Read Online Stealing Magic (Vampire Primes) by Susan Sizemore - Free Book Online

recalled their making love again as only one part of the wonderful, intense sharing between them.
    He stroked her cheek. She leaned into his palm. So very happy they were together.
    “Sleep now,” he said. “Safe in my arms.”
----

Chapter Ten
    “My lord, the water basin has broken next to the bed. Be careful of your bare—feet—when you get up. I would send for a maid to clean up the mess, but one already seems to be here.”
    “I told you that would happen,” Grace murmured. She was warm and soft, half-draped across his chest, fitting perfectly against him.
    Beverly’s sarcastic drawl irritated Julien enough for him to raise his head in a full-fanged snarl. The spymaster took a hasty step back, his foot crunching a piece of broken crockery.
    Grace put a hand on Julien’s shoulder. “Don’t kill him, love. He’s right to be annoyed with us. With you, at least,” she added. She rolled to the opposite side of the bed.
    She called me ‘love’, was Julien’s first thought. Then he glared jealously at the mortal male. Who was carefully not looking at Grace’s naked form. “Wise of you, Beverly,” Julien said.
    When he looked back at Grace she’d already pulled her dress on and was doing up buttons.
    “I shall dress you in silks and lace,” he said.
    She waved off his offer. “I’ve already got a trunk full of those. This suits me better.”
    Beverly cleared his throat. “My lord, you were sorely missed at last night’s affair. It would be provident to make your apologies at breakfast with—”
    “Go do your job, my lad,” Grace said. “And I to mine. I would kiss you before I go, but we don’t want to give your valet the chance to sneer.”
    Julien sprang from the bed and kissed her anyway, a long, thorough, luxurious kiss. She was so bright with reaction her freckles practically glowed when he was done. And she was limp against his naked body.
    “Oh, no,” she said when he began to caress her sides. Grace slapped his hands away. “I didn’t do up all those buttons just for you to undo them.” She stepped away from him, and gave him a long steady look. “Goodbye, Julien Weaver.”
    She walked past him, leaving by the hall door. His instinct was to follow her, but Beverly got between him and the door.
    “There’s something dangerous about that girl, Julien. She is no ordinary housemaid.”
    “She most certainly is not ordinary,” Julien said. Was she dangerous? Oh, yes. She was a mortal woman. “I have given her my heart.”
    “Your heart is yours to do with as you wish,” the spymaster said. “Your brain belongs to Her Majesty’s Government for the moment. Shall we get on with the assignment?”
    “Fine,” Julien said.
    The sooner he found the spy, the sooner he could take Grace away from McHeath Manor to start their life together.
    * * *
    “Julien is mine! I know you’ve been with him! I’ve been waiting for you, bitch!” the woman at the bottom of the stairs shouted at her.
    “Witch,” Grace corrected. She was so happy her whole being hummed with joy, which made her reckless.
    She took the last step down the back staircase to face the livid Lady Emmaline. The moment she reached the floor, Lady Emmaline’s hand came up, slapping Grace hard across the cheek.
    Grace instantly slapped her back.
    The noblewoman howled, in surprise, indignation, and pain. “How dare you?”
    Grace touched her own cheek, and raised an eyebrow in answer. She started to move past the angry woman.
    Emmaline grabbed her arm, not gently. “I’ll have you sacked, you filthy slut.”
    “I could use a bath,” Grace said. “If you do not take your hand off me, you will regret it.”
    “I? Regret? I’ll have the law on you for striking me!”
    She could. A noble and a servant certainly had different rights in the eyes of the law. Rather, the noble had rights, the servant didn’t, no matter how the law actually read.
    “I am so glad I am not really part of your world.”
    “What are you talking