Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, Book 14. Danse Macabre(81)
«I've slept with some of the female wereleopards before.»
«But never nude, either you or them,» Micah said.
I started to deny it, then stopped. Was he right? «I don't know, I… I might be able to sleep nude, if it's just sleep, with another woman. I don't think I'd like it, though. I'd rather sleep pressed between two men.»
«And that's fine,» he said, «but if you knew for a fact that a woman saw you as a potential sex partner, you'd treat her differently.»
«Yes, she'd go in the boy box.»
«According to your thinking, Nathaniel and I should put Jean-Claude into a different box now, right?»
I thought about it, then nodded.
He smiled. «Anita, seeing him with Auggie wasn't the first clue I had that Jean-Claude liked men.»
I looked from one to the other of them. «Have I missed something?»
«Not what you are thinking, ma petite.» Jean-Claude sat more solidly on the corner of the bed, his back against the foot of it, his knees drawn up for his arms to wrap around. «I have not seduced either of your cats behind your back.»
I hadn't really thought he had, but… «Then what is Micah talking about?»
«Anita,» Nathaniel said, «pay more attention the next time that Jean-Claude feeds off one of us, or Asher feeds off me. You won't have to ask.»
«But I've been in the bed while you guys did that. What did I miss?»
The three of them exchanged a look. «No, no looks, just tell me.»
«You said you were tired,» Micah said. «I think you don't want to know this, or you wouldn't have to ask.»
«Don't want to know what?»
Again they exchanged that look.
«Stop that,» I said, and I had to fight the urge to stomp my foot at them.
«Let us cuddle together, ma petite. Let us hold you, and give you the comfort that we all need tonight. It has been a long night, a good one in many ways, but long. You are tired.»
I was tired, but the rush of anger, and confusion, had chased back the tiredness. «I am tired, and all I want to do is crawl into bed and let you hold me. But damn it, you're all looking at each other like there's an elephant in the room, and I can't see it.»
Claudia spoke from the edge of the room, where she and the rest of the bodyguards were so quiet. We were close to kicking them out of the room. Okay, I was close to kicking them out. «I think I can catch this one,» she said.
I looked at her. «Go ahead,» I said.
«Jean-Claude feeds from a man the same way he feeds from a woman. Most vampires differentiate when they feed. Heterosexual vamps take more liberties with opposite-sex victims. Homosexual vamps take more liberties with same-sex vies. Jean-Claude doesn't differentiate, do you understand?»
«When have you seen him feed on other women?»
«Aha,» Claudia said, «and that is exactly why he doesn't feed on women except at the clubs, in public. You'd be jealous of other women if he took them in private, but you aren't jealous of men. You don't see them as sexually competitive for Jean-Claude's attention.»
My head was beginning to hurt. «You're giving me a headache, Claudia.»
«Only because you don't want to think this one through.»
«You're saying that Jean-Claude likes both men and women, but because I'd be jealous of women, he takes mostly men. I get it, I get it.»
«Thank you, Claudia,» Jean-Claude said.
«You're welcome.»
«Do I apologize to anyone, everyone?» I asked.
«Just take off the robe and get in bed,» Nathaniel said. «Silk is cold without another body to warm it up.»
I smiled at him, shook my head, and started to undo my robe. I stopped, and said, «Everyone that's not getting in the bed, outside.»
«If it's an invitation…«Graham started.
«Can it, Graham,» Claudia said, and went for the door.
He hesitated, but he followed her. Lisandro was already going for the door. Claudia had sent most of the others out when things calmed earlier. Probably sent them to watch over our «guests.» The bodyguards piled out. The door shut, and we were alone.
Micah crawled onto the bed, on the other side of Nathaniel, leaving room for me. «You're looking a little overdressed,» he said.
I undid the sash and let the robe fall to the floor. I crawled up onto the silk with the help of their hands. They pulled me down between them, so their naked bodies pressed in against me. There was a moment where I had to close my eyes. The sensation of their warm, bare skin sliding against mine was almost overwhelming. It was like wrapping myself in a favorite blanket with my favorite stuffed toy in my arms, and my gun close at hand. Sandwiched between Micah and Nathaniel was the safest, best place I'd ever known.