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Clair got up a little uncertainly. Dr. Lillian got up, and Fredo moved to follow her. Nathaniel had rolled out the dough enough that he was shaping the individual biscuits. The oven dinged, indicating it was preheated. He looked a question at me.

I wrapped my arms around Micah’s arms, pulling him around me like a coat. “You can’t kick Nathaniel out of his own kitchen, Richard, and I don’t want Micah to go either.”

“It’s not his kitchen,” Richard said, and he was angry again.

“Yes,” I said, “it is.”

Nathaniel turned back to his baking with a small smile on his lips. He’d already greased up the pans, so he began to arrange the thick doughy circles on them, ignoring us again.

Richard stood, and even though he had one arm bandaged up, I was suddenly aware of how tall he was, how broad his shoulders were. He was one of those men that never seemed as big as they are, until they got angry. “No, it isn’t. It isn’t even Micah’s house. It’s yours.”

“They live with me, Richard.”

He shook his head and grimaced, and made a low sound, not a growl, just frustration. “Micah is your Nimir-Raj, you had the same reaction to each other that Marcus and Raina had. Instantaneous melding, but Marcus didn’t move into Raina’s house. They couldn’t help being attracted to each other, but Raina saw other people. They weren’t a couple, not in that way.”

“Raina wouldn’t have known what monogamy was if it bit her on the ass,” I said.

Dr. Lillian and Fredo were making for the door. Lillian grabbed Clair’s arm as she went past, and took her with them. Richard didn’t even seem to notice.

“Don’t you dare talk about monogamy to me,” Richard said.

“You may have gotten a peek inside my head, Richard, but I saw into yours, too. I’m not having sex with everyone you thought, but you’re having sex with almost anyone that will have you.”

“I’m looking for a new lupa,” Richard said.

“Bullshit,” I said.

Micah’s arms were tense against my body. He laid his cheek against the side of my face, but he didn’t say anything. He knew better.

“You always screw around when we aren’t dating,” I said.

“At least I wait until we aren’t dating to do it. You always manage to fuck someone else while we’re still an item.”

I started to move away from Micah, but his arms tightened just enough. He was right. I didn’t trust myself not to get more physical than was wise. Slapping Richard right that moment sounded so good. I stayed where I was, but it wasn’t relaxing anymore.

“I can’t argue that,” I said.

“I don’t mean Jean-Claude,” he said.

“You broke up with me before I was with Micah the first time,” I said.

He shook his head and then screamed, partly pain, and partly anger, I think. “Once I calmed down, I could have forgiven you about Micah. I’d seen it with Raina and Marcus, but you moved him in here. Even that, I would have let go, or tried to, but I thought you were screwing Nathaniel. I thought you were fucking him before you broke up with me.”

“One, you broke up with me.” I needed not to be held when I was this angry. “Let me go, Micah.”

“Anita . . .”

“Let me go, I’ll try not to do anything stupid.”

He sighed, but he let his arms fall to his sides. I walked out just far enough not to be pressed to his body.

“Like I said, you broke up with me, Richard, not the other way around. You broke up with me, because, quote, you didn’t want to love someone who was more comfortable with the monsters than you were, unquote.”

He actually looked embarrassed. “That was really unfair of me, and I’m sorry.”

He’d finally got me in the mood for a good fight, and he was apologizing, what kind of a fight was that? “Sorry about what, that you said it, or that you believe it?”

“I’d really rather this was just the two of us, Anita. Please.”

I shook my head. “You had your chance to be alone with me, and you didn’t want it. These are the hands that held me while I cried over you, they’ve earned the right to stay.”

He nodded. “I guess fair is fair,” he said, “but there are some things that you deserve to hear that they don’t. If you ever let me be alone