«Ma petite,» he said again, and this time the nickname made me look back to his face. His hair was a careful fall of curls — his version of casual. «How do you feel when you look upon Augustine?»
I started to look back at the other vampire, but Jean-Claude caught my arm, turned me to look at him. «Answer before you look back, ma petite.»
«I think it sounds like a really good idea to have him wake up beside me all tousled and half naked.»
«Is it merely lust?»
I shook my head. «No, no, it's the beginning of the real deal. It's love, not just lust.»
«You do not sound upset.»
I smiled at him. «I'm not pregnant, we can work around everything else. I mean, isn't this similar to what I did to Requiem with the ardeur? If I can free him, then shouldn't a Master of the City be able to free me?»
«Jean-Claude, how do you feel about Augustine?» This from Richard, who had come to stand just behind us.
«I see him as lovely, but strangely, I am not in love with him. He is not in love with me. I had hoped that meant the worst, or best, had not happened, but…«He looked beyond us to Augustine.
I looked with him. I noticed that from this distance Auggie's charcoal-gray eyes looked almost black.
«Do you need to ask how do I feel about your human servant?» he asked.
Jean-Claude nodded.
«It is all I can do to stay here on this seat. I want to touch her, to hold her. If my heart could beat, it would break.»
«Why should your heart break?» I asked, and was surprised at how ordinary I sounded, even felt.
«Because you belong to another, and I love you.»
I took a step forward, and Jean-Claude's fingers began to let me go. Richard grabbed my other arm. «No, Anita, don't go to him.»
«Why not?» I asked, looking up into those brown eyes.
He started to say several things, but finally said the only thing that was really true. «Because I don't want you to.»
That stopped me more surely than any anger could have. I was left staring up at him, watching the pain on his face, and not knowing what to do about it. «Why is sharing me with Auggie different than sharing me with all the rest.»
«You don't love the rest.»
I started to smile, stopped, then said, «Who don't I love?»
He let me go then, as if my skin had suddenly gotten hot. «I'll go get changed for the ballet.» He actually started for the far hallway.
«It is a little early to change, mon ami.»
Richard shook his head. «I can't watch this, I just can't.»
«What do you think is going to happen, Richard?» I asked.
He answered without turning around. «You're going to have sex with him again. Maybe you and Jean-Claude.» He shook his head again. «It was bad enough to feel some of it, I don't want to watch.»
«I'm in love with him, Richard, that doesn't mean we're going to fuck. You, of all people, should know that just because someone has my heart doesn't mean they have my body.»
That stopped him, just at the far doorway. He turned around, looked at me. «You don't feel compelled to fuck him?»
I shook my head.
«I am losing my touch,» Auggie said.
It made me turn and waste a smile on him. My smile made him smile, that goofy smile that you only do when you're truly gone on someone. «You haven't lost anything, and you know it.»
He made a gesture that was half bow, and half shrug. He managed to look modest, but not like he really meant it. «If I have lost nothing, and you do not fear what we feel for each other, then come to me, Anita.»
«You come to me,» I said.
He grinned at me, wide enough to flash fangs, which was rare for a vampire his age. He stood up, the shawl still covering most of him.
«Master, do not go to her.» Octavius, his human servant, came around the side of the love seat. The werelion Pierce came with him. I think they meant to outflank him and keep him from touching me. He stood in front of Auggie, blocking our view of each other. «You are the Master of the City of Chicago, you go to no woman. They come to you.»
Auggie moved Octavius to one side, gently but firmly. «I don't think this one will.» He looked at me, half-smiling. «Will you come to me?»
«Why should I?»
He grinned again. «I don't know if it's my own power backfiring, but I see what you saw in her, Jean-Claude. An ambitious target for love, and I would think harmful to the ego, but worth the effort, oh, yes, worth the effort.» He pushed past his men, flinging the shawl into the air, so that he was suddenly nude from the waist up. The sight of him like that pushed my pulse up into my throat. I remembered what it was like to be held down by that body, what it was like to hold all that muscled strength in my arms. I took a step forward, and I think we would have met in the middle of the room, but I suddenly smelled sun-warmed grass, felt heat, lion. I smelled lion.