“We’re about to have company,” Josefina said.
“But, master?—”
Josefina held up her hand, which was her signal for silence. Zack shut his mouth tightly.
A moment later, Reed walked through the entryway. He had a tray with a pitcher of ice water and two glasses. Nell had plenty of servants for that kind of task, but Reed always found an excuse to check on Zack during a ballroom lesson. Zack was pretty sure Roger had put him up to it. However, Reed was also the kind of person who naturally looked after others. Since they’d met, that care had included Zack.
Reed was around thirty years old. He was a white guy with sandy-blond hair and brown eyes. He taught a beginner’s yoga class at the Taliville Gym, but his physique wasn’t an athlete’s. Along with his sweater and dark jeans, he wore a black leather collar with a crest tag that marked him as Nell’s. Between his wardrobe and his glasses, he looked like a comfy professor. Usually Reed wore contacts, but every once in a while, he wore glasses. Both looks suited him.
Since he was bringing water, Zack could forgive him for intruding. He shifted his weight off his sore ankle absently, then caught the slight frown Josefina shot his way. Zack had let his mask slip and shown his pain. In an attempt to divert her attention, he complained to Reed, “She’s refusing to teach me.”
“We’ve done an hour of combat training and two hours of ballroom dancing. Even my endurance has limits,” Josefina said.
“Besides, you’re leaving in two nights.” Reed set down the tray on one of the empty chairs and poured a glass of water. As he handed it to Zack, he said, “Is another half an hour going to teach you something you don’t already know?”
“There’s no replacement for muscle memory.” Zack took the glass of water.
“And yet you stop behaving at every opportunity,” Josefina said sternly. “Your gaze is up, and you’re engaging in conversation without permission.”
Her glare was ice-cold. A snarl was in his throat in response, but he quashed it.
“Aren’t you being a little hard on him?” Reed asked.
“My sweet boy, I am teaching him how to survive. Don’t undermine me.” Josefina caressed Reed’s cheek.
“Of course, master,” Reed said reverently.
Pets usually belonged to one vampire, but Reed was in a poly relationship with Nell and Josefina. His relationship with them wasn’t sexual—Reed was ace, and Nell and Josefina were lesbians—but there was love between them. Reed had told Zack that he got all the cuddles he wanted; Nell and Josefina had a human they trusted to help run their city. What they had worked for them.
Addressing Josefina, Reed motioned to the water. “Do you want some, master?”
Josefina stared at his wrist rather than the water. Her eyes turned the faintest red, a sign she was hungry. “Has Nell drank from you?”
“She had a nip the other night. Barely anything.” Reed turned his wrist over, baring it for her.
Gently, she took his wrist and pulled him closer. She put a finger under his chin and tilted his head to the side. “May I, love?”
“Yes,” Reed breathed with a sigh of want.
She was going to feed on him like it was no big deal. Being in the presence of a feeding seemed to be the one area of vampire society that lacked rules. Zack had no idea where his gaze belonged. Should he look away for their modesty? Or was not watching a vampire overwhelm a mortal and drink from them a sign of disrespect? Was ignoring them dangerous? Josefina was experienced, but what if she lost control? Did Zack need to be ready to step in? Interrupting a feed had to be against therules and just so ingrained as something no one did that it went without saying.
Josefina wrapped her arm around Reed and bit into his neck. Reed gasped, and his eyes fluttered shut.
Watching a vampire feed was nothing like watching porn. Zack’s gaze fell to his own wrist. He had a few sets of fading bite marks there. Roger needed blood, Zack was supposed to have the scars if he was a pet, and … and feeding Roger was …hot. Admitting it to himself was hard, but he liked the feel of Roger’s fangs piercing his flesh. He liked knowing that Roger needed him in that deep, visceral way that felt more powerful than sex. It usually led to sex between them, or at least intensely making out for a while, and that was a confusing nest of thoughts Zack didn’t want to examine.
Vampires constantly fed from others. Roger said the ones in the GLC did it as casually as drinking from a soda can. Zack had to get used to it.Hopefully it stops turning me on.
But Reed moaning as Josefina continued drinking from him only made Zack think of his own moans and needs.
“Thank you,” Josefina murmured in Reed’s ear as she finished. She hugged him.
“Always,” Reed whispered.
They held each other for a long embrace before drifting apart. Reed took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and lightly held it to the wound. Josefina had been careful; the wound she’d made didn’t bleed much after she stopped drinking.
“Looks like we’re having fun in here,” Roger said, his voice carrying across the ballroom.
Zack’s belly flip-flopped and filled with butterflies. He turned to watch him enter the room.
