For now. “If something does happen, I want to say . . thank you. To you and our Master. I don’t know if he was compelled by Lady Lyssa to take me into his service, or if it was his choice, but you’ve both been . . . I’m glad I’ve had this experience.”

“He approached her, lass. The moment ye calmed under our hands. The way you’re calming now.”

He was right. His other hand had been stroking her arm, her hip, caressing her thigh, and she’d stilled beneath that possessive, soothing stroke.

“As far as the chocolate, Brian said there’s something in it that would help if you missed an injection and had a bad reaction. It makes sense. Just like my clever hands, it calms most women down.”

He was teasing her, but she couldn’t smile yet. When she looked down, his hand slid along the length of her thigh. She parted her legs farther, caught her bottom lip in her teeth as he stroked between them, a methodical caress of her pussy beneath the denim.

“That can calm a woman down as well,” he noted in that throaty growl. “As well as stir a man up.” Taking his hand away, he brought it back to rest on her knee, but kept his weight forward, his grasp firm, telling her he liked her legs spread for him. His attention swept over her burning cheeks, the moistness of her lips. “Time to finish our shopping. Much as I’d like tae pursue that dressing room fantasy, we’ve caused enough drama for now.”

Relief swept through her. “You’re not taking me back?”

“You’d have an aneurysm if Evan’s list wasnae finished,” he noted. “If you’re up to the groceries, we’ll do that as well. But ye get more color in your face in the next thirty minutes, or we’re headed back, no matter what. You can rest in the car at the shops where I can see you from the storefront. Plus, there’s no reason to drag ye into the hardware store for the ropes and clips he’s wanting.”

“Ropes?”

Niall grinned. “No wild ideas, muirnín. He has a couple cliffs he’s wanting to scale. Even a vampire doesnae relish falling off a mountain.” He cocked a brow, glancing down at her open thighs. “However, I like the idea of tying ye on our bed and tasting ye until you’re writhing like a captured soft rabbit. Or”—his gaze came back to her, a little more ominous—“tying some knots in it and applying it to your ripe arse. I’m going to do my best to put it in his head, since ye nearly scared the rest o’ my life off me.”

“And because you’d like doing it.”

“Some vampire preferences tend to be contagious.” Giving her a wicked look, he helped her to her feet. Despite his teasing, she noticed he kept a strong arm around her. “Let’s go finish our chores.”

Finishing Evan’s list left her with a false sense of satisfaction, because Niall had to do a lot of it. Her color had improved, but it took time for her strength to return. She requested a brief stop at a shoe store, however, where she found a suitable pair for the gray dress, as well as some pretty matching baubles for her ears and throat. Niall frowned at her choices, but he paid for them, shaking his head when she asked him if there was a problem.

As they pulled into the grocery, their last stop, her curiosity motivated her to ask again. “Did I offend my Master or you with the jewelry? Were they too excessive?”

“Hardly. They were three for fifteen dollars. Evan isn’t as wealthy as Council vampires, lass, but he does have enough money to buy you decent jewelry.”

When he put the Rover in park, she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter if the Council assigns me to the most wealthy and powerful, or to the poorest. I am still only a servant, Niall. Our Master’s money is not mine, and I would never act as if it was. From what I know of your lifestyle and the infrequency of formal events, the costume jewelry I bought is sufficient.” As well as how long I have to wear them.

He reached out, touched her mouth. “Do you have anything that’s yours? That ye brought from your life before bein’ an InhServ?”

The question was unexpected, but she took it in stride. “I was promised to the InhServ ranks at birth, Niall. I had no life before that.”

“Your parents never gave ye a doll, or a toy?”

“Of course. When I was little, I was given toys to stimulate my mental growth, and they did everything necessary to ensure I was a happy, well-adjusted child. And Adam . . . whatever toys Adam had, we also shared, because we were twins, and it was just natural to us.”

She looked toward the grocery store. “We should go in. It will be dark in a few hours, and Evan will want us at home.”

“So you’ve no personal possessions? A memento or trinket?”

She continued to gaze at the storefront, aware of his eyes upon her. “I have no possessions, Niall. Every piece of clothing or jewelry, every book I read . . . everything is to serve my Master. It all belongs to him. I know you don’t understand that.”

In his room, there was a carved wooden chest, no bigger than a music box. She’d peered inside it, not to invade privacy, but just to familiarize herself with the things that she might be required to know about the household. There was a carefully preserved sketch, a couple of letters, an antique pocket watch. A tattered Bible. There was also a heavy pewter ring with a Scottish thistle design that she suspected Evan had given to him as a gift. The sketch appeared to be of Niall’s children, a boy and a girl.

His experience was different than hers. That wasn’t something that ruffled her, but for some reason his persistence did. “Did you ever see Adam after he was assigned?”

“Yes. A few times, when we were at the same events.”

“They didn’t make you . . .” His brow creased in affront at the idea.

“No.” She gave him a sharp look. “Even vampires have their limits. Adam’s Mistress wanted the pleasure of taking both of us to her bed, because we were twins. We resembled each other quite closely. Stephen allowed it, but our focus was on her, serving her desires. She didn’t order us to interact with each other. We merely focused on her pleasure.”

She could tell he wanted to ask, What if she had? Something in her expression must have warned him she wasn’t up for that topic, because he shifted focus.

“What was she like?”

“Beautiful. Kind, as vampires go. She seemed fond of Adam and he seemed . . .” She shook her head, stared at the grocery store marquis again. “He cared a great deal for her. He . . . loved her. When he died in her service, I’m sure he was glad to follow her into the afterlife. It’s what every servant desires, right? That ultimate act of devotion.”

She remembered the night they’d pleasured his Mistress. How, as dawn’s light came, they lay on either side of her sleeping form, staring at each other. Adam had laid his hand on his Mistress’s hip and Alanna had overlapped it, holding hands. The last physical contact she’d had with him.

She’d felt his death, even though they hadn’t been at the Council Gathering. Stephen, not yet serving on the Council, had planned to attend, but he’d had other business that delayed him. She’d been on a plane with him, headed into a landing in Mexico City because Stephen would stay there overnight to discuss business opportunities with other vampires.

The severing of that twin connection had been brutal, Adam suddenly not there. Just a blast of fear and pain. Even her severing from Stephen had not felt like that. Physically, it had been worse, but emotionally . . . Her twin gone, forever. And then that night, Stephen had made her service twelve other servants in front of a dozen watching vampires. Testing her loyalty to him.

That had worked out well for him, hadn’t it? She curled a lip in derision, then quickly erased it, appalled at herself.

Niall’s hand had covered hers, but she drew away. “We need to get groceries,” she said. Shoving open the car door, she didn’t wait to see if he was following. She found a cart, pushed it into the brightly lit environment of the store, populated with everything from harried mothers with cranky children to aimlessly wandering tourists. Before she’d rolled to a stop before a display of cantaloupes, Niall’s hands slid onto the cart handle on either side of hers, his body pressed up behind her, caging her against it. “I’ll drive, you shop,” he said against her ear, his lips brushing it, capturing a strand of her hair to tug.

As she closed her eyes, he put his head down in the curve of her shoulder and neck, a gesture of comfort. “It’s all right, muirnín,” he murmured. “I know how much ye loved him. I had a family, too. I ask too many questions.”

She shook her head, but was glad he let it be. She’d loved Adam, yes. But she remembered her stabbing envy, seeing the connection between him and his Mistress. She’d been so pleased by their service to her that night, she’d told Adam if he wanted his sister to become part of her household, she would do what she could to make that happen.

Alanna had known it was impossible. A lower-placed vampire having two InhServs, and Stephen giving up the only one he had? But that didn’t matter. It wasn’t her choice. When Adam asked her if she would like that, she’d given him the only answer she could.

“I serve my Master. I follow his will, not yours or my own.”

Adam’s face had darkened with disappointment, though she knew he understood. Maybe. He’d never comprehended what being an InhServ was about as completely as she had, and yet he’d ended up with what she’d dreamed being a vampire’s servant would be about.

She ducked out from under Niall’s arms, afraid of how much she wanted the feeling he was offering her. She selected fresh fruit, some herbs, and moved briskly through the aisles, choosing what both men might like.

When she was steady enough to tune back in to her shopping companion, she found Niall had made his own additions to the cart. Lifting a bag of candy, a Chef Boyardee pizza mix and a party-sized bag of cheese puffs, she gave Niall a look.

“The pizza is like comfort food from the gods, believe me. It will put more meat on your bones. And ye might need more o’ the chocolate.”