"Ye have been to me."

"Well." She adjusted the whip around her waist with an annoyed look. "You remind me of my youngest brother. But I guess I can't treat you like a child anymore."

"Sorry to spoil yer fun," he growled.

She grinned. "I'm really happy for you, Ian. You must be thrilled to be all grown up."

"Aye." He drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair.

Her smile faded. "You don't look very thrilled. What's the matter?"

"Now that I look older…I'm looking for…"

"Yes?"

"A woman."

Her mouth twitched. "Well, that's a start." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Oh my God, you really are a virgin?"

"Nay! I'm almost five hundred years old. What the hell would I be waiting for?"

"Lady Pamela thinks you are. You didn't deny it."

"It's no' something a man should discuss in public. It's verra private."

Vanda chuckled. "You're so old-fashioned. Sex isn't something to be ashamed of."

"I'm no'—" He couldn't deny it. By all the saints, he was ashamed. "It's no' the sex, ye ken. It's the way I had to go about it. It—it never felt right."

Vanda's face grew serious. "We've all done things we regret in order to survive."

"This was more than regrettable. I dinna behave with honor." He'd never confessed this to anyone before.

"What did you do?"

He gathered his shoulder-length hair in the back and tied the leather thong around it. "After Angus changed me, he told me how to go about feeding. In exchange for blood, I was to give the ladies pleasure and make sure they were satisfied."

Vanda sucked in a deep breath. "Sounds good to me."

Ian looked away, embarrassed. "I dinna know now. I was only fifteen, ye ken, so I frequented some brothels at first so I could learn. I–I was a quick learner."

"That's not so awful."

"It was awful once I stopped going to brothels. I had trouble seducing the ladies when they thought I was a child. I was getting verra hungry, so I resorted to using mind control to make them see me as older. I left them happy, but…"