Blood Noir - Laurell K. Hamilton [80]
He smiled. “Cuckold?”
I frowned at him. “Pick a different word, but you know what I mean.”
“If it was Nathaniel, or Jean-Claude, you wouldn’t have sat here for an hour and watched, would you?”
“They wouldn’t have made me.”
He set my Coke on the table the lamp was sitting on. It forced him to turn his body awkwardly, but he made it look vaguely promising, as if to say, Look how flexible I am. But I had Nathaniel’s flexibility to compare with, so I was less impressed than I might have been.
Jason turned back to me and gave me very serious eyes. “I’ve hurt your feelings.”
“Yes, but more than that I came here under cover for you, in a role that is not comfortable for me, and you just made all your old friends think that I would allow any boyfriend of mine to ignore me for an hour as he was pawed by old lovers. I wouldn’t. The only thing that kept me in the chair was that I couldn’t decide what to do. If we are just good friends and nothing more, then have at it, Jason. But if I’m still supposed to be this serious girlfriend, you can’t do shit like this.”
“Even if it’s only pretend that you’re my serious girlfriend?” he asked.
I nodded. “Tell them the truth, and crawl all over them, have at it. But if you don’t tell them the truth, then you cannot humiliate me like this, not if you want to maintain that I am in any way a serious girlfriend to you.”
I watched him think some more. He opened his mouth, closed it, and glanced at the crowd of people behind us, all trying to pretend they weren’t there. He got off my lap and took my hand with him, drawing me to my feet.
He led me toward the bedroom. Rowe and Shadwell peeled away from the section of the wall they were holding up and tried to follow. Jason stopped them at the opening. “No, and I’m going to move the screen so we have some privacy.”
“Our orders…,” began Shadwell.
“I’m wearing more weapons than you are, Shadwell. I think we’ll be all right.”
He and Rowe exchanged glances, and then finally Shadwell nodded. “If you’re in there too long I’m coming in, no matter what kind of sounds I hear. Just so you’ll know.”
“I think we can behave ourselves,” I said.
Jason pulled me into the room and let go of my hand to move the metal screen over so it hid us from view, if we were on the bed. It was the best we could do without a door. Jason sat on the end of the bed and held his hand out to me.
I went to him, let him pull me to sit on the edge of the bed with him. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“Me, too, but you need to decide.”
“If I tell them the truth, what will you do?”
“What I want to do is go home, but I won’t leave until I know what has the bodyguards all freaked. I think there’s been some kind of threat against Keith Summerland, and I’d never forgive myself if you got hurt by mistake.”
His hand came up and cupped the side of my face, ever so gently. “You care for me, and I return the favor by making you feel bad about yourself. I’m sorry, Anita, really, I wasn’t thinking.”
“Oh, you were thinking, just with the little head instead of the big one. As much as I enjoy both, I like you to make decisions with the top end.”
He gave a small laugh, and moved our faces so he could kiss me. The kiss started to get out of hand, but I drew back, so that it didn’t; drew back enough to look him in the eyes, his hand still against my face.
“That look,” he said, “I know that look, that look of iron resolve. I don’t know what it means in this instant, but it makes me a little nervous.”
I smiled. “Iron resolve, huh. It’s just this, Jason: I don’t share. Unfair or not, if you want to break our cover story, then you are free to try to sleep with whoever you want. You’re a big boy, but don’t come dragging yourself from some stranger’s bed into mine.”
“You have to feed the ardeur at least one more time before we can go home,” he said.
I nodded. “I’ll figure something out. Jean-Claude can help me feed from a distance,