• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“You do that,” I said.

“So good of you to notice,” he said. “But it is not I that has been living in your home for months, and from what I smell on Nathaniel when he comes into work, sharing your bed.”

“Any of the wereleopards are welcome in the bedroom when they stay here. It’s like a big pile of puppies—it’s not sexual.”

“If you say so.” His voice was soft, mocking.

“Damn you, Jean-Claude, you know I don’t see Nathaniel that way.”

He sighed, and it was heavy. “I think it is not me that you lie to, ma petite, but yourself.”

“I am not in love with Nathaniel.”

“Did I ever say you were?”

“Then what are you talking about?”

He made a small exasperated sound. “Ma petite, you still believe that you must love every man that you come to physically. It is not so. You can have very pleasant, even wondrous sex with a friend. It does not have to be love.”

I was shaking my head, realized he couldn’t see it, and said, “I don’t do casual sex, Jean-Claude, you know that.”

“Whatever you are doing with Nathaniel, ma petite, it is not casual.”

“I can’t use him as my pomme de sang. I can’t.”

“Your morals have reared their ugly heads, ma petite, do not let them make you foolish.”

I opened my mouth to protest everything he’d said, but closed it and just thought about what he’d said for a few seconds. Did I find Nathaniel attractive? Well, yeah. But I found a lot of men attractive. That didn’t mean I had to be intimate with them.

“Ma petite, I can hear you breathing. What are you thinking?”

What he said made me think a new thought. “When we first married the marks I could almost read your mind, unless you concentrated to keep me out. Now it’s not like that. Maybe the ardeur will be temporary, too.”

“Perhaps, we can but hope.”

“If I have the ardeur, I’ll have to have sex. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“I would be a fool to deny that your enforced chastity is burdensome, but I would never willingly inflict the ardeur on anyone. It is a . . . curse, ma petite. The blood lust that I feel can be sated. My body can only hold so much. But the ardeur, oh, ma petite, it is never truly satisfied. There is always that ache, that need. How could I wish that upon you? Though if our Monsieur Zeeman would cooperate, it might be the answer for the two of you to finally reach some permanent arrangement.”

“What, move in together?”

“Perhaps.” His voice was very careful when he said that one word.

“Richard and I can’t be in a room for an hour without arguing, unless we are having sex. Somehow I don’t think that makes for domestic bliss.”

I felt the first emotion he’d let me feel over the phone—relief. He was relieved. “I want what is best for all of us, ma petite, but as things grow more complex, I am no longer certain what ‘best’ would be.”

“Don’t tell me your machinations didn’t include some backup plan to cover every eventuality. You are the ultimate plotter, don’t tell me you missed a trick.”

“I watched Belle Morte fill your eyes with her fire. You are acquiring powers as if you were a Master Vampire, or a Master Lycanthrope. How could I have planned for any of this?”

There was a cold knot of fear in the center of my gut. “So you finally admit that you don’t know what the hell is going on either.”

“Oui, does that please you?” I heard the first stirrings of anger in his voice. “Are you happy now, ma petite? I am well and truly out of my depth. No one has ever tried to forge an alliance such as we have, an alliance not of master and two slaves, but of three equals. I do not think you appreciate how gentle I am when it comes to hoarding my power. The wolves are my animal to call. Many masters would have forced them to simply be an adjunct to their own vampires.”

“Nikolaos’s animal to call was rats, not wolves,” I said. “By the time you took over as Master of the City, Marcus and Raina’s pack was too strong for you to make them an adjunct to your power. Hell, until you replenished the vamps that I killed, they were probably more powerful than you and your vampires.”

“Are