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We both looked at him.

“Anita will always find some reason to keep her from openly taking both of us. She cannot even allow her one vampire lover to truly be vampire. How could she possibly endure the full touch of two of them?”

“Asher,” I said, but didn’t know what else to say, all I knew was that my chest hurt, and it was hard to breathe.

“No, you will always find something in your men that is not good enough, not pure enough. You come to us out of need, even out of love, but it is never enough. You will not allow us to be enough even for ourselves.” He shook his head again, in a flurry of brightness that shattered the lights like golden mirrors. “My heart is too fragile to play these games, Anita. I love you, but I cannot live, let alone love, like this.”

“I don’t even get an hour to digest that you used vampire wiles on me.”

He put a hand on either of my shoulders, and the weight of his hands made my skin run warm. “If it’s not this, it will be something else. I have watched you with Richard, Jean-Claude, and now Micah. Micah wins his way through your maze by simply agreeing to everything you ask. Jean-Claude wins his place on the edges of your labyrinth by cutting himself off from unbelievable pleasure. Richard will not walk your maze, because he has his own, and only one person can be this confusing in a relationship at one time. Someone has to be willing to compromise, and neither you nor Richard will compromise enough.”

He let me go, and the absence of his hands almost staggered me, as if he’d taken away a shelter, and I was lost in the storm.

He began to walk backwards towards the door. “I thought I would do anything to be with Jean-Claude and his new servant. I thought I would do anything to be back in the safety of the arms of two people who loved me. But I understand now that your love will always come with conditions and that no matter how good your intentions, something holds you back, Anita. Something will not allow you to give yourself completely to the moment, to that shining thing called love. You hold yourself back, and you hold back those who love you. I cannot live being offered your love one moment and denied it the next. I cannot live being punished for what I cannot change.”

“It’s not punishment,” I said, and my voice sounded strange, strangled.

He gave a sad smile and flung his hair over the scarred side of his face, so he stared at me with nothing but that perfect profile showing. “To quote you, ma cherie, the hell it is not.” He turned and strode for the door.

I called after him. “Asher, please . . .” But he didn’t stop. The door closed behind him, and the room filled with a profound silence.

Jean-Claude spoke into that silence, and his soft voice made me jump. “Gather your things, Anita, and go.”

I looked at him, then, and my pulse was in my throat, and I was afraid, really afraid. “Are you kicking me out?” My voice didn’t even sound like me.

“Non, but at this moment I need to be alone.”

“You haven’t fed, yet.”

“Are you saying you would willingly feed me, now?” He didn’t look at me as he asked it. He was staring at the floor.

“Actually, I’m sort of not in the mood anymore,” I said, and my voice was fighting to get back to normal. Jean-Claude wasn’t kicking me out of his life, but I didn’t like that he wouldn’t look at me.

“I will feed, but it will be only for food, and you are not food. So, please, go.”

“Jean-Claude . . .”

“Just go, Anita, go. I need you not to be here right now. I need to not have to look at you, right now.” The first stirrings of anger had trickled into his voice, like a fuse freshly lit and running with fire, but not truly burning up, not yet.

“Would saying I’m sorry help?” My voice was small when I asked.

“That you understand that you have something to apologize for is a beginning, but it is not enough, not today.” He looked at me then, and his eyes glistened in the lights, not with power, but with unshed tears. “Besides, it is not me that you owe the apology to. Now go, before I say something that we will both regret.”