Page 11 (1/2)

25

Micah tried to lure me out of the bedroo that I couldn&039;t hide in there all day I think it was the hiding co it deliberately, and he said, "Of course I did Nathaniel isn&039;t expecting you to fall on your knees and propose He&039;s happy the way things are"

"No he&039;s not He wants sex"

Micah offered me his hand and looked way too serious "I don&039;t understand why you hold that last part back from him"

I didn&039;t take his hand In fact I crossed my arms over my stomach and frowned at him "&039;That last part,&039; you "

He knelt in front of me "Anita, I love you, you know that"

Actually, I didn&039;t know that People act like they love you, but how do you ever know it&039;s real I didn&039;t say it out loud, but soe must have said it for me, because hein h, which was probably why he&039;d done it

We ended up with my arms around his waist, and he put his hands onhiet "You do realize that from this position, sex won&039;t work, unless we trade equipment"

"It&039;s not always about sex, Anita, so close"

"Now isn&039;t that the girl line," I said

"Not if you&039;re the girl, and I&039; all serious and unhappy "I don&039;t kno to do this"

"What?" he asked

"Richard&039;s right, I don&039;t kno to be in love I&039;reat at everything but adainsthappy to be there

"You&039;re trying to distract etting angry"

"Angry about what?" I asked, anddown his back as I said it It was hard to be this close to hiry You get angry whenever you&039;re unco to hit a lot of buttons for you"

My hands slid past his belt, to touch the top of his jeans I&039;d once thought you had to be in love to be able to touch soht, I&039;d liked it, and it had h fabric of his new jeans, but underneath was the solid swell of his ass He had a good ass, round and tight, smaller than I liked, but definitely there I&039;d told him he needed some ass just to balance out the front of him Truthfully, Nathaniel had a rounder, fuller ass, ht and fir was a man who had severe white-ed over the butt I wanted so to sink my teeth into When I said I liked

I&039;d buriedhis ass He rocked hiainst me, just a little Was this love? Was the fact that I could touch every part of him and he could touch every part of me love? Or was it just lust?

I raised h to touch the skin of his neck, so warm, so sweet I&039;d been raised that you only loved one person at a time If I loved Jean-Claude, I couldn&039;t love Micah If I loved Micah, I couldn&039;t love anyone else The only person I was really able to say I love you to without hesitating was, strangely, Asher I was beginning to suspect that was because Jean-Claude loved hi each other In Jean-Claude&039;s ars back and forth for him and Asher, then I could say love and mean it But here and noithout Jean-Claude to push me, the word stuck in my throat like it would choke ht I loved Micah, but that&039;s not the way a person wants to hear love declared Sometimes is worse than not

I put one hand in the er could rub back and forth even through the jeans, but led for a moment in the thick curls of his ponytail, then touched the warmth of his neck I kneas inside my head, even as I put a hand in Micah&039;s hair and pulled his head to one side, so his neck stretched long and clean Because ere alht position forthe meat of it So warm, so incredibly warm I wrapped my mouth around his neck, felt the pulse of his blood under his skin, and set teeth into that warround hi ainst a e to bite down, to draw blood Jean-Claude filled es of hi-dead huhter,needlework by the fire There was es of him and me, and Asher, but also of Micah Micah&039;s neck under his fangs, while I watched the to find both of us asleep in his big bed, curled on the silk sheets, Micah&039;s brown curls lying so close to my black curls that he could not tell where one ended and the other began Jean-Claude let me feel his emotions, as he drew back the sheets and felt the first breath of our war his cold body between us, and hoeslowly to his hands on our bodies How ive hiift and the need than it was Of how much it , still bleeding body, to my body, and pierceit from Jean-Claude&039;s point of vieas uncomfortable and h my mind, while my mouth tasted Micah&039;s skin "If this is not love,of it If this is not love, then no one since tian has ever loved You ask yourself What is love? A, is What is not love? ma petite What is it that this man does for you that is not done out of love?"

I wanted to argue, but Jean-Claude was too close in my head, and Micah&039;s neck was between ers could be fed off this flesh, soof blood trailed across ht me back into myself, helped me pull back before I hurt him But he collapsed around ainst h

I held him with my ariven himself completely to me He hadn&039;t tried to protect himself or worried that I&039;d eat his throat out, and he should have But he&039;d trusted me Trusted me not to hurt him more than he enjoyed I&039;d never bloodied hione past teeth ood to hold his flesh between my teeth and not to stop, until I tasted that first blood

He gave a shaky laugh and said in a hoarse voice, "Nathaniel&039;s going to be jealous"

"Yeah," I whispered, "he&039;s alanting ht that caive Nathaniel some of what he wanted? Not kill me, no The question ould it break me, and if so, how much? Jean-Claude&039;s echo in my head was, "Perhaps it will not break you, ma petite, perhaps it will heal you, and him"

"Get out of my head," I said

"What?" Micah asked

"Sorry, nothing, just babbling to hter trailed inside

26

I was in the kitchen eating biscuits with butter and honey slathered all over theory He was still in leopard biscuits Have you ever watched so out the throats of gazelles? It was interesting If he&039;d just put the whole biscuit in his mouth at once it would have been okay, but he didn&039;t He ate the rounds of bread dripping with butter and red currant jelly in pieces, delicately Except that his jaeren&039;t made for delicate, so his fur was spotted with jelly, and he kept licking it off with an iuely fascinating Like a combination of Aniood that I had so very una Micah&039;s neck, when he&039;d practically begged for me to do it to him, and I&039;d refused, but I had no real clue how upset He&039;d been banging things around the kitchen A cabinet door didn&039;t just close, it slas, slaps, and the like I didn&039;t even know that plastic food containers could s around, he was agreeing with everything Gregory said, but his tone of voice sounded like he was fighting "We&039;ve been advertising a leopard for tonight, if they can&039;t havepink tongue all the way around his "muzzle"

"Fine, it&039;s not like I&039;ll be doing anything else tonight" Soht that last was directed atme the look, the one that said as clearly as if he&039;d spoken, fix this Why was it always me that had to fix it? Because I was usually the one who screwed it up in the first place Oh, that hy

My teeth marks were imprinted into Micah&039;s neck The marks had been se them Good for him, and for me I&039;d stopped before I&039;d hurt him too badly It was actually less blood than the one and only time I&039;d let myself mark Nathaniel It had been when the ardeur was new and I was still trying to find ways to feed it that didn&039;t involve intercourse Silly me

The last strahen he took the butter dish off the table, before everybody was finished with it Gregory grabbed for it, and clarong for grabbing china The plate fell and broke all over the floor The butter slid across the floor in a long yellow line, like a really nasty snail trail I don&039;t knohat I would have said--probably so

"Soet that," Nathaniel said fro up the mess, "I&039; his breakfast, I think because he was upset withto help Nathaniel feel better Probleot the phone

"Anita, it&039;s Ronnie"

"Ronnie, hi," and I was thinking furiously Oh, yeah, I wasn&039;t the only one having personal problems I still couldn&039;t believe that she&039;d turned down Louie&039;s proposal Out loud I said, "How ya doing?"

"Louie left a e on my phone, so I know you know" She sounded defensive

"Okay, you want to talk about it?" I didn&039;t take offense It wasn&039;t me she was mad at

She blew out a loud breath "Yes no I don&039;t know"

"You can co that careful voice, like the one Micah used so els," she said

"You could have hoet here, instead" I said

"Homemade biscuits? You didn&039;t make them, did you?"

"No, Nathaniel did"

"Can he cook?"

"Actually, yes"

I could al over the phone

"Honest, he&039;s really good at the baking stuff"

"If you say so"