The Pleasure Master by Nina Bangs

Author:Nina Bangs
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781428503663
Publisher: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.

Chapter Eleven

Ian was still staring at the bed when he sensed her behind him. She didn’t touch him, but he needed no touch to recognize her.

“I guess this bed is sort of like my necklace. You’d miss it if you had to leave.” She was speaking in that hushed voice she’d used before when near the bed.

“’Tis different. Yer necklace is a symbol of yer parents’ love. It has a place in yer heart. The bed is only a reminder of the joy of physical joining. There is no remembrance of love attached.” He turned and strode from the chamber.

She followed him. “I think you’re wrong, Ross. I bet your great grandfather and the woman who owned that bed loved each other. No matter what you say, I can feel the love in that bed.”

The talk of love bothered him, even though he’d never admit it to her. He felt the need to escape the cave, to walk beside the sea with no thoughts of seduction or his brothers’ challenge.

“I would ride to the shore and walk there for a while. Ye must come wi’ me.” He would leave her sitting on a rock where he could see her; then he would let the joy of the sea take him, free him as it always freed him when he worried overmuch.

“Sounds like fun.” Her smile was full of eager anticipation, and he pushed aside his immediate response to that smile.

“I can’t remember what fun is for.”

Peter’s voice reminded Ian of Colin’s when he was a wee lad and followed their father around begging for a sweet.

His father would laugh and give him what he whined for. Ian received very few sweets because he would never beg. His father had taught him young that the Pleasure Master never beseeched others for anything.

“Can we take Peter?”

“’Tis amazing. Ye condemn me for trying to manipulate ye, but yon wee devil is manipulating ye, and ye dinna say a word.” He didn’t want to share his morning with Peter.

“Yon wee devil holds my ticket back to New York in his wee power.”

Resentment touched him. She couldn’t wait to escape him. But he swore that when she left she’d take with her a memory like no other.

“If we take Peter, Malin must go also. He willna allow Peter to go wi’ out him.” That should discourage her.

“Great. We can pack something to eat, and it’ll be like a family picnic.” She was fairly bursting with excitement.

Bloody hell. “A passing strange family.” His muttered insult had no effect on her.

“Will your horse carry all of us?” She frowned. “I’ve never ridden a horse before. The closest I’ve come was a merry-go-round horse when I was a kid. It made me sick, and Dad never took me on one again.”

He should ask what a merry-go-round was, but something else interested him more, something that pulled at him even as it made him uncomfortable. “Ye speak fondly of yer parents.”

She smiled at him. A soft, sad smile. “They’re the best.

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