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JEAN-CLAUDE&039;S CUSTOM-MADE BED was still a four-poster like his last one, but the heavy wooden posts and crossbea on the bed,it a cozy nest The wood also had heavy attachment points scattered here and there The frae with shapeshifters and va sturdy to chain they-size e&039;d started calling it I was sitting with ainst the small mountain of black and white pillows in the led lower on the pillows, so that her head tucked in between hs, the other was curled underneath her, the hand touchingall that almost slippery shiny hair Jean-Claude was on the other side of me He had his arainst the side of his body My free hand was on his thigh, petting the silk and the muscles underneath it Asher hadn&039;t even tried to climb on the bed with us One, I was still mad at him, and he knew it Two, Jade didn&039;t like him She didn&039;t trust hi about her extres to her, not really hurt her, but doe-and-subh for fun and gaht never be But Jade&039;s very fear of him made Asher want to seduce her, not necessarily tie her up and have his ith her, but make her say yes Her issues and his: bad mix

Asher paced at the foot of the bed like a big cat in a cage with too h room I stroked the warmth of Jade&039;s hair, and then cuddled into the solidness of Jean-Claude I let their touchingthey that Asher was having to pace away

"If I had dreamed that you would ether, I would have cautioned you," Jean-Claude said

"I know he&039;s a Bride, but I thought I was a danger to hiht accidentally drain a Bride to death That&039;s what you told me"

"Yes, ma petite, but"

"I wasn&039;t that hurt"

"No, but the Brides have no ability to protect the that their master wants from them"

"I didn&039;t use the ardeur the first time It didn&039;t feel like I used it" I tried to think "I did heal enough to go down on Nicky the second ti by the side of the bed "That is a lot of healing unless the sex was ical"

I frowned at him "I know that the ardeur can drain a lover to death if I feed too often on any one person, but healing from sex has never come with that kind of price unless the ardeur is invoked"

Jean-Claude laid his cheek against my hair "Belle Morte drained her Brides to raise her oer, just before she would take us into a nobleman&039;s court and try to seduce the but heal and feed the ardeur," I said

Asher said, "The first tiy, it was accidental"

We looked at him

He used his hair to hide almost all of his face, not just the scars, as if he didn&039;t want to see us while he told us "The first time was like this, just sex, but there was no modern medicine to restart his heart He died and stayed dead, but she wasn&039;t upset She loved the power of it, and filed it away in that dark mind of hers By the time Jean-Claude arrived in court she had made it just another piece of her power"

"You have never mentioned this," Jean-Claude said

"I did not think that Anita would be able to do it She is not a true vampire She"

"I am master here, Asher; you should have told me and let me decide what ma petite needed to know"

"I see that now," Asher said, and he looked up, letting the shine of his eyes glea "I&039;esture, and soainst the bed had loosened the sash so that it fell open, giving a glimpse of his body, pale and perfect The robe fell open only to show the unscarred side, the same way his hair often fell I knew the hair was deliberate; was the robe? Could he "accidentally" liive up? Jean-Claude had just finished having sex with him; it wasn&039;t him that Asher needed to re-seduce

I turned so I could see Jean-Claude&039;s face, which made hiive in?"

"What do you ive in, ma petite?"

"I ht? No ood the sex is, he has to leave town for at least a ht?"