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"What did you think would happen once we’d found Cherie?" I asked
He stepped close, so close I could feel the heat of his chest against my back "More truth? As you like I did not expect to find her We’ve never found a girl after the slavers took her, at least not whole and unda to find her For you And if we did and she was beyond help, I would hold you until you were done crying and help you move on Give you a reason to ainstI’d said in years, I said one word: "Why?"
"Oh, bébé" His arh, and I leaned back into hiest star in Mortmartre, and do you not even know your oorth? You’re an adventure A beautiful, wild, strange, intelligent, rebellious journey of a wo or collecting of ribbons You’re the kind of woe bludallop for hours without coht The kind of woly walks into a trap to save someone she loves The women of my tribe are fierce but not as fierce as you" He planted a little kiss behind h" His hips pressed against me, a quick brush that was more a states, too"
"Stop, Vale Be serious"
"And you don’t think sex is serious? It’s the driving force of nature, bébé Everything a man does is for love or sex" He chuckled "Power is about sex Fame is about sex Food keeps you alive so you can have more sex Clothesyou Not that I generally take anything seriously But still You are a fool if you discount what really " He paused, sighed in my ear "You turned s and books are about love"
"Which one are you talking about? Sex or love?"
He swayed against ht it; I felt liquid and dizzy "Maybe both," he said, and he spunkiss that uiltily away frole of wood My door at the caravan had beenand de as the spam e-mails I’d received back on Earth
"What?" I barked, and the door opened just enough to ad, dark eyes tre "Don’t worry, chou-chou I’m not annoyed with you"
He perked up and placed a sharp envelope in my hands, the paper thick and heavy with portent I turned it over, noting that the blood-red wax seal featured crossed paintbrushes and the letter L Forgetting that I wasn’t alone, I ripped the flap with no panache and pulled a creamy folded sheet from within The impeccable script in dark purple ink matched the flecks of flower petals embedded in the paper
La De to complete the masterpiece It shall soon be ready for display at the Louvre, where all aze upon your beauty and tremble Come to e sort of hunger-lust bloo, delirious draught One aze
The postscript was messier than the rest of the letter, as if he’d lost just a bit of that tight control "I shall miss our quarrels, ma chérie," it said "But I shall enjoy oing," Vale said, and I spun away fro over led noise, half groan, half growl "Bébé, please We both know that’s a fancy invitation to fuck you on the canvas"
We stood just a few feet apart, but suddenly, a wide and uncrossable gulf opened between us As if he could see it, too, Blaise backed away and darted out the door
"For your information, Monsieur Hildebrand, I’ve only fucked one person since I arrived in Paris"
"That is the past" He pointed at the letter still inin the future"
"You don’t trust me?"
"Of course, I trust you! Otherwise, I wouldn’t leave you alone in this glorified whorehouse long enough to hunt teeth and secrets in Darkside It’s him I don’t trust Lenoir" He wrapped a hand around the bedpost, his knuckles white "Do you even reht? You were beyond drunk, as open and easy as a flower Anyone could have done anything to you, and you would have just lain there, laughing, s"
"So why didn’t you?"
"Because I want you awake and looking into my eyes while I tell you with every stroke that you’re mine Not insensible and silly Any ainst the wooden post and sighed "He’s a coward And a villain"
"And what makes you think I won’t sit for the portrait one last tine, and leave with a kiss on the back of my hand? He’s never touchedabout absinthe, bébé When the time comes, he won’t have to try at all"
I opened s, but then I remembered that I alone knew Lenoir’s secret That he was a Blud in a foreign place, surrounded by strangers So about that, the smile would finally drop off his face forever