Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Colletion_ Books 11-15 - Laurell K. Hamilton [983]
Jean-Claude was in one of his very formal white shirts, with a real cravat held in place with a silver and sapphire stickpin on his chest. He’d even put on a black velvet jacket with matching silver buttons. It was very militaristic. The shirt I’d seen before, or one like it; the jacket was new—to me, at least. I hadn’t seen it yet, but I was pretty sure somewhere in the underground there was a huge room full of nothing but Jean-Claude’s clothes. The pants were actually cloth but fit tighter than any dress slacks I’d ever seen. The tight pants smoothed into thigh-high boots that were black and leather and had silver buckles up the side of them from ankle to midthigh. He was way too dressed up for just a family breakfast. When he drew me into his arms, the curls that brushed my face were still damp from the shower. If he took the time to bathe, he’d take the time to dry his hair.
“You seem tense, ma petite,” he whispered into my own damp hair.
“You’re way too well dressed for breakfast, and your hair is still damp, which means you dressed in a hurry. Why the rush?”
He kissed me gently, but I didn’t close my eyes or relax into the kiss. He sighed. “You are too observant for comfort at times, ma petite. We were going to allow you to finish your breakfast before we discussed business.”
“What business?” I asked.
Micah came up beside us. I went from Jean-Claude’s arms to his, and found that Micah, too, was too dressed up. He was in charcoal-gray dress pants and a pale green silk shirt, tucked into the pants. He was even wearing shiny dress shoes that were a few shades darker than the pants. Someone had French-braided his still-damp hair, which gave the illusion that his hair was very short and close to his head. It left his face bare so that all I could see was how very pretty he was. The bones of his face were damn near feminine. Somehow with some of his curls to distract the eye you didn’t notice it as much. The green shirt made his chartreuse eyes green, green like seawater with sunlight through it, swimmingly green with gold light caught in it.
I had to close my eyes to say, “What business?”
“Rafael has requested a breakfast meeting,” Micah said.
That made me open my eyes. “Clay told me Rafael was wanting something other than money for the extra guards.”
Micah nodded.
“Rafael is our ally and our friend, right? Why are you guys dressed up and all serious?” I looked around the room. When I caught sight of Claudia, she looked away. She looked uncomfortable, as if whatever Rafael wanted embarrassed her. What the hell could it be?
Nathaniel came to us, his ankle-length hair unbound and still heavy with water. He’d dried it, but it just took a while for that much hair to dry completely. This wet, the hair looked closer to a simple deep brown than the nearly copper auburn that it was. He was still carrying the couch cushion he’d been balancing his plate on, though the plate was on the table. He carried the cushion in front of his waist and groin. All I could see below the cushion was a pair of cream-colored leather boots that hit him midthigh.
“What aren’t you wearing behind that cushion?”
He threw the cushion behind him with a flourish and a grin. He was wearing a G-string that matched the boots, and that was it. I’d seen the outfit before, but never this early in the morning. “Not that I don’t appreciate the view, because I do, but isn’t it a little early for fetish wear?”
“All my dress shirts here are silk. My hair’s so wet it would stain them.” He pressed himself into my arms, and my hands curved under all that heavy hair and found it was still very wet, so wet that the skin of his naked back was cool and slightly damp to the touch. He was right, silk would have been ruined. My hands curved lower until I found the round, tight bareness of his buttocks. He flexed under my hands and I had to close my eyes and take