Nathaniel, Jean-Claude, Asher, Dev, Jason, and Crispin all flirted more and even better than Nicky, but all of them but Jason did the same thing that Nicky did. Jason was just a close friend with benefits and had a steady girlfriend in another state, so it was good he didn’t react that way. He wasn’t mine. The fact that Damian did react that way was one of the bones of contention between him, me, and his steady in-town girlfriend, Cardinal. She hated me just a little because of it, and I didn’t entirely blame her.
I totally did blame the blonde, Michelle, for disliking me so instantly. She’d talked to him for a few minutes; that was too quick to get possessive, but I’d noticed it with other strangers. I’d seen it before with Jean-Claude and Nathaniel and women at the clubs, but I’d thought it was because they were just both so damn beautiful. Nicky was handsome, yummy, but either I didn’t see him the way others did, or it wasn’t the level of pretty of the man in the situation but something else I was missing completely. I shrugged and let it go. So a strange woman was jealous that Nicky liked me better, not my problem.
Then I realized that we were a man down. Where was Olaf?
32
OLAF WAS OUTSIDE, under a little covered area to one side of the hospital entrance. He was talking to a woman who was shorter than I was, in pink hospital scrubs. Her black hair curled over the shoulders of all that pink. Olaf was smiling, bending over so he could hear what she was saying. Whatever she said, it made him laugh. I’d never seen him laugh. It was a little unnerving, like seeing your dog sit up and try to hold a conversation with you. I mean, you know the dog communicates, but it’s not supposed to speak the queen’s English. I knew there had to be laughter in Olaf somewhere, but not this soft, smiling face. It changed his face, filled it with lines that seemed almost—kind. Either he really liked this woman, or he was a better actor than Edward.
He looked over her head at me, and for just a moment he let the laughter slip away. He let me see in those cavernous eyes that he did like her, he liked her lots, but not in a good way. He let me see in that strangely handsome face that he was thinking about her not without her clothes on, but eventually without her skin. He let me see the darkness in his eyes for a blink or two, and then the woman touched his arm, made him look back down at her. I realized that with the height difference she hadn’t seen his eyes, hadn’t seen what he’d shown me. Fuck.
She spared a glance back at us, as if wondering what had attracted his attention. She had that expression on her face that let me know she was looking at me as a potential rival, doing that girl thing that some women do of assessing who’s the prettiest, who’s a threat. Whatever she’d decided about me made her move just a bit closer to him and lay her small hand on his arm. She was marking territory. If I reacted badly, she’d know I was interested in him, too.
Olaf laid his big hand over hers, pressing it to his arm, and smiled down at her. The frightening look was gone, washed away in a terribly normal flirting. Shit.
“I thought he wasn’t allowed to hunt anything but monsters on the job,” Nicky said.
“He’s not,” I said.
“Then you better do something, because he’s shopping for a victim.”
I sighed. “Shit.” I moved toward them with Nicky at my back. The doors whooshed open behind us and Lisandro came hurrying up behind us. “Anita, please don’t do that again.”
I kept moving toward Olaf and the woman as I said, “Do what?”
“Leave me alone with a beautiful woman who is obviously trying to pick me up.”
“You’re a big boy,” I said. “I thought you could handle it.”
“If I fall off the wagon again, my wife will divorce my ass. Help me avoid the temptation.”
I would have said it was ironic, his turning to me for help in avoiding the temptation of sex with other women, but we were up with Olaf and the woman. There wasn’t time to worry about Lisandro’s lack of logic.
Olaf looked at us, still smiling, the pleasant mask hiding everything, but the faintest flash in his eyes. If you didn’t know what you were looking at, you’d miss it, and how many women would be looking for serial killer sex in anyone’s eyes?
The woman touched his arm again, but he didn’t put his hand over hers this time. She noticed the lack of touch and looked at us all. She frowned at me, but seeing my U.S. Marshals jacket she both relaxed and frowned harder. Her hand tightened just a little, squeezing his arm. “Do you have to go to work?”
“I told you I was here to hunt monsters.” He smiled while he said it, and lifted her hand off his arm, gently. He held her hand for a moment, lingering. “This is Marshal Anita Blake and her deputies.”