Free The Pleasure Master by Nina Bangs

inappropriate moments.” She cast Peter a meaningful glare. Then she dared a glance at Ian. Nope, he hadn’t understood a word she’d said.
    Trudging back to her glorified cot, she sat down. “Where’s H. G. Wells when you need him?”
    â€œWho is H. G. Wells, and why would ye have need of him?”
    She sighed. “He was a writer who wrote about a time machine and . . . Oh, never mind. Who sent me here, Ian?” She couldn’t keep the despair from her voice.
    â€œI dinna know, but I wouldna think one of yer toys could do so.” He pulled the checkerboard from the box and set it between them.
    His voice sounded relaxed, but she still sensed his unease over Peter’s speech.
    â€œWell,
something
did.” Absently, she put the sunflower on the cushion next to her and studied it.
    Huge blue eyes blinked open. Waving its leavesmadly and wiggling its stem to an imaginary beat, the small flower announced, “I loooove you,” in a high-pitched little-girl voice.
    â€œGreat. Just great,” Kathy muttered. Scrambling to her feet, she picked the flower up and transferred it to a ledge beside the hearth. “Don’t want to mention the
L
word around here, honey.”
    The flower’s eyes closed, and it fell silent as Kathy returned to her seat across from Ian. “It must have motion sensors like Peter, but Peter’s technology seems a lot more complex. I still can’t figure out why he was so cheap. The price tag must’ve . . .”
    Her words trickled into silence as she glanced at Ian.
    He sat transfixed, his gaze riveted on the sunflower. His hands shook as he grasped the checkers box in a crushing grip.
    Uh-oh. Major mistake. From the look on Ian’s face he intended to stomp the hapless flower into tiny plastic pieces. Why hadn’t she thought before she—
    â€œI dinna ken how ye make things move and talk that havena life.”
    â€œNot me. I don’t make them do anything. They come that way from the toy factory. All I do is push the button. Anyone can push a button.
You
can push a button.” She wanted to make that perfectly clear. No way was she going to end up the featured attraction at a Highland wienie roast. Make that a witchie roast.
    She smiled brightly. “Go right on over to the bagand stick your hand in. Push a button, any button.” From the look on his face, he’d rather stick his hand into a bag of vipers. “I don’t blame you for being afraid because—”
    â€œI dinna fear ye or the things ye brought wi’ ye.” His gaze turned hard, and for a moment she saw the stranger he really was.
    Something niggled at her subconscious, a feeling that beneath his sensuality lurked the heart of a dark predator, moving silently through the frightening world that wasn’t
her
world, stalking her.
    She’d let him see her weakness today, but she wouldn’t do that again, wouldn’t turn her back on him again.
    â€œOh, come on, Ross. Give me a break. Your brothers were terrified, and you’re trying to tell me—”
    â€œâ€™Tis why my brothers willna be Pleasure Master.”
    He was as strange to her as any fabled creature rising from Loch Ness’s depths, and she knew her expression revealed her thoughts.
    â€œYou don’t love. You don’t fear. What do you
feel,
Ian Ross?”
    â€œ
I
dinna feel, lass. I make
others
feel.” But he
did
feel with this woman—unease with her toys that seemed much too alive, frustration with his desire to know the meanings of all her strange words, and . . . uncertainty with her. Of all his feelings, uncertainty was the most unsettling.
    He must put all emotions aside, though, if he intended to remain Pleasure Master. He had to joinwith this woman, and he would use his power in any way necessary. Tonight would be the beginning.
    Absently, he pushed the game aside and reached for her foot. She’d kept on all her