Okay, saying it like that, I totally got why my thoughts went there.
I shook myself as I walked through the dim corridor, candle in hand, heading toward the room Beatrice had told me about. The room I would always meet him in for my evening duties.
Evening duties.
Goddess, help me.
My thighs squeezed together on their own, and I pretended it was because the manor was cold. It wasn't.
It was all for him.
The damn master.
Somehow between this morning and now I'd convinced myself that this was more than just a job. More than a paycheck and a way to help my papa.
"Stupid," I whispered to myself, cheeks burning even though no one was watching. “You're not here to fall for him. You're here because you were hired to do a damn job!"
But the memory of his voice telling me my purpose rippled through me again.
I stopped outside the door at the end of the hall, gripping the brass handle just to keep my fingers steady.
This was it.
My first milking session.
What if I was really, really bad at it?
It would be the first time I touch another person like that. Not to mention... he wasn't just another person.
He might be a monster... a Minotaur... but he wasso muchmore. In my limited interactions with him, it was quite clear that he was one powerful creature, and his intense stare still had me shivering at just the thought of it.
And because he was so intriguing, so delicious, so much more, I found myself incredibly desperate to please him.
Please him more than any milkmaid before me.
Which was ridiculous.
I swallowed down the nerves and prepared myself to open the door.
"Just do your job," I muttered to myself. "There's no need to get clingy and turn into a stage five clinger with your boss. Whom you have to milk.Sexually."
The door opened from the inside before I could finish my pep talk and I jumped back in fright.
He stood there filling the doorway, looking down at me like he'd been tracking my heartbeat through the walls. His fur glowed warm in the light, shadows clinging to the carved muscles of his chest, and his horns curved like polished obsidian.
"Pretty flower," he practically purred in greeting.
It wasn't the first time someone has used this pet name on me. And previously I hadn't thought it particularly imaginative as it was the direct translation of my name and surname. But coming from him it had a different ring to it.
"You should probably know, as a beast, I have remarkable hearing, and can normally pick up whispers from the other side of a closed door."
My heart stopped.
Oh shit. He'd heard my pitiful pep talk.
Did that mean he would send me away?
Dear goddess I hoped not.
