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Teddy went down on his knees "You are lupa" The other two followed hiood little subh Kevin didn&039;t like it, and neither did I But I wasn&039;t sure how much was form and how much was necessary I wanted theht anybody, or kill anybody So I let thes, and sniff s Which is when the nurse caot up off the floor I tried to explain and finally stopped The nurse just stood there staring at all of us, a strange frozen s a da "I&039;ll send Doctor Wilson in to check on them" She nodded her head too often and too rapidly and shut the door behind her If she&039;d been wearing heels, I&039;d have bet we could have heard her run
Soone of thein the baby-sitting olvestime to read McKinnon&039;s file ht, it&039;d be es from the file One, that all the fires had been started after dark, which made me think instantly of vampires Except that vampires couldn&039;t start fires It wasn&039;t one of their abilities In fact fire was one of the things they feared most Oh, I&039;d seen a few va flames to a small extent Make a candle flame rise or fall, parlor tricks, but fire was the element of purity Purity and the va I learned froeneral or arson in particular I was going to need a book or a good lecture
Jean-Claude had made reservations at Demiche&039;s, a very nice restaurant I&039;d had to run hoe It had put ed to meet him at the restaurant The trouble with fancy dates here to put my weapons Woe to concealed-weapon carry
For forhetti-strap forh on either side, I&039;d had tooff-black, and the underas lacy and black I knewI&039;d forget and flash the undies And if I had to go for the gun, I&039;d certainly flash So ear it? Answer: I had a Firestar 9mm pistol tucked inside a bellyband
The bellyband was an elastic strap that went over the underwear, but under the outerwear It was designed to wear under a button-down dress shirt Pull the shirt up with the free hand, pull the gun out, and viola, start shooting The bellyband didn&039;t ell under most formals, because you had yards of cloth to raise before you could get to the gun It was better than nothing, but only if the bad guy was patient But this dress, all I had to do was put un out, down, and out from under the dress, so it still wasn&039;t speedy, but it wasn&039;t bad The bellyband also did not ith an especially forun
I&039;d actually found a strapless bra that un and dress, I earing lingerie The shoes were higher heels than I&039;d normally accept, but it was either that or hem the dress Since I refuse to sew, heels it was
The one hetti straps was that it showed off alla little cover-up jacket, but this wasn&039;t a dress that was meant for a jacket So screw it Jean-Claude had seen the scars before, and the few people rude enough to give second glances could have an eyeful
I was getting pretty good at makeup, eye shadow, blusher, lipstick The lipstick was red--very, very red But I had the coloring for it Pale skin, black curly hair, pure brown eyes I was all contrasts and strong colors the bright red lipstick li at the table, waiting for h the maitre d&039; o people ahead of me I didn&039;t mind I enjoyed the view
Jean-Claude&039;s hair is black and curly, but he&039;d done so past his shoulders, curled under at the ends His face seemed even more delicate, like fine porcelain He was beautiful, not handso fe You would neverother than male He was dressed in royal blue, a color I&039;d never seen hi, almost metallic cloth was overlaid with black lace in a pattern of flowers The shirt was his typical frilled, a la 1600&039;s shirt, but it was a rich, vibrant blue, down to the mound of ruffles that climbed up his neck to frame his face and spill out the sleeves of the jacket to cover the upper half of his slender white hands
He held an elass between his fingers, watching the light spill through the crystal He couldn&039;t drink wine more than a sip at a time and h the tables towards hiht, and it was suddenly hard to breathe The blue so close to his face made his eyes bluer than I&039;d ever seen theht skies, but cobalt blue, the color of a good sapphire But no jewel ever had that weight of intelligence, of dark knowledge The look in his eyes as he watched me walk towards him made me shiver Not cold, not fear Anticipation
In the heels, and with the slits on both sides of the dress, there was an art to walking You had to sort of throw yourself into it, a sling-back, slouching, hip-swinging walk, or the dress wrapped around your legs and the heels twisted at your ankles You had to walk like you knew you could wear it and look wonderful If you doubted yourself, hesitated, you&039;d fall to the floor and turn into a pu able to wear heels and dress clothes, Jean-Claude had taught me in a month what my stepmother couldn&039;t teach me in twenty years
He stood, and I didn&039;t h once upon a ti every tiirls at the table One, I&039;d mellowed since then; two, I could see the rest of Jean-Claude&039;s outfit
The pants were black linen, clinging s that I knew there was nothing under the pants but his to the knees The boots were soft, crepe-like leather, wrinkled and pettable
He glided towardshim come I was still half afraid of hiht in headlights, frozen, waiting for death to come But did the rabbit&039;s heart beat fast and faster? Did its breath coer rush to the fear, or was there just death?
He wrapped his ar me close His pale hands arm as they slid over ht, borrowed their warer The Master of the City never went begging for donors Blood was about the only bodily fluid I wouldn&039;t share with him I slid my hands over the silk of his shirt, underneath the short jacket I wanted to ainst his stolen warhness of the linen, contrasting it to the smoothness of the silk Jean-Claude was always a sensual feast, right down to his clothing
He kissed htly We&039;d learned that the lipstick ca my face, downpulse in ht, ainstbreath and drew back fro the va pulse in the throat It was a gesture reserved for the very closest friends It showed great trust and affection To refuse it ry or distrustful It still seemed too intimate for public consumption to hts start with a refusal It was an old gesture just co a entertainers and others of the sa the air near souess
The maitre d&039; held my chair I waved hirace I neverso far fro forward on my own So the heck with it, I&039;d do it le into , but he didn&039;t offer to help I&039;d finally broken hiraceful fall It was an almost foppish movement, but he was like a cat Even at rest there was the potential of muscle under skin, a physical presence that was utterly masculine I used to think it was vampire trickery But it was him, just him
I shook , ma petite?"
"I felt pretty spiffy until I saw you Now I feel like one of the ugly stepsisters"
He tut-tutted at me "You know you are lovely,you howfor coain "You look a his head to one side so his hair swept forward "Merci, ht?" I asked "It looks great," I added hastily, and it did, but I hoped it wasn&039;t as permanent as a perm I loved his curls
"If it ould you say?"
"If it was, you&039;d have just said so Now you&039;re teasing me"
"Would you mourn the loss of my curls?" he asked
"I could return the favor," I said
He widened his eyes in lory,at me, but I was used to it
"I didn&039;t know you could get linen that tight," I said
His sun under such aslender dress"
"As long as I don&039;t hug anybody, they&039;ll never know"
"Very true"
A waiter came and asked if anted drinks I ordered water and Coke Jean-Claude declined If he could have ordered anything, it would have been wine
Jean-Claude brought his chair over to sit almost beside , but picking out the ht&039;s entertainment It had taken me several dinner dates to realize what Jean-Claude wanted--no, almost needed I was Jean-Claude&039;s human servant I bore three of his marks One of the side effects of the second h e, he wouldn&039;t have had to feed off of any huh h me
For the first time in nearly four hundred years he could taste food I had to eat it for him, but he could enjoy a s he&039;d gained through the bonding, but it was the thing that seelee and watchedit as I did In private he&039;d roll on his back like a cat, hands pressed to hishe did that was cute He was gorgeous, sensual, but rarely cute I&039;d gained four pounds in six weeks eating with him
He slid his arether He leaned close enough for his hair to brush ne, caressed ne, then Brut was bug spray
I moved my head away from the caress of his hair, mainly because the feel of him this close was all I could think about Maybe if I&039;d taken him up on his invitation to live with him at the Circus of the Damned, some of this heat would have dissipated But I&039;d rented a house in record tiet shot up, which is why I moved out of my last apartal I was a condo kind of gal But condos had neighbors, too
The lace overlay on his jacket was scratchy against my nearly bare shoulders He put his hand onbrushedhe&039;d said It was e and looked at azed at me from inches aith those extraordinary eyes "I have been explaining my menu choices to you Have you heard any of it?"
I shook hed, and it hovered overover my body It was a vampire trick but low on the scale, and had becos
He whispered against ies, ma petite You know it pleases hed again, and I pushed him away "Go sit on your side of the table You&039;ve been here long enough to knohat you want"
He"I have what I want, ma petite"
I had to look down and not meet his eyes Heat crept up my neck into my face, and I couldn&039;t stop it
"If you mean what do I want for dinner, that is a different question," he said
"You are a pain in the ass," I said
"And so many other places," he said
I didn&039;t think I could blush"Stop it"
"I love the fact that I can "
The tone in his voice made me s in I was trying for sexy and sophisticated"
"Can you not be char as well as sexy and sophisticated? Is there so all three?"
"Slick, very slick," I said
He widened his eyes, trying for innocent and failing He was s, but innocent wasn&039;t one of the on dinner," I said
"You hed "Before you ca you ate so you wouldn&039;t die I will never be as enamored of food as you are It&039;s almost a fetish with you"
"Hardly a fetish, ma petite"
"A hobby, then"
He nodded "Perhaps"
"So just tell otiate"
"All that is required is that you taste what is ordered You do not have to eat it"
"No, no ain weight"
"You have gained four pounds, so I aently for this phantoht up to a grand total of one hundred and ten pounds, correct?"
"That&039;s right"
"Oh, antuan"
I looked at him, and it was not a friendly look "Never tease a woht, Jean-Claude At least not an American twentieth-century one"
He spread his hands wide "My deepest apologies"
"When you apologize, try not to smile at the same time It ruins the effect," I said
His s peeked out "I will try to remember that for the future"
The waiter returned with my drinks "Would you like to order, or do you need a few minutes?"
Jean-Claude looked at otiation began
Twenty minutes later I needed a refill on my Coke, and we knee wanted The waiter returned, pen poised, hopeful
I&039;d won on the appetizer, so eren&039;t having one I&039;d given up the salad, and let him have the soup Potato-leek soup, hey, it wasn&039;t a hardship We both wanted the steak
"The petite cut," I told the waiter
"Hoould you like that prepared?"
"Half well-done, half rare"
The waiter blinked at ht-ounce cut, right?"
He nodded
"Cut it in half, and cook four ounces of it well-done, and four ounces of it rare"
He frowned at me "I don&039;t think we can do that"
"At these prices you should bring the cow out and have a ritual sacrifice at the table Just do it" I handed hi, he turned to Jean-Claude "And you, sir?"
Jean-Claude gave a sht"
"Would you like ith dinner, then, sir?"
He never hed Coke all over the tablecloth The waiter did everything but give hed until tears trailed from the corners of his eyes You couldn&039;t really tell it in this light, but I knew that the tears were tinged red Knew that there would be pinkish stains on the linen napkin when he was done dabbing his eyes The waiter fled without having gotten the joke Staring across the table at the sot the joke or was the butt of the joke There were nights when I wasn&039;t sure which way the grave dirt crumbled
But when he put his hand out to me across the table, I took it Definitely, the butt of the joke