Ariel's Pet by Qwillia Rain

Author:Qwillia Rain [Rain, Qwillia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Dane heard the sliding door travel along its track, but he ignored it. The lowball glass of vodka he'd carried out to the porch sat abandoned on the table beside him. His fingers traced the smooth sides of the crystal as he listened to Shendah approach.

“Master Dane?” Shendah's tone was quiet, hesitant.

“Yes, Shendah.” He didn't take his gaze from the starlit landscape in front of him.

Her footsteps were quiet on the stone-slab patio. Despite the warmth during the day, the temperature in the surrounding forest dipped at night, even in the summer. “You'll catch a cold if you come out here without shoes,” he warned. The fact that his bare feet were propped on the wooden railing went unmentioned.

“You barely touched your dinner. I thought you might be hungry.” She set a plate with a sandwich stacked with thick slices of meat and cheese on the table, then nudged the drink out of his loose grip.

When she reached for the glass, Dane stopped her. “No.” He made sure not to touch her as he settled his hand over the top of the glass to keep her from taking it. Because of her past, Shendah found unsolicited physical contact difficult to handle. He turned to gaze up at her in the milky light of the stars above and the pale illumination offered by the light over the kitchen stove. Something in his expression, or maybe the look in his eyes, made Shendah gasp and step back.

“Master Dane, has something happened? Are you okay?” A wary, trembling hand alighted on his shoulder.

His left hand lifted the glass to his lips. The measure of vodka slid over his tongue and into his belly with a welcome burn. With his other hand, he reached up and softly patted the one on his shoulder. “I'm fine, Shen.”

“Are you sure?” Her fingers squeezed his shoulder.

“Promise.”

She waited a moment, eased her hand from beneath his, and then gracefully knelt on the flagstones. “Then why are you out here? Alone and drinking?”

He rolled the empty container between his palms, watching the muted flash of starlight reflect off the surface, his mind shutting doors to paths he'd traveled and opening others he hadn't known existed. “There comes a time in his life when a man has to mourn the life he used to live and face the new one taking shape in front of him.”

“And you need to do that by getting drunk?”

He could hear the confusion and disquiet in her voice. In the past Shendah had left behind, drunkenness had never resulted in anything but abuse, so Dane could understand her uneasy feelings. But the reality of how much he wanted Ariel as his woman, his submissive, slapped him in the face once he'd recovered from the climax she'd induced. The realization of how unlikely his success in claiming her was had left him in a less-than-accommodating mood.

“It's either get drunk or shoot myself, sweetheart. And considering the treats I have in store for me if I survive the siege ahead, I'm thinking I'll stick around for a while.

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