slipped from the room without another word.
* * * *
Spinning away from the door the moment Liam closed it behind him, Marcus glared across at the room’s other occupant. The nurse stared back at him, evidently not the least bit intimidated by facing off against a vampire.
“Yes,” she said. “I know the signs. I can tell you’re not taking as much blood as you really want from him. And yes, I know that any vampire will feed from either gender at a push. But no, I’m not scared of you. Do you have any other questions?”
“What the hell are you doing in my house?” Marcus demanded, striding forward to loom over his undesired house guest.
“Liam isn’t allowed to have visitors?” Jenny asked.
Marcus’ frown deepened. “That’s not what I said.”
Jenny leaned back in her seat and rested one of her hands calmly on the arm of the sofa, as relaxed as it was possible for a human to be. Marcus’ muscles knotted tighter and tighter by the moment.
“Liam knows full well that he may do exactly as he pleases! You are the one who has no business here,” Marcus snapped. He strode across to the other side of the room, not willing to sit as if they were having a perfectly agreeable conversation, but not quite able to stand still either.
Even though he was back in the security of his home, the unease of being out in the wider world hadn’t disappeared the moment he stepped inside. Finding an interloper there wasn’t helping. The last thing he needed was someone questioning his ability to look after what was his. He barely kept back a snarl as he glared over his shoulder at her.
“And what exactly is Liam to you?” Jenny asked, turning her head to track his progress around the room. Apparently the process somehow made it easier for her to read his mind.
Marcus swung back to face her properly. “What?”
“Is he your whore?” Jenny asked. “Your toy?”
“No!” The very thought of anyone applying those terms to Liam made his knuckles itch.
“What then?” Jenny pushed. “I’ve never yet met a vampire who called any human their boyfriend? Is Liam your property, your pet?”
Marcus came to a stop barely a step away from Jenny. He blinked down at the nurse as if seeing her for the first time. “Pet…?” he said, very softly, considering the term very carefully. He wasn’t even sure he’d said it aloud until he saw the woman’s expression change.
Jenny’s eyes narrowed as she studied his expression.
For once, Marcus wasn’t entirely sure if he was capable of hiding his emotions effectively.
“You really care for him, don’t you?” she said, as if the possibility had never occurred to her before.
Marcus said nothing. His feelings for Liam were none of her business. He turned his back on her as he marched to the window and looked out over the drive. Her car was still parked there, a horrible green little thing sitting in the middle of his property—as bold as brass and twice as ugly. At least, the sight of it didn’t send panic racing through his veins anymore. At least, it wasn’t Ralph’s car.
“If you do care for him, then it’s time you started taking proper care of him,” Jenny announced.
Marcus slowly turned to face her. Anger like nothing he’d ever known suddenly flooded through his veins. He stepped forward. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, or even what he’d say, as he closed the gap between them. Then, without him ever having been aware of making a decision, it had already been made.
* * * *
Liam jumped as he heard a door slam on the ground floor. He stared up at the ceiling of the servants’ quarters, as if he might suddenly develop the ability to see through the white paint on the ceiling, the heavy floorboards and everything else between him and Marcus.
“Don’t you worry about him, love. Vampires are a resilient lot,” Mrs. Jenson said, from the other side of the kitchen table.
Liam forced a smile and tried to turn his attention back to the carrots he’d been ordered to peel for a stew.
“Young Master Marcus has been known to drink the occasional cup of coffee, you know,” the older lady said. Her lips quirked into a truly infectious smile. She nodded toward a tray already set with coffee pot, mugs and biscuits. “If you really think you need an excuse to go up and see him, that should do you well enough.”
Liam set both the peeler and the carrot he was working on down on the kitchen counter. “Thank you.” The words didn’t express anywhere near the amount of gratitude he felt, but they were all he had. It would take him far too long to come up with
anything else.
Picking up the tray, Liam hurried out of the kitchen and up the stairs into the main part of the house as quickly as his feet would carry him. He paused in the hallway, listening for any hint of where Marcus might be, but there wasn’t a sound to be heard.
Liam cautiously approached the morning room. The door was slightly ajar. Liam peeked inside. Jenny was gone. Only Marcus remained in there. The vampire stood at the window, overlooking the empty drive.
“I…” Liam cleared his throat and tried again. “I thought you might like some coffee.”
Marcus glanced toward him. His expression was very serious. He didn’t say a single word as Liam stepped into the room and set the tray down on the coffee table.
Liam perched on the edge of the sofa, just where Jenny had sat a little while before. He struggled to keep his hands steady as he began to fuss with the coffee things. Marcus slowly crossed the room and sat down in the chair opposite him. Liam could feel the vampire’s gaze on him, but he didn’t have it in him to look up and meet Marcus’ eyes.
The atmosphere in the room was somewhere between chilly and downright frigid. It was all Liam could do not to shiver.
Two coffees poured, Liam wrapped his hands around his cup, and tried to force a little warmth into his body. It didn’t help. He took one hand away and picked up a biscuit.
“Did you—?” Liam finally began.
“It’s time for you to start thinking about going back to work,” Marcus cut in.
Liam’s coffee didn’t spill across the tray as he set down his cup. He didn’t drop the biscuit either. Liam sat very still and very quiet for a few seconds without showing any outward reaction. He was quite proud of himself for that.
Closing his eyes for just a moment, he swallowed down the tiny bite of biscuit, but not before it completed its transformation into ash inside his mouth. “I think that’s a good idea, too,” he whispered.
His appetite was gone. Sure he wouldn’t be able to swallow another bite, Liam set the biscuit down on the saucer next to his cup and straightened up the various items on the tray—anything to avoid having to look up and meet Marcus’ eyes.
He supposed that’s what he got for letting himself daydream. If he’d had any sense at all, he’d have stuck to reading about other people’s fairy tale endings in the magazines. Believing that he could really get something like that for himself had been asking for trouble.
“Liam?”
“Yes?” he managed to whisper.
“Are you going to look up at me at any point this evening?” Marcus asked.
Liam hadn’t actually planned to do anything of the sort, but he couldn’t refuse, either. He dragged his gaze slowly up the other man’s shirt. Marcus had been very kind to him over the last few weeks, doing anything else would have been tantamount to throwing everything back in his face.
The vampire’s frown was deeper than ever.
Somehow, Liam forced a smile to his own lips. “It’s fine,” he said.
Marcus seemed to be waiting for him to add something else. Liam scrambled for a few extra words.
“It’s better this way. Quit while the going is good and all that.”
Marcus’ eyes narrowed. He put down the cup of coffee he’d been sipping from. “Quit?” he repeated.
Liam nodded. “I think maybe if Ralph and I had walked away from each other when things were still good, then—”
“I won’t hit you if you stay,” Marcus cut in.
“I know,” Liam said, softly. “I…I’ve been thinking about that a lot. And I think…I think some men hit their lovers and some men don’t. You’re one of the ones that doesn’t, not unless you’re in the playroom and someone likes it, anyway.” He tried to smile at his own joke and failed completely.
Marcus’ lips didn’t even twitch. “So why are you talking about leaving?”
Liam blinked at him, not sure what was going on. “As soon I get a job, I can start saving up enough to—”
Marcus held up a hand. “Jenny pointed out that, as much as I would like to keep you inside these four walls twenty-four hours a day, humans have some sort of need to interact with a variety of other humans,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I won’t expect you to come back to this house the moment you finish work each day.”
Liam nibbled at his bottom lip.
“Permission to go to work and be,” Marcus waved a hand, obviously trying to remember a term Jenny had used, “financially independent, is not permission to wander off whenever the hell you feel like it. It’s not permission to leave!”
By the time he finished, Marcus was sitting on the very edge of his seat, as if ready to jump up and tackle Liam to the ground if he tried to run toward the door.
For the first time he could remember, the idea of someone doing that didn’t scare Liam. It gave him hope. “You want me to stay?”
“Yes.” Marcus sounded so certain about everything.
“As your…?” Liam couldn’t have sounded less like the other man if he’d tried. He wasn’t even sure how to finish a damn sentence.
Marcus seemed to think about the half asked question very carefully. “Vampires have traditionally called the human companions they care about to be their submissives, their pets.”
Liam looked up and met the other man’s gaze. He had no doubt that those were the most polite words they used for them.
“But a human might call himself a vampire’s lover, or his boyfriend,” Marcus offered.
Liam swallowed rapidly as all sorts of different scenarios played through his mind. He tried to tell himself he was only interested in the human terms, but he knew it was a lie. His mind kept swinging back to the vampire’s first words, desperate to latch onto them and make them an intrinsic part of himself.
“A human definition of a submissive would be someone who wanted to commit himself to pleasing one person, to belonging to one man,” Marcus said. “There’s nothing wrong with that—with wanting to put your complete trust in someone the way you do when you’re in bondage.”
“Are all vampires mind readers?” Liam asked.
“Dominants understand submissives,” Marcus said. “Even human ones.”
“And what do dominants want?” Liam whispered.
“To take another man under their protection, to keep him safe, to provide for him, to help him feel safe and secure in his ownership, to teach him, to help him find his confidence again, to…” Marcus trailed off.
Liam frowned slightly, wondering why.
Marcus smiled, his expression more than a little rueful. “To do more things than I could possibly list.”
Liam nodded. “Okay.”
“And to give you back the right to take on a job after Ralph insisted you leave your last employment,” Marcus added.
Liam looked down at the table for several long seconds. “I’d like that,” he finally whispered. In that moment, even he wasn’t sure if he was talking about just the idea of going back to work or the whole way of life Marcus seemed to be offering him.
“Jenny mentioned a suitable vacancy at an animal shelter run by one of her friends. She assures me that you would be perfectly safe there. Your main task will be to help socialize the animals before they are re-homed.” Marcus nodded to himself. “It will be exactly the same as you did when you visited me at the hospital, but with animals. You can start tomorrow.”
Liam bit back a smile. Apparently, it was all settled. The decisions had all been made. He glanced up at the vampire through his lashes.
He wanted him. Marcus wanted him. He wasn’t going to be thrown out onto the street; he was just going to get to visit some streets now and again.
“Thank you.” The vampire dutifully drained the last of the coffee from his cup. “That was good.”
Liam smiled. Maybe it was just relief at being wanted, but he couldn’t help but find Marcus’ attempts to be polite, made him even easier to fall in love with than ever.
* * * *
Liam took a d
eep breath as he looked in the mirror above the dressing table. There wasn’t a mark on him—no bruises to hide, no sore joints to disguise. He didn’t have to worry about that anymore. He was fine. And he was going to work. He nodded to himself. He could do this.
“Ready?”
Liam glanced at Marcus’ reflection in the mirror. The other man stood in the doorway leading into his bedroom, his image no different than any humans would be. He was dressed just as casually as Liam in nothing more exciting than blue jeans and a plain white T-shirt. But that didn’t change the fact he was stunning.
Hoping he didn’t look even half as nervous as he felt, Liam wiped his damp palms on his jeans and walked across to the vampire.
“You know, you really don’t need to give me a ride into work. I can—”
Marcus’ fingertip came to rest on his lips.
Liam couldn’t help but smile in response. He was really falling in love with that gentle little gesture. There were no angry shouts or backhanders when Marcus wanted him to shut up.
Without thinking, Liam pressed a kiss against the other man’s fingers. Marcus did nothing worse than smile at his silliness. Stepping forward, he even offered up a proper kiss, just as Liam had hoped he would.
Their lips fitted together so perfectly, Liam would have given almost anything in the world to be able to stay there all day, to curl up with Marcus in the other man’s bed and simply wile away the day with more and more kisses. Liam’s cock grew heavy with increased blood flow. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to mix a few other activities with those kisses…
Liam whimpered as Marcus pulled back, but his protest had no effect on the other man. “Come on,” the vampire ordered. “It would hardly do for you to be late on your first day.”
Early, late or right on time, it took every ounce of courage Liam had just to step out of the house and onto the drive. Neither the limo nor Mr. Jenson or the chauffeur were there to greet them. Liam blinked at the sleek black sports car as Marcus’ folded his tall frame into the low slung driver’s seat.
“I didn’t know you could drive,” Liam blurted out as he clumsily scrambled into the passenger seat. “I mean, I assumed with the limo and the chauffeur and everything…”