Skin Trade(68)
“So what do you suggest?”
“How close are you to this tiger Crispin?”
“Biblical,” I said.
He smiled and shook his head. “Is he dominant or weak?”
“Weak.”
“That won’t make Olaf back off. It’s got to be someone that Olaf can respect.”
“Can’t help you there. Wait, he knows I’m doing Jean-Claude and Micah and Nathaniel. Are you saying none of them measure up to his standards, but you would?”
“He doesn’t respect any man he thinks might be gay, Anita.”
“Yeah, Otto is an all-around prejudiced bastard. But they’re all doing me, regardless of who else they’re doing; that makes them like girls?”
“Otto is like a lot of people; bisexual is still gay, if you’re doing guy-on-guy.” He grinned suddenly, and it was pure Ted Forrester. “Of course, girl-on-girl is just one guy away from a fantasy.”
“Please, don’t tell me you think that’s true?”
His grin softened around the edges, and the real Edward leaked into his face, even around the sunglasses. “I have to be Ted while we’re here, Anita. We’ve got too many cops around to be myself.” The grin came back, wide and good ol’ boy. “And Ted thinks that lesbian means you just haven’t met the right man.”
“I’d like to introduce Ted to my friend Sylvie and her partner. Trust me, neither one of them thinks they need a man in their life, not in any way.”
“We good ol’ boys need our illusions, Anita.” We were almost to the car.
I spoke low. “You’re about as much a good ol’ boy as I am… Ted.”
“I’ll have to be Ted if SWAT is with us, Anita.”
I stared at him. “Shit.”
He nodded. “You aren’t the only one who has to be careful with an audience.”
“When having police around makes you have to lie all the time, Edward, maybe we aren’t the good guys?”
He opened the passenger door for me, which he never did. I let him, for Olaf’s sake, but it bugged me. Edward leaned close and whispered in my ear so that Olaf would think he was whispering sweet nothings, but what he actually said, was, “We aren’t the good guys, Anita. We’re the necessary guys.”
I settled into the seat, with Olaf and Bernardo wondering what Edward had said to me. I couldn’t make my face match his smiling one. I couldn’t play along that he’d whispered something naughty in my ear. I could only sit and let my sunglasses hide my eyes and help me lie to the people who were supposed to be helping me.
I was lying to the police, lying to my backup; the only person I wasn’t lying to was Edward. Funny how that was usually the case when we worked together. He explained that the weretigers’ queen might try to fix me up with some of her people in a bid to bind themselves closer to Jean-Claude’s power base. True, as far as it went. I just stared ahead and kept the glasses on.
Edward turned in his seat so he could see both men better. He started by explaining to all of us. “I arranged for the warrant to be dropped off here, at the coroner’s parking lot. We can chat while we wait.”
“Chat?” Olaf said, suspicion plain in his voice.
Then Edward started in with no preamble, just straight to the point. “Anita has a lover among the weretigers. He’ll probably be friendly to her, so let him.”
“How friendly?” Bernardo asked.
I laughed, I couldn’t help it. “Let’s just say that Crispin is a little… eager.”
“How eager?” Olaf asked, and he didn’t sound happy at all.
I turned in the seat so I could see them both. “You guys know I need to feed the ardeur; well, Crispin will probably be my food either tonight or tomorrow morning.”
“Feed, how?” Olaf asked.
“Sex, Olaf, I’ll feed during sex.”
“So the rumors are true-you really are a succubus, then?” Bernardo said.
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
“You don’t have to go to the monsters to feed,” Olaf said.
“I’ve fed on Crispin before, so he knows what to expect.”
“I would be happy to help,” Bernardo said.
“No,” Olaf said, “if she feeds on any of us, it will be me.”
I shook my head. “I know your idea of sex, Olaf; I don’t think I’d survive long enough to feed.”
“For you, I would try.”
I stared at his sunglass-covered eyes with my own. I tried to see past that impassive face. I understood that he had offered me sex, just sex, not violence, and that for him, that was almost unheard of. It was a positive step for Olaf, but I so did not want to be that step.