Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 14. Danse Macabre(132)
He looked down at me, using all that gold hair to cover the scarred side of his face. He didn't usually hide from me anymore. «What do you think that Jean-Claude and I do in my bed when you are asleep in this one?»
I frowned, then couldn't quite meet his entirely too-frank gaze. Vampire powers didn't make me look away, embarrassment did. «You're right, I don't want honesty, I just think I do.»
«You are blushing,» Asher said, and he gave a delighted laugh. «You think we are lovers, don't you?»
I was blushing so hard I was dizzy, and I felt like he was making fun of me. So I got angry. I crossed my arms over my stomach, and said, «Yeah.»
Asher looked at Jean-Claude. «She believes what most believe of us.»
I finally looked at Jean-Claude. His face was very empty. I had to lick my suddenly dry lips to say, «Are you saying that you're not doing it, when I'm not around?»
«All the touch I am allowed is when you are with us,» Asher said, and it was his turn to sound angry. But his anger had warmth to it, to fill his voice.
I kept staring at Jean-Claude.
«You do not believe us?» Jean-Claude asked.
«It's not that, it's…«I tried to put it into words. Finally, I said, «How could you be so close to him and keep turning him down?»
«Thank you for that,» Asher said.
«And what would you have done, ma petite, if you had found us in an embrace?»
«I… I don't know. I guess it depends on what you mean by embrace.»
«Sex, ma petite, sex.»
I opened my mouth, closed it, and didn't know what to say. «I don't know.»
«I do. You would have stormed away. You would have abandoned my bed, damaged our power base, the triumvirate. You might have run to our so-conservative Richard, or left us both again. So shocked you would have been, so unready to conceive of such things.»
«Maybe, but I didn't freak about you and Augustine.»
«You were involved. We shared him. If you had come upon the two of us alone, you would have taken it differently.»
«Well, yeah, he's a stranger for one thing.»
«Wait,» Asher said, «are you saying that you would share Jean-Claude with me?»
«We share each other now.»
He shook his head. «We share you, Anita, we barely touch each other.»
«Do not do this tonight, Asher. I ask this as your friend, and as your master. When our guests are gone, then we will continue this discussion.»
«Your word on that,» Asher said.
«My word.»
I nodded. «When we're not ass-deep in alligators, and I've had a few days to digest the news.»
«Is this news to you, that I want him as my lover?» Asher asked.
I shook my head. «Truthfully, I thought you guys were doing it like bunnies behind my back. You know, the whole don't ask, don't tell policy. It never occurred to me that all the touching you did was with me.»
«I thought you would see it as cheating,» Jean-Claude said.
«With another woman, yeah, but I don't have the same equipment. I mean if guys do it for you, I don't have those parts. But it wasn't guys I thought I was sharing you with, it was Asher. He's not just one of the guys to us.»
«Are you saying that Asher is your exception to the rule?»
«I'm not sure I had a rule, but I won't share you casually with anyone, any more than I'd expect you to share me. But I assumed that you and Asher were lovers, without me.» There, that was the truth.
«Why did you assume it?»
I motioned at Asher. «Look at him. Look at the way he watches you.»
Asher laughed. «Are you saying I am so adorable, how could anyone turn me down?»
I nodded. «Yeah, I am.»
His face softened, and he came to stand beside me. «Oh, Anita, you make my heart young again.»
I took his hand in mine. «And sometimes you make me feel like such a baby.»
«Pourquoi?»
«That I can take you both to bed, but I assumed you were doing each other behind my back, to save my sensibilities. It was a neat, clean solution, I thought. I didn't have to decide how I felt about you two being a couple, but we all got what we needed. Instead, Jean-Claude has been a very, very good boy, and you've felt neglected.»
«Rejected,» he said, and gave Jean-Claude a dark look.
I touched his face, turned him back to face me. "That was my fault, not his. He's right, Asher. You know me. I can ignore the elephant in the living room until I'm eyeball-deep in shit, but if you make me look at something before it's that big, sometimes I take it badly. If I'd walked in on you guys together, I'd have used it as an excuse to run for the hills. Jean-Claude's right about that.»