10
THE distinction brought her head up. “Excuse me, sir?”
Though it was an effort, given he could hear her teeth chattering, Evan ignored her for several moments, continuing to study his in-process sketch. He felt Niall’s gaze on him, ignored it as well.
“Did I . . . have I done something to offend you, sir?” He was surprised she dared the follow-up, but it gave him the opening he needed.
“How could you possibly offend me? You’re as capable of that as this blank pad. No will, no interests. You can’t even say what you want.”
“I want your will.”
He cut across that with a snort. “Do I look like I want a plastic doll as a servant? No thoughts or feelings of her own? One whose responses to my touch are like a trained circus poodle? Do I look like I want to f*ck a dog?”
“Evan.” Niall’s fingers tightened on her wrist. “Stop.”
Evan tossed him a look. “Holding her leash now? If I told her to sit, stay, roll over, sit up on her hind legs and bark, she’d do it. Wouldn’t you, Alanna?”
She had her free hand in a tight knot at her side, her face now a hard brittle shell. “I will do whatever my Master commands.”
“No, not always.” He pinned her with his gaze. “For one very vital, very significant moment, you didn’t do what your Master commanded. You turned him in to the Council. You crossed a line, because you have a line. Find it, Alanna. Where is it? What do you want? Tell me one thing you want. Salt instead of pepper, to dance instead of sleep, bread with or without butter. What the hell do you want? Say it. Tell me. Your Master is commanding you to have a will, to have a soul, to be a f*cking human being.”
“Evan, for God’s sake.” Niall released her. In another moment he would step forward, as if to shield her from the words with his body.
Stay where you are. He rarely used such a sharp tone with Niall, such that it brought him up short, but it wouldn’t hold the protective Scot for long. Evan couldn’t blame him.
Alanna was disintegrating. The cold water had shocked the body, and he’d delivered the same dousing to the mind, intending to knock her off-balance. Shuddering, hands clenched, she had tears dripping down her face. She had the desperation of a drowning person, trying to find an answer to save her life. To please him. But only to please him?
“It’s what I am,” she whispered. “What I want.”
“What?” She would never know the effort it took him to sound impassive, but Niall finally picked up on it. He saw the shift to understanding in the man’s eyes. A good thing, because otherwise he’d have to put the Scot on the ground to keep Niall from pummeling him. Which would definitely detract from what Evan was trying to accomplish.
“I’ve always . . . I just wanted to serve a vampire . . . one who . . . one who . . . would value me.”
“Value you. For your origami skills? Your trained sexual skills? The way you keep your hair nice and shiny?”
She swallowed, got paler. “I didn’t . . . I was taught certain things, but Stephen wanted a virgin. I learned by watching, doing, emulating. He . . .”
She didn’t say it, but Evan saw it in her mind. He let Niall have the information as well, saw his lips tighten with helpless anger. Stephen had taken her virginity with careless indifference. F*cked her, pulled out, made sure of the blood, then told her to clean herself up and come down for dinner while he went to handle a phone call. A sixteen-year-old girl who’d never even been kissed. She’d been a small ball on the bed for a few moments, passing her fingers over that bloody patch. She’d thought it would matter more to him. But then the shift had happened, the training kicked in, locked into place. Her feelings weren’t important. They’d never be important, and that was okay. Humans were inferior to vampires, yet also vital. Service was what was important.
Though he didn’t show it on his face, Evan shared Niall’s murderous thoughts toward Stephen. It also made him gentle his tone. Somewhat.
“But you felt empty. Why did you feel empty, Alanna?”
Niall picked up his cue now, keeping his voice low, neutral. “Why did that book you read today make you feel different?”
She flushed. She’d probably think Niall had made that connection from Evan’s mind, but he hadn’t. It was one of the ways Niall had taken him by surprise, in the beginning. The Scot might act dense as a pile of bricks, but he was a deep well, fed by a whole network of underground water sources.
“I thought . . .” She was still struggling, and Evan saw Niall fighting the desire to reach out to her. But she needed the mental thrashing room. “I wanted so much to serve a vampire, and I thought . . . Please . . . let me go back to the house. I’ll work on the slides.”
“You’ll stay here and answer my questions,” Evan said. “My will is everything, right?”
Anguish gripped her expression, so sharp and painful it was as if she’d been skewered by knives. “Please, I’m begging you. Don’t.”
“You expected to be valued, but you expected more than that, from your own feelings. There’s another word you’re seeking, Alanna.”
She was so pale. Her fingers were trembling, her whole body.
Evan . . .
“Tell me.” He spoke sharply. The answer was there, but she was under siege, a hurricane happening in her head, her soul.
“Please don’t make me say it. It’s wrong to say it.”
“You thought if you served him with everything you are, you’d love him. And he’d at least care about you. But he didn’t do anything worth loving, and he never cared for you.”
“If that was what I thought, it was wrong, and selfish. The point of serving is serving, giving your Master everything he needs. Your needs and wants are unimportant. It’s not wrong to love your Master, but that love should never expect anything in return. That’s why I failed. Why I betrayed Stephen. I did it because I thought he owed me something. And that’s unforgivable.”
“Your twin’s death had no significance in the face of your Master’s every whim. You couldn’t accept that, and that’s why you failed.”
“Yes.” But the word came out like a serrated blade from her flesh.
She still had no color in her face. The shaking was past her ability to control it. Niall had left them, disappearing into the cabin. She continued to stand there, her hands at her sides, her carriage erect and open. Accessible. She was so cold, her nipples stabbed through the T-shirt, and the skirt clung to her like a second skin. Her straight stance put all that on full display. Even when her emotions were crumbling, she was so well-trained she wouldn’t cringe. There was a personal pride in that, whether she acknowledged it or not.
Niall returned with his heavy coat. Putting it on her shoulders, he threaded her arms into the sleeves that swallowed her, then rubbed them briskly to keep them warm. She kept her eyes on the ground. It would take more, perhaps one more push. Evan stood in the maelstrom of her mind, watching the conflicting emotions churn around him like the storm he’d once experienced in Darwin, Western Australia. Every flash of lightning had been like a Titan’s hand striking marks against the sky. He’d wondered if they would split the firmament and show the divine face that hid behind it, pulling all the strings.
Rising from the bench, he moved toward her until the tips of his shoes were in her view. He slid his hands under the heavy mass of wet hair, used his hold on it to tilt her head up.
“Look at me, Alanna.”
She had a doll’s eyes. She’d retreated from the pain, the confusion. But he was inside her mind; she couldn’t retreat from that. He thought about the third mark, what it would be like to stand inside this woman’s soul, and felt a sudden hard desire for it. To own her completely. To ensure she knew exactly what it meant to be cared for. To be cherished by a vampire Master.
She had a wealth of sexual skills, but had never been given the opportunity to enjoy and participate, to develop her own desires and wants. Stephen was a single-minded ass.
Framing her face in his hands, he leaned down. Paused a hair’s breadth from her lips. “Kiss me, Alanna. Explore my mouth the way you’d like to do it. It’s your true first kiss. You can do nothing wrong, as long as I’m getting the pleasure of your mouth.”
His fingers teased the corners of her eyes, took away a few tears. “Stop your crying,” he added curtly. “You’re tearing my heart from my chest.”
Her eyes widened at that, but then she pressed her lips together. As she considered his words, the doll look started to fade. It was a hushed moment in the universe, time stretching out like the heartbeats between those Darwin lightning strikes.
Lifting onto her toes, swaying unsteadily, she put her lips on his, a light and tentative touch. She tasted him. Nibbled. The tip of her tongue darted forth to touch his mouth. It took tremendous effort to rein back his natural dominance to take over, have her beneath him, but he managed it. As much as he wanted to be inside her, he wanted to see her take this step.
It was too much for her. The storm howled, intensified, sweeping into the marrow of her shaking bones, gripping her heart so strongly she made a sound of pain. She pulled back. As her eyes filled anew, she shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t want anything. I wish Stephen had killed me.”
At the broken declaration, she bolted, tearing herself from his grasp. She ran back into the house in the oversized coat, the fist she put against her mouth not enough to hold back sobs.
Niall stood tensely next to him. “You’re a total bastard,” his servant said. “But a smart one.”
“There’s not much difference between a smart bastard and a f*cking sadist. Give her a few minutes, then go to her. Make sure she’s okay.”
“Think that helped?”
“Maybe. She chose to run, and she’s never run from a vampire. That in itself means something. Sometimes things become clearer after a hard storm.”
“Unless the storm destroys everything. They made her too fragile, Evan.”
“Well, that’s why she has us, right?” Evan arched a brow at him. “We protect her, help her get stronger.”
Niall gave him a short nod, strode toward the house. The irritable set of the broad shoulders was easy enough to read. It was torment, trying to help her embrace a life all odds said she wouldn’t be given. But though Niall might rail against it, Evan knew they had no choice but to try, because it was the right thing to do.
And Niall never turned away from that.
Stripping off her clothes in her room, Alanna rubbed herself hard with a towel. She was not going to curl up on the bed to cry. She’d handled all that badly, but she could pull it back together. Yanking on dry clothing, she picked up her brush, turning it over in her hand. The way you keep your hair nice and shiny . . .
She slapped it down, raked her hair back and fastened it with a clip. She’d let it dry snarled, if her hair being shiny meant nothing to him. Coming back into the main room, she saw a napkin on the floor. She recalled Evan had brushed it off the table when he went toward the door.
As she leaned down to pick it up, Niall came in. When he’d helped her out of the creek, he’d been braced on the bank, so now he tracked mud over the braided mat.
“Leave it,” he said. “He can pick it up.” The edge to Niall’s voice suggested he and Evan had disagreed over what had just happened. From any other vampire–servant pairing, she’d say that was beyond the realm of possibility, but not for them.
Training. That was the only anchor she had left. The one they seemed determine to pull up.
“It’s our job to pick it up.”
“Why? He knocked it off.”
She wasn’t having this ridiculous argument. She knew her duty, even if Niall chose to ignore his. As her fingers brushed the cloth, Niall put his muddy boot square in the middle of it, where she couldn’t tug it free.
“Leave it.”
His order gave her that odd shiver, but something else came to the forefront as well. She’d been thrown in a creek, had failed to kiss her Master as he desired. He asked for skills she didn’t have and ignored the ones she did, ones that could be used for his benefit. Of course, out here in the middle of nowhere, with no political standing, no power at all, he didn’t even want or value her training. He wanted her to “do for herself” when he didn’t need her. As long as she was under his wardship, hours and hours of horrifying free time were going to be stretching before her.
This was not who she was.
“I will not leave it.” She snapped up straight, faced Niall with a set jaw. “Just because you delight in being lazy and pretending you’re your Master’s equal, doesn’t mean I’m going to throw away years of Council training to suit your whims. I am an InhServ. I am completely at the mercy of our Master, and grateful for any chance to be of service.”
She decided to ignore the fact that she’d run from Evan’s demands. She couldn’t seem to stop her mouth, or the emotions boiling up inside her. “I will not emulate your blatant disrespect, even if he accepts such an unnatural egalitarian relationship with you.”
With that, she gave him a shove to get him off that napkin. He didn’t move of course, but his brows lifted nearly to his hairline. Then the corner of his mouth tugged up, and he took a step back. Snatching up the napkin, she saw him grin. It made her even angrier. Turning away, she intended to put the napkin in the trash, but instead Niall caught her about the waist, hauled her back against him. She snarled at him, astonishing herself by calling him some highly uncomplimentary names.
Niall’s chuckle against her ear was sensual and dangerous. “You’re asking for another spanking, lass. A much harder one.”
If he tried, she swore she’d take a pound of his flesh in trade.
Under those conditions, I might enjoy watching you get spanked.
Why doesn’t Niall deserve a spanking?
Evan’s laughter confused her. Somehow she’d pleased him. It made her angry, because everything in her responded to that approbation, even as she felt like she was being teased.
“Easy, lass.” Niall kept a firm hold on her, stroking her hair off her neck, knuckles tracing her still damp temple and cheek. Then he put his warm lips against her throat.
Her nails dug into the hand holding her waist, not gently, but he scored her with his teeth, a sharp bite that made her whimper. His other hand tangled in her hair, held her immobile as he took his time with it, suckling beads of water from her skin, nuzzling her beneath her ear.
She was in no-man’s-land. Though still riding a storm of emotions, she realized she’d just behaved horribly, said unforgivable things. Yet Evan was pleased with her, and Niall was kissing her as if he’d just discovered a woman’s flesh. She couldn’t resist pressing her head against his shoulder, tilting it away to give him better access, her nails now biting into his hand for a different reason. Her body above and below his arm were cold, needy.
She had her eyes closed, but she knew when Evan came into the cabin. Niall was the deep parts of the forest, earthy, warm and dark. Evan was the wind through the pines, swirling out over the gorges and through the folds between the mountains.
Keep your eyes closed, Alanna.
Evan’s hands closed on her breasts, thin cloth alone between her taut nipples and the warmth of his palms. Slowly he squeezed, thumbs tracing down the cleft as he brought the curves together. She swayed against Niall’s unbreakable hold, a cry breaking from her lips as Evan put his mouth over her nipple.
They gave her no time to change gears, to go back to docile service. Instead that storm swirled inside her, becoming something new and strange. Violent, needy. Her heart ached like someone was trying to rip it from her chest.
“Master . . .”
I’m here. We have you. You’re ours.
“I need . . . you. Both of you.”
There was no room for anything but the free flow of thoughts. She wasn’t trying to explain her training, but something far deeper. And Evan understood.
“I know, einayim sheli, yekirati. My metuka.” The language was soothing, musical, sensual, and he kept repeating the words as she surrendered to Niall’s strong grasp, leaning into him. The Scot kissed her brow, her eyes, tasted her skin. Her lips felt bereft, but she wanted, needed . . . to do it better. To kiss Evan first. She wanted that chance at a first kiss again.
As his fingers brushed her chin, an acknowledgment, she made a glad sound. The vampire’s mouth covered hers, fangs making a short scrape over the sensitive inside of her bottom lip. When he used his tongue to tease hers into a dance, she realized she’d put her arms around his neck, that dark silky hair at his nape threading through her fingertips. Niall adjusted them forward so she was full against Evan, his arms taking over the embrace as Niall knelt behind her, pulling her skirt down to her ankles and freeing her from it before raining kisses on her bare thighs, large hands stroking her calves and the backs of her knees.
Evan’s arms were strong and sure, holding her against him as he explored her mouth. He didn’t discourage her from using her hands, so she caressed his shoulders, feeling the shape of him, the strength of his upper arms. When he broke the kiss to nudge her head back and take a sharp nip at her throat, her fingers spasmed on his shoulders, nails digging in. She wanted to draw blood, wanted to be . . . fierce. Show him how much she wanted to please him.
She needed to serve, to take care of him. It was what they trained her to be.
No, yekirati. This was part of you long before the Council groomed it. They gave you technique, skills, but you are the artist. Show your desire to serve, to surrender, in the way that fits your soul, not their requirements. That’s what I want from you. I need you to feel who you are, and let that spread your wings. Be a flower feeling the sun, no thought, just reaching for the warmth and the pleasure, because that is what you are.
Spinning on that thought, she dug her fingers into him further as Niall’s mouth touched her inner thigh, his strong hands spreading her so he could use his mouth to tease the sensitive perineum. When the tip of his tongue traced her rim, his hands spreading her wider, lifting her, the stimulation had her bucking against Evan’s hold. This was what she wanted. To be passionately responsive, totally mindless, at their mercy, giving them pleasure . . . simply by responding to the pleasure they were giving her.
She cried out as Niall’s thick fingers slid into her p-ssy, his mouth still busy on her nerve-rich rear opening. Evan let her fall back against their combined hold as he bent to suckle her breasts once again. She was teetering, off-balance, with no fear she would fall. It was unusual to feel so safe, even while she was whirling through a heavy haze of desire.
The men handled her as easily as a doll between them, though not the kind of doll Evan had denigrated. Now Niall relinquished her fully to Evan, and the vampire hiked her up his body, guiding her legs around his hips as he moved toward the back of the house, toward Niall’s large bed. As he did, he recaptured her mouth. It was at least a three-page kiss, because by the time he was done with it, she was making quiet pleas in the back of her throat from his relentless plundering of her lips, mouth, tongue. When he laid her back on the bed, straddled her waist and opened his trousers, she was already parting her lips, wetting them, her eyes avid for what he was offering.
His long, thick cock was as pale and beautiful as the rest of him. She wanted to close her hands around it, but he’d adjusted his knees over her arms, holding them pinned as he slid closer. When he teased her mouth with the head, making her reach for it, she felt a curious joy at the playfulness. Then that playfulness disappeared, eyes darkening as she cried out, a guttural, yearning noise. Niall had plunged his tongue deep into her p-ssy, holding her thighs down and open with his powerful hands as he swirled and suckled, then teased her *. He was going right for aggressive arousal, and she was catapulted up that ramp so quickly, she was almost afraid to take Evan into her mouth, for fear of biting down from the wave of passion that tumbled her in its grasp.
But her Master was demanding she service him, and she rejoiced in his want, his need. She took him deep, no choice, because he thrust hard, pushing into the back of her throat, taking control of the motion so she had to struggle to keep up. A true struggle, with what Niall was doing to her. Oh God, she couldn’t focus. It was too much, Evan’s taste, his organ stretching her lips, requiring mindless submission from her, Niall catapulting her toward orgasm.
Master . . . I can’t . . . I’m going to come . . .
Yes, you are. By our will alone. Let go and feel, Alanna. I want to see it.
She redoubled her efforts on him, trying to do what she should, but it was erratic, her lower body shuddering and jerking in Niall’s firm grip. The orgasm rolled over her, and she was screaming against Evan’s cock, no finesse, sucking him out of crazy need, lost in the pleasure of serving their desires. The dense heat of male lust in the dark room cocooned her like Niall’s coat. Something sure, solid, real.
The Scot kept licking her even after the largest wave of the orgasm had passed, keeping her struggling and moaning. Then they were turning her, lifting her onto all fours. Smoothly, the men changed places, Niall stretching out on the bed beneath her and Evan behind her, his hands firm on her hips.
Take care of him, now, my sweet. While I enjoy your wet p-ssy.
Yours, Master. It’s yours.
She made a sound of pure ecstasy as Evan filled her, stretching her. Putting a hand between her shoulder blades, he pushed her down toward Niall. She clawed at Niall’s shirt, tearing buttons off so she could put her mouth on the dragon tattoo. Niall’s eyes flamed with heat and he gripped her shoulders, exerting pressure. Telling her what he wanted.
Watching you suck me drove him crazy, Alanna. He demands you service him as well.
“Yes, Master.” It was a whisper as she met Niall’s tawny eyes and then lowered her lashes, intent on her goal and his demand.
Working her way down, Evan moving with her, she pulled open Niall’s jeans, pushed the boxers out of the way. Seeing the slit of his cock pearled with fluid made her salivate. Evan was driving in deep, pulling out slow, taking his time despite how hard he was. Vampires never rushed unless it suited their purpose. He’d have her insane with arousal again in no time, not that she was far from it now.
“Show this lazy servant what you can do, eh, lass?” Niall muttered.
When she nipped at his broad head, she earned that dangerous chuckle. “You’ll be under me again, InhServ. Mind those fancy manners now.” He tugged her hair, in lust and reproof.
In answer, she bit him harder, but groaned as Evan sank deep again, staying there this time, rotating his hips as he held hers fast, letting her feel the rub of him against every clenching part of her channel. “Ohhh . . .”
I gave you a command, yekirati. Take care of my servant.
Niall’s cock was thick and hard, ready for her mouth. She felt nourished by the heat and weight of him filling her mouth. He pushed into her throat as she took him just as deep as their Master. Gripping his base, she teased his testicles. He had a heavy, large sack, and she reveled in noting every difference between the men, the overwhelming sensations that came with serving her Master’s cock in her body, while pursuing the sharp pleasure of caring for his servant’s with hands and mouth.
All the way up and down, she used every oral skill she had on Niall’s shaft, working him as relentlessly as Evan was working his cock inside her. Deep plunge, then slow drag up, tormenting all those wonderful nerve endings around the ridge of the head, sucking the pre-cum off the tip, worrying the slit with her tongue. She wanted him to come, wanted to swallow every drop of his seed.
The lass had considerable talents, but it wasn’t that which overwhelmed Niall. He could now clearly see what Evan had suspected was held deep within her. Enthusiastic yet trained compliance couldn’t hold a candle to an uncontrolled passion for surrender. Tightening his fingers in her hair, he goaded her to new heights, even as he had a fierce response of his own.
F*ck. We’re never giving her up, Evan. Never. Not to those bastards.
When their eyes met, he saw some of the same resolve in the vampire’s expression. As well as Evan getting lost in a vampire’s savage lust, his eyes glinting red, fangs baring as he worked himself closer to climax.
It catapulted Niall toward the same finish line. Alanna was rocking against him, her nipples brushing his thighs as Evan thrust into her. Niall’s seed boiled in his balls when the lass made pleading, animal noises against his cock, her efforts becoming more frenetic, bringing them all to the same high pinnacle. God, he wanted to be where Evan was, and yet experience her mouth like this.
There is time, neshama. She has much to learn about true pleasure, giving and receiving.
Overlapping Niall’s fingers on her shoulders, Evan leaned closer to them both, driving into her. Her mouth took Niall even deeper, her cry strangled as Evan sank his fangs into her shoulder right next to Niall’s grip, perfuming the air with the metallic odor of blood mixed with arousal. Her hands scrambled for a purchase, landing on Niall’s thighs to brace herself, every feminine fingertip pressing into his muscles, hard enough to leave bruises. He drove up into her mouth once, twice, and then, at Evan’s nod, he let go, the same moment the vampire did. Their combined release pushed her over.
A gasp, another gasp, and then she was fair howling, scrabbling, digging her nails in, scoring him with her teeth, but in a savage, pleasurable way he embraced, making her work to get all of him. Evan had his arm around her waist, holding her snug against him as he made those last few deep plows that felt so good to a man when he was deep in a woman’s climaxing cunt, spending himself. Alanna made soft kitten cries as the movement took her over another rise, and Niall held her tight as her claws bit further into his flesh. Aye, she was theirs, no doubt. All theirs.
There was something to be said for that training, after all. As soon as she oriented herself to it, she set that pretty tongue to cleaning him, getting every drop she’d missed off his balls and shaft, his thighs. She was still experiencing aftershocks, making those sexy little noises against him as she tried to take care of him. God, he could f*ck her all night long. She wanted to give so much to a Master, it was intoxicating.
Evan was right. The Council hadn’t made her anything. They’d merely polished the gem, but the true value was in the rough cut, when her real emotions took over. If only they could convince her of that without having to shock her with cruel words and cold water. He couldn’t do that to her again. Not after seeing this.
Evan pressed his hand into her back, bringing her to a halt. She was breathing hard, an emotional as well as physical response. Aye, it was catching up to her, the significance of what she’d just done. Plucking her off her elbows and knees, Evan guided her to straddle Niall as he rose to a sitting position himself. Niall gathered her close so she could curl one arm under his arm, around his back. She was limp, her other arm folded against herself, but not impeding the pleasant press of her breasts against his chest.
Evan slid in behind her, his knees over Niall’s, tangling all their legs. Niall stroked her hair, which had become snarled from drying wet, but he could help her work that out later. “Hope ye can sew, lass. You tore my shirt. I’ll expect you to fix that.”
“Yes, Master,” she said groggily, nestling her face in his chest. When Niall looked at Evan, the vampire merely lifted a brow, then licked the puncture wounds on her shoulder, soothing the bites.
Then he reached out, touched Niall’s face. Not sure what Evan was seeking, Niall remained still as the vampire traced his jaw over the girl’s head.
What?
Just feel, Niall. Same as her. No thoughts tonight.
Niall swallowed. He kept his eyes on Evan, the pensive gray eyes, the firm mouth that was far too attractive, that mysterious charisma that could draw a man into it like a dark abyss. He thought of Alanna, her fingers threading through Evan’s hair as he kissed her. Evan had once teased the Scot, telling him he had hair as soft and thick as a girl’s, but that was a rock tossed in a glass house. Those silken pieces that feathered over Evan’s brow and brushed his collar tempted Niall to touch, same as Alanna’s red locks. So he lifted his hand to do the same, blunt fingers sliding through the strands as Evan’s eyes stilled on him. They’d been part of each other’s lives for so long . . .
I’m sorry. For the things I said earlier. I shouldnae have said them.
Catching Niall’s wrist, Evan turned his mouth to it, scraped a fang over his palm. It didn’t make them untrue. The world is what it is. Help her sleep, neshama.
Unsatisfied, but never one to argue with simple honesty, Niall shifted to a reclining position on the bed, taking the girl with him. Surprisingly, Evan stayed. The vampire slid down on the other side of her, but it still somehow felt as if he was curled over the two of them. Protective. When his Master laid a hand on his chest, it eased the ache there. Overlapping it, his fingers brushing Alanna’s delicate jaw where she rested her head on him, Niall closed his eyes and was content.