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We both turned to look at the door, though my turn was less turny than Richard&039;s Jean-Claude was in the doorearing the black robe I was so fond of The one that was edged with real black fur at the lapels, and fra black curls had been combed out, so that he looked fresh and lovely I still needed a shower Oh, well

"I didn&039;t feel you wake I always feel you wake"

"You are both shielding very, very hard," he said, as he strode into the rooainst the dark carpet "I heard your last comment, ma petite, should I take it as an insult?"

"Sorry, but we need soldiers not seducers We&039;ve got plenty of those"

He gave that wonderful Gallic shrug that raceful ht word If what A, whatever Jean-Claude did wasn&039;t the sao and feed his new and surprising form He will be even more popular when the ladies see this new shape of his" He was being very pleasant, very casual His face held a sraceful and a little flao that this wasn&039;t the real Jean-Claude This was one of his many faces that he used when reality would be too harsh, or too shocking, or too so

"What&039;s up, Jean-Claude?"

"Whatever do you mean, ma petite?" he asked, and came to sit down on part of the bed near me Part that I&039;d re on the relatively clean mattress The bed bobbed unevenly as he settled on it He looked at Richard, as the beda bed frarace to look embarrassed "I lost my temper, I am sorry for that I&039;ll replace the fras, one a little higher than it needed to be, so he could lace his hands around the knee, and expose a line of pale leg Was he flirting No, that wasn&039;t it

It wasn&039;t hts came out Richard&039;s mouth--scary "Cut the act, Jean-Claude, just tell us what&039;s happened now?"

The face he gave us ay too innocent "Whatever do you lances that said worlds Richard spoke for us "No ga to sound painfully like ma petite"

"Thank you, I&039;ll take that as a compliment"

That earned him a smile and a nod from me

Richard smiled at me, and it was the first real smile I&039;d seen on hiood to see it, and I found that I had one offriendly

"You&039;re doing your flamboyant, happy, casual act," I said "Cut the act, and tell us what&039;s up"

"You do realize, ma petite, that Richard has become almost as blunt at ti to have uess, the closer binding last night has had so closer,of a new triumvirate to you That has upped the side effects, I believe" His face was still lovely, but the nearly pretentiousto a seriousness that I didn&039;t like seeing He wasn&039;t happy about so I didn&039;t knohat it was, but it had to be soht both, or at least one of us, really wouldn&039;t like

He started by confessing thatto do Byron and feed Requieh h it "If I hadn&039;t fed on Byron and Requiey to control Prihtered the audience My virtue versus the lives of dozens of people, hh I&039;d rather not make a habit of it"

"You surprise ainst the bed His posture was still perfect, a lot of the old vaood posture, but it was more relaxed all the same

"I&039;ve learned that a little sex isn&039;t a fate worse than death, Jean-Claude"

"Is that all?" Richard said "Or is there more that you&039;d rather we don&039;t know, but feel that we need to know?"

"See, see, he is like you noo of you, I do not know if I can--"

"Just tell us," I said

He gave ured out that we areour abilities in ain, or lose, depending on how one looks at it, only that it is happening"

"I think that Nathaniel and I traded a little dominance and submission" I saw the look on Richard&039;s face, and added, "I mean that ever since we became a triumvirate, Nathaniel see a littleto beto it" Saying it ht it off I&039;d be da if not defiant, especially if I&039;m uncomfortable

"Then, apparently, we can expect aof our basic personalities, as well," Jean-Claude said, and he tried for casual and failed

"This could get really strange," I said, and it was h for Richard, I think it had been co myself

"Is that all the bad news?" Richard asked, and looked directly at him

"I do not see it as bad news, ht"

"Spill it," I said, knees hugged tointo his animal form, one of them anyway I, like you until recently, prefer my food without fur"

I did my best not to look at Richard "Who did you have in mind?"

"Requieht, ma petite I think it is wiser if you do not donate h fro that close to me "I would say it&039;s always me, but it&039;s usually not I know that Anita isn&039;t your regular feed, but I know she lets you feed" He put his face against his knees and sighed again "Fine, but only if Anita is here, too No just you andwith us?"

"That&039;s not what I said," Richard said

"Is that not what you meant?" Jean-Claude asked

Richard seeave a s you say it, it seems--"

"I&039;ll second Jean-Claude&039;s question, define uys"

Richard blushed He didn&039;t blush often, and this o in one conversation "I don&039;t mean it the way you make it sound"

"Then tell us how you do mean it, mon ami"

"I don&039;t want I ain, wordless, frustrated "Why is it that every ti that includes both of you, I always end up feeling like I&039;?"

IRichard&039;s proble Jean-Claude I decided to rescue hi to open a vein for Jean-Claude That deserved so va to explain, and failing

"Look, I understand what Richard is trying to say"

They both looked at me Richard doubtful, and Jean-Claude amused, as if he, too, understood Richard&039;s discomfort, but couldn&039;t afford to let the otherelse amused him, you never can tell with Jean-Claude

"You don&039;t want it to be just the two of you when Jean-Claude feeds," I said

Richard looked relieved, and nodded

I did not say out loud, no you&039;re not homophobic, because if Richard wasn&039;t as co another man touch him, then he was entitled I&039;d never fed a female vamp voluntarily, so as I to bitch?

Jean-Claude&039;s smile deepened just a touch "And why is it such a probleave Jean-Claude a dirty look, and Richard was back to not knowing how to explain "Jean-Claude, you know the old Aift horse in thethis one&039;s teeth"

He laughed, that touchable laugh, which, even through the hardest shielding I had, ht Richard&039;s movement out of the corner of my eye He&039;d shivered, too For the first time, I wondered how much of Jean-Claude&039;s abilities worked on Richard I was terribly heterosexual, and sometimes I just didn&039;t think outside that box Richard didn&039;t like boys, so Jean-Claude didn&039;t affect him the way he did me That&039;s what I&039;d believed, noondered if Richard had ht If you were terribly hetero, but Jean-Claude&039;s powers could affect you, you had a problem if you were a man The fact that it had never occurred to me before, proved beyond a doubt that soht about the et up close, I&039;ve got to get this stuff off of , and I just don&039;t feel clean"

"That would give us tied, perhaps," Jean-Claude said He touched the drying, caked sheets "I have never seen a bed where more than one lycanthrope has shifted It is, how do you say, a lish was better than that, even for slang He was back to being pleased with hih for him to talk inside my head, I&039;d also have more of Richard in my head I didn&039;t want that, so I&039;d have to ask hiure it out Whatever

"I&039;ll make the shower quick," I said, and started for the far door

"If it was hi into the shower," Richard jerked a thumb at Jean-Claude, "I wouldn&039;t believe quick, but you I&039;ll believe"

That one comment made me wonder how much time Richard had spent with Jean-Claude when I wasn&039;t around I didn&039;t say it out loud, though, I ah with Jean-Claude I didn&039;t need to add to it

"We will be here when you are finished, ma petite Hopefully with the bed in better order" He was standing looking down at it, as if he wasn&039;t sure it could really be fixed

"Why not use your room?" Richard asked

"Asher is inIf he woke in the , I think you, Richard, would find it disturbing"

Richard stood and just huddled in his jean jacket "Disturbing You could call it that" He didn&039;t sound happy, and I wondered if there was some incident between him and Asher I should know about Probably not None of my business

I had to walk back to the bed and hunt for un underneath the pillows I sort of waved it at them both "I wouldn&039;t want this thron the laundry chute"

Jean-Claude waved me toward the bathroom "Go, shower, ma petite, ill be ready if you are not too quick"

"We" will be ready, he&039;d said Didn&039;t I have enough "wes" inon whether the bed would hold, or whether it would be safer to simply remove the frame entirely It wasn&039;t until I closed the door behind ht to wonder e needed the bed Jean-Claude could feed on Richard kneeling on the floor, couldn&039;t he? If this was my first chance to touch both men at the same tioop But once I was clean, we could still all do it on the floor We didn&039;t need the bed

I thought about going back out and telling them that, but didn&039;t No matter what else, they were both stillto do They could straighten the bed and sheets and get everything all neat and tidy It would keep the any more of those aard silences Or, that was the hope

57

When I stepped out of the shower,on the back of the door How had I not seen that, or heard it? If Jean-Claude could do that while I was in the shower, andthis hard, I was losing soood

I dried off, wrapped a towel around reat deal for clean underwear, but hell, if I tied the sash tight and the little string tighter, the robe didn&039;t gap I checked that nothing showed in the mirror but a little upper chest, very proper I&039;d washed away all the makeup I looked pale and clean, and, with my hair up in a pale blue towel, I looked sort of too pale, almost sickly I started to take the towel down, because I knew I looked good in the robe with e First,wet Second, I had only one boyfriend in the other roo to lookJean-Claude touch him

I looked at my face, my eyes so dark, and wondered if I could adht I was attractive Yeah, to myself, I could say it, but I left the towel on

They were arguing about candles when I caht in for the bedside tables, and Richard was saying, "We don&039;t need candles, Jean-Claude You&039;re just feeding That&039;s it"

"I vote with Richard We don&039;t need candles"

"The two of you are not romantics"

"This isn&039;t about romance, it&039;s about food," I said

Richard rees with me"

"Of course, she does, mon ami" Jean-Claude didn&039;t sound too put out, he still had that cat-who-ate-the-creas sat on the floor, covered in new, bloodred sheets Even the pillowcases had been changed, so that the bed shione probably explained why Richard had rereen T-shirt

"I had not realized how dark Jason&039;s roo "I have no extra places to put laht with candles I would prefer a romantic reason, but in truth, it is siht"

"You&039;re a vampire," Richard said, "you see in the dark better than I do"

"True, but if you were allowed to touch someone who rarely allows you to touch theht to see what you are doing?" He gave Richard a look, then his eyes slid past him to me It was a quick look, but Richard followed it, and suddenly he didn&039;t seem to knohat to do with his face, so he turned it back toward the otherhere?" I asked, "or a?"

"You miss very little, ma petite"

"Candles are fine," Richard said, still not looking atainst e of hto you, ed Richard&039;s mind?"

I shook my head and tried to answer back as silently as he did I still wasn&039;t great at it What I tried to think back was, "Me in this robe with this towel, is not worth hi his mind"

"You still do not value yourself, as we value you, ain I started to open y danced throughin someone&039;s head, when the other person isn&039;t allowed into the conversation is rude," Richard said "It&039;s like whispering and pointing"

I couldn&039;t argue it, but wanted to "Trust "

"I&039;d like a chance to be the judge of that," he said

I sighed, for what felt like the thousandth ti? I should have told Jean-Claude that we didn&039;t need the bed, that Richard could kneel down and he could just feed Voil¨¤, and we&039;d be done with it

Richard took off his T-shirt "It&039;s too pale, if you get blood on it, it looks like blood" He explained it out loud, and itathim shirtless had its usual effect I&039;d said before that the day I could walk into a room and not have my body react to Richard, I kneas over between us But hormones are traitorous little bastards They don&039;t care how broken your heart is, only that there&039;s an attractivefrohters I could never get theht He moved effortlessly, fro sleeve of his robe back out of reach of the flame

Richard sat down on the corner of the bed His blue jeans and the solid line of his black belt looked fine against the red sheets His tanned upper body looked better, and as if he&039;d heard ainst the sheets, not flat, but propped on his elbows, so that the shi scarlet framed his muscular upper body There were tiny folds in his stomach, like there are on real people, unless they have washboard abs, and Richard had better things to do with his time than do that many sit-ups His stomach was flat and perfect, but perfect doesn&039;t mean perfectly flat Lines are flat, people had curves and bumps and places to explore

Richard turned his head and looked at me His face wasn&039;t neutral anymore His dark eyes held heat, and it wasn&039;t his beast, or at least not just that It was a look I&039;d seen before, a look that said he knew exactly the effect he had on me, and enjoyed it Of late, that look had been to tell et to touch this anymore Noasn&039;t sure what the look meant, but I didn&039;t like it

Jean-Claude ure breaking Richard&039;s and h, Richard had pulled hier touching the floor So that all six feet one of him was on the bed, fraht of candles

My ed uys don&039;t need me, not really" My voice sounded breathy

Jean-Claude turned fro the last candle He sered hands, and stood looking atthe flickering light in a way that human eyes just didn&039;t "Ah, but we do, e between us You are the third of our power Does that sound like someone we do not really need?"

"I don&039;t mean like forever, just not now, not here Itrouble concentrating

Richard rolled over onto his stomach, and he did a little head h to fall a little forward around his face Not long, but thicker than I&039;d thought The candlelight didn&039;t dance on his jeans, but Richard&039;s body in tight jeans didn&039;t need anything else, it was sort of self-explanatory

"I&039; now Yep, that&039;s what I&039;, and I couldn&039;t stop it But I did start for the door, so h

Jean-Claude called, "Ma petite, do not go, please"

I turned back, and I don&039;t knohat I would have said, because he&039;d sat down on the bed, but he&039;d done soapped, and I could see almost his entire chest framed by the black fur of the lapels The burn scar looked very black against the white of his skin and the shi black of the fur His nipples were palest pink, and from that alone, I&039;d have known he hadn&039;t fed His hand touched his chest, as if he knehere I was looking The hand aze, so that I looked at the flat line of his stomach, the line of dark hair that started just below his navel, and swept down to vanish into the shadow of the robe I had an alo over there and rip open the sash and see his body pale and perfect against the dark of the robe and the criainst it all, because I&039;d seen it before That thought ainst red silk I&039;d never seen hiht

He rolled onto his side as I watched, propped up on one elbow, one ar my attention to his jeans and what I kneas in them But no, Richard wasn&039;t that aware of his body, at least not for seduction It was so Jean-Claude would have done, not Richard Then I had one of those horrible thoughts What if one of the things that Richard had gained with the tighter binding of the marks was some of Jean-Claude&039;s skill at seduction Oh, that just wouldn&039;t be fair

I closed ain It was better if I couldn&039;t see either of the to hit the wall"

I stopped abruptly and opened my eyes, and was inches away from the wall The door was about two feet to reat

"Ma petite, do not leave us" His voice crawled through the tiny hole I&039;dmy skin, made me shiver, and God help me, I turned back and looked Stupid me

Jean-Claude had crawled up on the bed, near the pillows He was lying full length across the red silk, with the robe gaping open, barely covering anything His white, white shoulder was fras spilled half in the black robe and half on the scarlet of the sheets Only the barest fringe of fur covered his hips

Richard was still on his side They were lying in almost identical positions, except that Richard&039;s head was pointing away froled toward it

"This isn&039;t fair," I said "Not both of you, not at the same time"

"Whatever do you mean, ma petite?" But he looked entirely too pleased with himself to really need to ask

"You bastard, you knew"

"I knew nothing, but one lives in hope"

I was having trouble breathing, or rather breathing nice even breaths I was shaking ht it, and stood there with it in , but it was only partly fro downyour shoes on the silk sheets Has no one taught you that you do not wear hiking boots on silk?" He didn&039;t even try to , but it wasn&039;t Richard he was teasing

Richard just sat up, bunching his stoan to unlace the short boots He didn&039;t look at

I needed to leave now I really did I knew that, but so there when Richard threw his first boot onto the floor The sound made me jump

He watched me while he took off the other boot, or watched me, watch him I felt like one of those little birds that they say are fascinated with the snake&039;s erous He was just taking off his shoes, damn it It shouldn&039;t have meant this much to me, hell, to anyone