The Vampire Queen's Servant (27 page)

She bit back a smile, gave him a
severe look instead. "Thomas trained you well. But again, he did not teach
you to be impertinent."

"That's an art form I
cultivated all on my own to please my lady."

The lights of the limo went by
the kitchen window as Mr. Ingram pulled into the drive. She nodded to him
through it, pleased to see him again. When he got out, raised a hand, she was
glad to see he appeared equally amiable.

"You've gone to a great
deal of effort for this outing."

"You're a high-maintenance
woman, no one's denying that," he agreed. As he began to turn away, she
captured his hand, stopping him.

"Jacob, do you take nothing
seriously?"

Leaning in, he brushed his lips
over her nose, hesitated, then touched her lips as well. Just a simple contact.
Because it was so simple, no attempt to push and claim her mouth more
thoroughly, she felt the impact of it down to her toes, how much he held back.

"Yes, my lady. There are
things I take very seriously. You know what they are."

When he drew the cowl forward to
further cover her face, she turned her head, kissed his wrist, her fangs
grazing him. He stilled, those blue eyes riveting on her gesture. His intensity
sent frissons of excitement through her lower vitals, as if the excitement of
new love awaited her tonight. Rather than just an evening's diversion provided
to her by a precocious, intriguing and altogether exceptional male.

A
human
male, she
reminded herself.

As he watched the thoughts
course across her face, Jacob hoped he'd accomplish his primary objective
tonight. He wanted to see his lady smile without thought. Perhaps even coax a
giggle out of her and get her to engage in some innocent flirtation with the
man who wanted to see her unfettered by shadows for one night.

For that gift, he could even
force back his current, aching desire to have her body beneath him, feel her
wet folds closing over him, the clutch of her hands on his shoulders.

"After you, my lady."

As she nodded, sweeping out the
door toward the limo, he could well imagine what she'd look like without the
cloak, her ass defined by those jeans, the provocation of the tattoo. "God
help me," he muttered, following her out.

Oddly enough, one of the first
places she wanted to go at the mall was the Mirror Maze, a dimly lit maze of
mirrors confusing the mind. It disoriented the giggling and shrieking
participants, causing them to bump into the mirrors they thought were open
hallways and into each other. As a result, Jacob waited until the previous
group had gone somewhat ahead of them before he led her through the curtains.

There were of course ghoulish
sound effects, maniacal laughter and props to misdirect. Though he knew it was
a game, he kept a firm grip on her hand as he watched her reach out and touch
the glass. When she slid her fingertips along it, her brow raised in reaction
to his image layering with the images of the others up ahead that were
reflected back to them.

"Any dragons hiding in
here, Sir Vagabond?"

"Worse," he said in a
low voice. "Teenagers."

She chuckled. He noted as they
caught up and passed other groups that only a brief glimpse of his lady was
enough to have the young men running into walls, even more than they were
already doing. She did have an undeniable effect on the male gender. He
couldn't claim himself exempt.

When he took her to the exit to
the maze, Lyssa hid a satisfied smile. Without a reflection, getting through
the maze would have been easy for her, but she'd let him lead. He hadn't
hesitated, had hardly even glanced at the cues or stopped to consider choices.
"The luck of the Irish, indeed," she murmured.

She couldn't remember the last
time she'd had an outing like this. Falls Harbor Mall was an octagon, with
corridors forming a pinwheel to the central feature of the mall, the Ferris
wheel Jacob had described. At each of the eight points there was a different
fantastical water display to engage the imaginations of the shoppers.

For a while they just wandered
by the storefronts and she considered different purchases. At first she was
wary, scanning her surroundings, but logic kicked in and she knew among this
mass of humanity she would feel the presence of a vampire a mile away. Further,
she noted that Jacob, though attentive to her, never stopped casually scanning
the crowd, looking for anything unusual. She found herself touched by it, the
way she'd been by his protective guidance in the maze.

But when he bought her ice
cream, she sent him into a men's store to pick out the clothes he said he
needed for the dinner. In a mood to placate him, she took a seat in front of
the store on a marble wall surrounding a two-story-high fountain. The fountain
simulated a mountain, complete with animated goats butting their heads against
rocks, a holographic image of salmon leaping up the falls, and a grizzly bear
up to his ankles in the rushing water.

Jacob had bought the ice cream
with his own money, insisting everything tonight was his treat. She'd chosen
strawberry, mixed with chunks of the fresh fruit and topped with Godiva
chocolate fudge. As she inhaled the mixture of flavors, she enjoyed the
experience of smelling it among the cacophony of echoing sounds. People moving
in surges like the rush of water. Wanting to spend money or just enjoy the
sights among the nearly two hundred stores. Young people prowling, here to be
seen.

When a little girl and her
mother sat down near her, she offered the treat to them. The mother was
initially suspicious, but took it with an understanding smile when Lyssa
confided her date had bought it for her but she was lactose intolerant and
didn't want to hurt his feelings.

She had to suppress the urge to
go shop with him. He'd told her what he was going to get. Like most things
which concerned Jacob, she'd been impressed by the appropriateness of the
choices. Particularly since all she'd seen him in other than the costume hose
were T-shirts and jeans that had seen better days. Even tonight, once they'd
gotten to the mall, he'd shed the dress shirt, showing he was wearing a T-shirt
beneath it. It was a very appealing look on him, but she was looking forward to
seeing him in the dark pair of slacks and midnight blue shirt he'd described.

When she rose and wandered
around the back of the fountain, curious to see what animals decorated that
side, she was, delighted to find a very lifelike cougar. A moment later, Jacob
was at her shoulder, without his purchases.

"You disappeared on me, my
lady."

"As I will occasionally
do." She cocked her head, inserted one finger in the pocket of his jeans
and tugged at the seam with an indulgent smile, too pleased by her,
surroundings to get cross with his overprotectiveness. "At night, unless I
specifically request it, I don't need my human servant to be a bodyguard. He
guards his Mistress's well-being, yes. Helps her scout out danger upon her
request, watches over her daytime repose. But when I'm awake at night, I'm
fully capable of protecting myself. You've done all the right things to ensure
we won't run into problems. If we do, they'll be the type of problem up to me
to handle."

"They'll have to come
through me."

"No, they won't." Now
her tone did sharpen. "I absolutely forbid you to engage a vampire in an
attack. It will only interfere with my handling of him." At his stubborn
look, she chose a different tack. "I might get killed trying to protect
you
."

"I was able to anticipate
your movements the other night," he said defensively. "I've hunted
vampires."

"So have I. I can promise
you, the power and cunning of a vampire that would come after me will be more
than you've ever faced. Otherwise you'd have been dead, and we wouldn't be
having this conversation." Before he could open his mouth to argue, she
placed a finger on that appealing bottom lip. "Plus, I had no intention of
hurting or killing you the other night. It makes a difference." She peered
at him over her glasses. "Go get your clothes and stop hovering. You're
annoying me." Even though he wasn't.

Giving her a bemused look, he
reached out, pushed the bridge of the eyewear so they settled back on the
bridge of her nose. "With respect, lady, you weren't able to protect
yourself the other night when we met."

She frowned. "You took care
of me when I lost .consciousness. I am quite fully awake now. Shoo."

She turned her back on him, tilting
her head to look to the top of the mountain, conveying quite bluntly that the
conversation was over. Even gave a little flip of her hand to underscore the
command. The sound of his breath leaving him in an exasperated huff like a
disgruntled adolescent almost made her smile.

Ouch
. Her hand clapped over her left buttock, a reaction to sharp pain.
Astounded, she spun on her heel, glaring at him. He'd
pinched
her.
Hard. On her ass.

Already several paces away, he
threw her a rakish look over his shoulder. She closed her mouth. He was the
most outrageous man. One moment properly deferential, a blink later, acting
like… an annoyed lover. Teasing her like she was some girl he had out on a
date.

With exaggerated casualness, she
wandered back around the mountain display. Back inside the store, he was
studying a rack of belts. A salesgirl had just approached to assist him. Or to
ogle the muscles in his arms denned by the stretched fabric of his short
sleeves. While Lyssa watched, the girl reached out to casually touch one of
those arms as she pointed out the section of the belts with his size. As if the
man was not perfectly capable of determining that for himself. He could figure
out her accounts, order about landscapers and repair her woodshed. He knew how
to pick out his own belt.

Or perhaps he did need some
help.

As she closed in on him,
stepping into the store, she slipped her hands in her back pockets to enhance
the sway of her hips as she walked. It pushed the jeans down low enough that
her hip bones were revealed in the front.

Her eyelashes didn't even
flicker as a male sales associate tripped over a display and went sprawling
within ten feet of her.

"Oh." The girl left
Jacob with a word of apology and hurried to help her coworker with the wrecked
display and his bruised dignity.

Jacob barely acknowledged her,
his eyes all on Lyssa as she approached. She'd noted he'd registered her entry
the moment she'd stepped over the threshold. His mouth had twitched at the
sales associate's reaction.

"Something you needed, my
lady?" Despite their disguises, she hadn't encouraged him to call her
anything else, so he kept his tone low on the address, giving his voice that
sensual cadence.

She could tell he was smart
enough to be wary. Male enough he couldn't keep his eyes off the low ride of
the waistband, the jut of her unbound breasts beneath the kitten T-shirt.

"I decided to come in and
help. Choosing belts?"

The trousers and shirts he
intended to purchase lay over his arm, apparently retrieved when he came back
in the store. "Do you have a preference?" he asked. He already had
his hand on one, a simple black strap with a silver buckle, handsome but not
overly ornamental. Very much to the taste of the man. Pursing her lips, she
picked up one studded with pewter stars at two inch intervals on a wider strap.
A look of alarm crossed his face as his grip tightened on the belt he'd
originally chosen.

"My lady, I'm not certain
if that style is my—"

She wondered how he would feel
if she ordered him to wear women's clothes in public. There were so many ways a
vampire could torment her servant.

Considering, she cocked her
head, surveying the store. There was a married couple several feet away. The
two store clerks were restoring the display. A group of teenagers clustered
around the discount sales rack at the back of the store.

At the sound of a loud crack,
they all turned, scanning the store and the walking area out in front.

Someone with a gift for
recalling details might have remembered that the beautiful young woman casually
standing with her boyfriend by the belts had held one of them loosely by the
buckle in the opposite hand only a blink earlier.

They might also remember the man
hadn't been standing rigid, his teeth clenched as if someone had just punched
him in the jaw. Or as if he were ready to strangle someone.