Read Online The Pleasure Master by Nina Bangs - Free Book Online Page A

don’t want to deal with my problem tonight. I don’t know
how
to deal with it.”
    â€œAye, well since ye must stay here for a time, I could tell ye about the people, about—”
    â€œTell me about
you,
Ian.”
    â€œWhat would ye know?”
    â€œEverything.”
    He smiled. “Ye dinna ask much, lass.” Without thinking, he pushed back a lock of her hair that had fallen across her forehead. Her sudden flinch made him wonder. “Ye’re not comfortable wi’ men.”
    Her glance turned defiant. “I’m fine. I just don’t want anyone touching me.”
    Ye will, lass, ye will.
    Her gaze dropped beneath his stare. “Anyway, we’re not talking about me. Let’s hear about you, about your family.”
    Would ye have me speak of those who come to me in the night, of their secrets, their fears? Would ye know of the blood shed in the name of the Pleasure Master?
    He smiled. He would tell her what she expected and let the darkness keep its secrets.
    Shrugging, he stared into the shadowed corner where Malin slept peacefully atop Peter. “’Tis a short tale. Since I was the first-born, I was taken from my mother at nine years to begin learning my duties as Pleasure Master.”
’Twas pleased enough she was to rid herself of a bastard Ross.
“I fight for the clan when need be.” He narrowed his gaze. “And I spend overmuch time avoiding the Mackays.”
    â€œYou know, I wasn’t much of a history buff inschool, but I would’ve remembered this Pleasure Master stuff.”
    Puzzling. She spoke as though she truly did live in a future time. “We are a small clan, and few brave the Highlands to find us. We dinna have visitors other than the Mackays, and they only to raid our cattle.”
And the women who come to me. So many of them.
He could close his eyes and feel their warm bodies moving beneath him, inhale the scents of exotic oil and desire. Veiled women, who when the night ended returned to London or farther with a gift none other could give, a secret they dared never share.
    â€œWe are the only clan wi’ a Pleasure Master.” How had
she
found them? She could not have survived such a harsh journey carrying only her strange “toys.” The Mackays?
    He watched a line form between her eyes, confusion fill her gaze. “Funny, but I wouldn’t expect a primitive isolated society to bother with something like a Pleasure Master.”
    He didn’t understand many of her words, but he could guess their meaning. “The clan has gained fame from the Pleasure Master, and those who come from afar enrich the villagers.” Ian found it amusing that a bit of gold and fame would make him a source of pride to the clan, when without those things he would probably be damned as an abomination.
    He saw her need to ask more about the fame and enriching, but other questions pulled at her.
    â€œHow does your mother feel about this PleasureMaster stuff? Doesn’t she want you to fall in love, have a family of your own?”
    He shrugged. “My mother is dead. I ne’er saw her again after my father took me.”
    â€œOh.”
    He recognized the glint of sympathy in her gaze and wondered at it. “’Tis no matter. I didna need my mother.”
Any more than my mother needed me.
    She offered him an uncertain smile. “Well, at least you had your father’s love.”
    Now he was truly puzzled. “My father hasna e’er loved me. Love isna important. He taught me what I need know to be the next Pleasure Master. ‘Twas his duty.”
    Her expression turned frantic. “Your brothers. You’re triplets, for heaven’s sake. You have to be close to them.”
    He grinned. “Ye dinna understand us, lass. We havena e’er agreed overmuch about anything. They wouldna grieve if I were gone.”
    Her look of horror wiped the grin from his face. “Ye’re too