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

tender, Kathy of Hair. Accept that love has no part in my life. The clan must know that I canna love any that come to me, that I can only teach them what needs teaching, then return them wi’ their hearts untouched, their secrets safe. ’Tis the only way the Pleasure Master can exist. He must be beyond love for any one woman.”
    He gentled his voice. “But if ye desire to know joys of the body such as ye’ve ne’er known before, mayhap I can show ye the power of the Pleasure Master.”
    She’d forgotten. He’d made that stupid bet with his brothers. He had to seduce her to be the Pleasure Master. So why this panic? He hadn’t a prayer of lighting her fire. She should just let him try, get it out of his system.
    No.
She couldn’t. And she
wasn’t
afraid. Fine, so he’d made her feel something earlier, but she’d been in shock then. People didn’t act normally when they were in shock. “Forget it. No joys of the body tonight. Let’s play a game.”
    â€œGame?”
    She could feel his confusion. Good. A confused Pleasure Master wouldn’t have time to plan seduction.
    â€œPlay?” His voice turned warm, husky.
    Okay, nothing to worry about. This was probably his sitting-with-woman-in-darkness voice. Automatic. He wasn’t even thinking about touching her.
    Touching her.
Imagine. His fingers sliding across her flesh, circling each nipple. Then his lips on her breasts, drawing each nipple into his mouth. Hot, demanding.
    She dragged in a deep breath. It was steaming in here. Who’d turned up the thermostat? She’d just turn it down. . . . Problem. No thermostat.
    She glanced up, met his silver gaze across the flickering candle flame, and
knew.
    â€œStop it.” She couldn’t control the wobble in her voice. “Stop it right now.”
    â€œStop what, lass?” His lips tilted up in a smile that invited. Promised.
    â€œStop what you’re trying to do to me.” Shewasn’t so sure now. What
had
he been trying to do? Maybe nothing. Maybe shock was causing her to imagine things. “Oh, never mind. I’ll get a game.”
    She scrambled to her feet, putting distance between herself and any possible pleasure field that might surround him. Of course, the whole idea was nonsense.
What happened to you today should be nonsense, too.
    Rooting around in the large plastic bag, she pulled out a checkers game. Safe. Easy for him to understand.
    She wondered . . . She stuck her head into the bag. “Send me home. Someone in here send me home.”
    â€œYe begin to sound much like Mad Mary. She speaks to her hens. Ye speak to a sack.”
    Before drawing her head from the bag, she grabbed a small yellow sunflower. She had no idea what it was supposed to do.
    Closing the bag, she turned to glare at Ian. “If I can talk to someone who’s been dead for more than four hundred years, I can talk to a bag.”
    â€œAye, but—”
    â€œBesides, I wasn’t talking to the bag. I was talking to the toys.”
    He shook his head. “’Tis a great need to talk ye have. Mayhap I can speak wi’ Mad Mary. She might gift ye wi’ one of her hens and—”
    â€œNot funny, Ross.” Holding the flower and the checkers box, she hurried over to Peter. “Okay, the game’s up, Peter. Send me home.”
    Malin growled his displeasure while Peter’s amber lights flashed happily. “E.T. phone home.”
    She sighed. “Right. Phone home.”
    â€œâ€™Tis sorcery.”
    The sudden tension in Ian’s voice startled her. Kathy turned to catch him staring intently at Peter. She indulged in some mental head-slapping. Ian hadn’t been close enough before to hear Peter speak. “No. Definitely not sorcery. Just some wires, circuits, and a computer chip thrown in there somewhere. Someone programmed him with a bunch of movie quotes, and he spouts them at totally