Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [973]
I finally stood up with bra and panties in hand. I started to put them on the pile, but caught Graham’s look. I’d picked a red bra to go under the red shirt. It was one of the thinner red baby-doll tees, so I’d picked something that wouldn’t show through. The bra and panties were both red satin. The bra was a push-up bra because it got my breasts up and out of the way of my shoulder holster, or rather out of the way of drawing the gun. A moment ago I hadn’t thought a thing about it. I’d picked what worked under the shirt. Now, I was suddenly very aware that the underwear was nice underwear.
I met Graham’s eyes, and there was such heat in them. It was written all over his face that he wanted to see me in the bra and panties. Bare on his face, in his eyes, that he’d give a great deal to see me in the lingerie, and do something about it.
Heat washed up my face. I blushed embarrassingly easily sometimes. This was one of those times. If he’d been one of my boyfriends, I’d have reacted to that look, that demand. We could have gone into the bathroom and let that heat wash over both of us, maybe. But he wasn’t my boyfriend, and his wanting to fuck me wasn’t enough reason for me to fuck him. When I’d had the pregnancy scare last month, the fact that I hadn’t had sex with Graham, that he wasn’t on the maybe-daddy list, had filled me with such relief that I knew he wasn’t going to be one of my sweeties. The pregnancy scare had put a lot of things in perspective. I was now back to looking at men thinking, if I got pregnant by accident, how big a disaster would it be? Maybe a few months from now I wouldn’t be so freaked, and that wouldn’t be a question that I thought of so strongly. Then again, maybe it still would be. I had had a false positive on a pregnancy test. It had scared the hell out of me.
I looked up into his face. He was handsome. There was nothing wrong with him, exactly, but I still remembered how happy I was that he wasn’t on the list of men who might have made me pregnant. If you get knocked up, it should be by someone who’s at least a good friend, and Graham wasn’t even that. He was my bodyguard, and he’d been emergency food, but he wasn’t my friend. He wanted to fuck me too badly to be my friend. Any man who would rather have sex with you than anything else is never going to be your friend. Friends want what’s best for you more than they want sex. Graham’s priorities were there on his face, in his eyes, in the tension of his body as he held my clothes.
“You’re blushing,” he said, and his voice sounded hoarse.
I nodded and looked down, away from that look. Maybe the blushing would stop if I wasn’t meeting his eyes.
He touched my face, the barest tips of his fingers on my chin. “After everything I’ve seen you do with all the other men, you’re blushing because I’m looking too hard at you.” His voice was softer now.
“You think I can’t be embarrassed, because I’m a whore.”
“Not true.” He tried to turn my face up to his. I stepped back from him so he couldn’t touch my face.
“Isn’t it?” I asked, and this time the face I gave him held the beginnings of anger.
“I see you with the other men and I want you—why is that wrong? I’ve watched you have sex with multiple men while I’m in the room. What am I supposed to think?”
“Oh, Graham.” This from Clay. He’d stayed on the far side of the room, out of it, but those two words let me know that Clay got it. Clay understood the mistake that Graham had just made.
“I can fix that, Graham.”
“Fix what?”
“Fix it so you’re not conflicted anymore about me.”
“What are you talking about?” The fact that he hadn’t realized where I was going was also a point against him. He wasn’t a quick thinker.
“You’re off my detail.”
He clutched the clothes to his oh-so-broad chest. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t guarantee that the ardeur won’t get out of hand and I’ll lose control enough to fuck in front of my guards again. Since it bothers