Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter #16 - Blood Noir (17 page)

I smiled back. “So you’d smile.”

He pulled me into his lap, and our arms were just suddenly around each other. “I can think of other things that would make me do more than smile.”

“I give you a sisterly kiss on the forehead and all you can think about is sex.”

He gave me that smile, the real version of the smile that helped separate customers from their money at the club. He could look like everyone’s favorite brother, or the best friend you had in college or high school; he was everyone’s buddy, until he got that look. The look that stripped him of the pretense of innocence. The look that let you know behind the boy-next-door charm was someone wicked who would help you be wicked, too.

The look brought my breath out in a sigh and made me lean in, not quite close enough for a kiss.

“Is there a reason you left food uneaten on your plate?”

The lascivious look faltered. “You never do or say exactly what I expect you to.”

“You aren’t the first man who’s noticed that,” I said, still not quite close enough to kiss. He acknowledged that with a small nod. “A too-full stomach impedes good sex.”

“Only if you plan to be vigorous,” I said, leaning in just a little closer, so that I was staring into those blue eyes so close, so very close.

He grinned, and then that look filled his face. “Oh, I plan to be vigorous, eventually.”

“Eventually,” I said, and closed those last inches, so that his lips touched mine as he said, “Oh, yes.”

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22

JASON MIGHT HAVE
planned on being vigorous, but he started out slow. When I got carried away and wanted to move things along, he finally turned me on my stomach and made me touch the headboard.

“Slow, Anita, we have all night. I’ve never had all night with you, and I want to enjoy it.” He said that with his nude body kneeling beside me.

“Why is it that all of you remind me that you never get me to yourself?”

“Because it’s true.”

I went up on my elbows and gazed down my body to find him at my feet with his body stretched out so that his feet were closer to me than anything else. “Are all of you tired of sharing me?”

“Not tired, but every man likes to think a woman likes him just for himself, not because he’s an extra pair of hands, an extra mouth, a spare dick.”

I must have looked as shocked as I felt, because he crawled back up the bed and hugged me.

“I’m sorry, Anita, I shouldn’t have said that, I really shouldn’t have.”

“Is that how you all feel?”

He shook his head. “No, I swear to you, no. Nathaniel enjoys sharing. Jean-Claude loves that you let him share you with other men, especially Asher. I don’t know about Micah, he doesn’t talk to me like that. Richard, well, our Ulfric doesn’t like sharing anything lately.”

“But it’s how
you
feel, isn’t it?”

“Truthfully, me and most of the men who only get a little of your attention. Come on, be honest, we are just extra men in the bed.”

“That’s not true.”

“If it’s not true for me, then why don’t you ever approach me when the
ardeur
isn’t in emergency mode?”

“I’m with you now.”

“Yeah, but it’s a different kind of emergency. I know this is sort of mercy sex.”

“I don’t do mercy sex.” I sat up.

“Oh, God, I am not in the right mindset for this.”

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“Then maybe we should stop,” I said, moving so that I was sitting against the headboard. He hid his face in a pillow and made a muffled scream of frustration. He came up for air, and said, “Maybe you’re right. We should probably call Irving first and give him the real story about this trip.”

“You agree we shouldn’t have sex right now?” I made it a question.

“Yeah, and maybe we should call Jean-Claude and get his approval on our plan. I guess the other masters are right. Your word is enough to get things done. I’m as bad as anyone else. We don’t always check with Jean-Claude or anyone else. You say
jump
, we jump. Richard really hates that about the wolves, by the way.”

“Does Jean-Claude hate it?”

“He hasn’t said so.”

I pulled a pillow into my lap and hugged it. “I’ll call Jean-Claude; you call Irving and tell him that the story doesn’t run unless Jean-Claude approves it.”

Jason nodded. “Good plan.” He used the landline, and I used my cell phone. I got Jean-Claude on the line while Jason was still trying to find Irving.

Jean-Claude’s voice was as neutral as I’d ever heard, empty. I knew that if I’d been standing beside him he would have held that stillness that the really old vampires could do, as if, if you looked away they would be invisible. “I wondered if you would call,
ma petite
.”

“I should have called earlier, but the reporters sort of threw us.”

“It was unexpected,” he said, still in that empty voice.

“Jean-Claude, Jason is trying to find Irving Griswold to give him the truth about why we’re down here. Do you think an exclusive will help?”

“You do not usually ask my opinion when you are far away,
ma petite
.”

“I guess I deserved that, but Jason explained some things to me, and I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry about,
ma petite
?”

“I’m sorry that my freedom has made you look bad in front of the other Masters of the City. I’m sorry that Asher and I having our little problem made you look weak in front of our guests. I’m sorry that I haven’t included you more in decisions that affect you.”

His voice held a hint of surprise. “
Ma petite
, is this truly you?”

“Fine, fine, make fun of me.”

He laughed then, that touchable, glide-down-your-skin laugh. “I am sorry,
ma petite
, but you have surprised me. Give me a moment to recover.”

“Am I really that big a pain in the ass? No wait, don’t answer that. I know the answer.”

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He laughed again, and it made my body shiver. “Stop doing that, if you want Jason and me to concentrate on the problem at hand.”

“You have not had sex with our young werewolf yet?” He again let me hear surprise in his voice.

“We thought about it, but we thought we’d try to be good little servants before we got distracted.”

“I do not treat you as my servant,” he said.

“No, you don’t, and maybe I need to reward that by acting in public a little more like one.”

“What do you mean,
ma petite
?” His voice had gone cautious.

“First, can Jason give Irving the truth, and will it help?”

“He can, and it will, but won’t it ruin your cover story with his father?”

“I guess it will, but what else can we do? Jason says that this rumor is going to make you look weak to the other Masters of the City. We have to let them know it’s not true.”

“Yes, but what can Jason say to our reporter friend that will kill the rumor, but not spoil the reason you are both there?”

I glanced at Jason. He seemed to have Irving on the phone at last. “Hang on a minute,” I said to Jean-Claude. I got Jason’s attention.

He said, “Hang on a second, Irving.” He put his hand over the phone.

“Jean-Claude is curious what we can say to Irving that will fix the rumor but won’t ruin things with your folks?”

“You’ve met my folks now, Anita. I can’t please my father, not really, not in the time he’s got left anyway. My sister Roberta isn’t going to be won over either. It was a good try, Anita, but we’ve got to tell the truth. It’s more important that Jean-Claude be safe than that my family believe some lie.”

“It’s not a lie,” I said.

He shrugged. “What isn’t? We aren’t getting married. We aren’t leaving Jean-Claude. We didn’t run away, and do some stupid
Romeo and Juliet
thing. It is all lies.”

I touched his arm. “We are lovers. You do like girls better than boys.”

“Yeah, but there are a handful of guys that I wouldn’t mind getting up close and personal with, and bisexual is just ‘gay lite’ as far as my family is concerned.” He shrugged again. “We’ll have one more visit at the hospital tomorrow and then we’ll go home to St. Louis.”

I wanted to say something, but didn’t know what to say. Jason turned back to the phone and started talking to Irving.

I went back to my cell phone, which I hadn’t bothered to cover. “Did you hear all that?”

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“I did,” Jean-Claude said.

“I feel like I’ve screwed up.”

“You could not have foreseen these events.”

“I guess not, but I should have thought how the other master vamps might think you were, well, that I wasn’t behaving like a very good human servant.”

“You are who and what you are,
ma petite
. I love you as you are.”

I smiled, though he couldn’t see it. “I know that, but Jason said we need to come up with punishments for us. That you have to be seen as getting your house in order, that you can’t be seen as losing control of your woman and your food.”

Jean-Claude was very quiet on the other end of the phone. Sometimes it was unnerving talking to vampires on the phone. They didn’t have to breathe, and the old ones had no sense of movement. I finally said, “Jean-Claude, breathe or something to let me know you’re still there.”

“The other masters see my allowing you access to my
pomme de sang
on a romantic trip as a weakness; if they only understood what a strength it was.”

“Which means that Jason is right. We need to be perceived as being punished for this, even though it’s not true. You need to be seen as bringing your house in order, so they don’t keep thinking you’re weak.”

“I would never have suggested it,
ma petite
, you know that.”

“I do, but now that Jason has let the cat out of the bag?”

“It would be helpful to my standing among the other masters.”

“Would you have just waited until someone made a move on you before you explained that it was my fault you appeared that weak?”

“That would have given me the opportunity to bring the subject up, yes.”

“Jesus, Jean-Claude, you’ve got to stop keeping this much from me.”

“I do not know what magic our Jason has over you, but it seems that he is one of the few people who can tell you hard truths and you accept them. You are not even angry.”

I thought about it. “I guess I’m not. I think I’m too worried to be angry. Jason told me there’s a hint that some of the masters think if they could take me as their human servant, they could be as powerful as you, but control me better. That kind of talk could go really badly since I travel all over the country doing my job. I needed to know that, Jean-Claude.”

“I thought you would see it as manipulation either to curtail your travel or to force you into a more servile role.”

“My ego is secure, Jean-Claude, but my safety and yours might not be if the other masters keep talking shit behind your back.”

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“What are you willing to do to help stop this
merde
, this shit talk?”

“I haven’t thought that far, but I’m sure you have, so either tell me now, or wait and we’ll have this talk when we get home.”

“I have put some thought into things that might satisfy the perceptions of others, but not harm us in our own eyes,” he said, again his voice very careful.

“Is it anything we can do right this minute?”

“Non.”

“Then save it, let me digest all the news tonight. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“And you will do what is necessary to repair my reputation?”

“Some of it, but if Jason was right, and he usually is, he suggested that if you were truly having sex with some of the other men, it would help repair your reputation.”

The silence on the other side of the phone was thunderous.

“Well, shit,” I said.

His oh-so-neutral voice said, “Why the exclamation,
ma petite
? I have said nothing.”

“Sometimes silence with you is louder than words,” I said.

“I do not understand.”

“Let’s say that I know the quality of your silences, and that last silence means Jason is right. So I’ll say this: I have no idea how the other men would feel about it, and I sure as hell don’t know how I feel about it. Though Asher would probably turn cartwheels.”

“That is unfair; he has been very patient.”

“I know that.” I struggled to keep the impatience and near anger out of my own voice.

“Now you are angry.”

“It’s a lot of stuff to digest, Jean-Claude, and the reporters going berserk today was a little weird. And what’s up with Gretchen?”

“She is being punished.”

“The last time you put her in a cross-wrapped coffin, she came out even crazier than she went in; I don’t think she can survive another round of it.”

“I am open to suggestions,
ma petite
.”

“You can’t kill her, because it was too public, there’d be too many questions.”

“If it had not been so very public?”

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“It’s not just me and the men that make you look weak to the other masters, Jean-Claude. Most of them would have killed Gretchen and Meng Die, already.”

“I could kill Meng Die; she has not made a public display.”

“I don’t mean kill her, but they have both behaved badly and most master vamps wouldn’t tolerate it. I love that you feel guilty about taking their humanity away. I love that you feel guilty that you never loved them, but only seduced them. I love that you are that…human. But the other vamps see it as weakness, don’t they?”