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Jason nodded She wanted me to be hers Shes very jealous, very possessive Im just not into that

So you have a woreets me, but the rest doesnt work

No, Nathaniel She used to greet me sort of like that, but for weeks now its been, Where have you been? Who have you been with? You fucked the ain, didnt you? You fucked Asher, didnt you? You ith Anita again, werent you?

Ive put you on the back burner for feeding ot the impression Perdy didnt want to share you thatblood to the vampires

Shes like crazy jealous, and she wont believe me when I tell her I havent been with anyone else Its why I asked Jean-Claude to take ht if I stopped having sex with the only other person I was really having sex with that Perdy would calm down

Nathaniel and I exchanged glances across the table He shrugged I asked the question Did it work?

No, he said He took another drink of coffee, and it ot up and went for the French press beside the sink He took the coffee cozy off of it, then put it back on without filling his cup He set the cup in the sink

I dont want more coffee

You can never have too much coffee, I said

He turned and set a little ODed on your level of caffeine

What happened, Jason? I asked

The smile slipped a little more He was soleainst the cabinets, crossed his arain didnt quite meet our eyes

She wanted me to marry her Till death do us part and all that Shes a mermaid, which means shell outlive me She can live for hundreds of years, not immortal like a vampire, but close

You didnt want to marry her, I said, softly

He shook his head Shes obsessed with me She says she loves

Shes not the right one, then

He grinned, and it alht one You cant pick just one either

Thats different

Why, because youre a living vampire who feeds off sex, so you have to have a bevy of lovers? The ardeur is like the perfect excuse to never have to say youre sorry

Id change it if I could, you know that

He came to me then, put his arms around my shoulders, and rested his cheek on the top of my head I didnt mean to make you sad, Anita God knows I didnt Please, dont tell e it if you could You love Nathaniel, and Micah They love you You love Jean-Claude and Asher, and they love you Youre still a little confused about what to do with Daet there

I shook et Requiem, and London, and so pops in now and then, no pun intended It sounded angry and bitter, and I was glad

I didntI didnt mean to ht Please, Anita, please, dont be mad Im upset You have no idea how upset Please, please, Im a bastard, but dont be mad

He held his hand out towith his words Id never seen his eyes full of quite this kind of pain The look in his eyes was irlfriend he didnt want anymore

I held out ers around each other His eyes glittered in the overhead lights

I took his hand, held it His breath ca to cry, buTHE just looked at listened ahed locked away somewhere In a way, to me, that orse I went to hie of a cliff and I were his only handhold That quiet holding on was somale A woman would have cried, or talked more, but for a man, after a certain point this is their pain

I held hiht I whispered it into his hair, against his cheek Its all right, Jason Its all right

Nathaniel came up behind hiainst his friends hair and said, Were here, Jason Were here for you

Jason just held on wordless, ainst me, but it wasnt about sex Id never been pressed so close to any ? Either he had loved Perdy and noas regretting letting her go, or the other shoe hadnt dropped What else could be wrong?

We ended up on the floor of the kitchen, si in a roith our backs to the kitchen island He still hadnt said what else rong, or thaTHE was desperately in love with Perdy and how could he fix it? I kept waiting for hiirl friend Id have asked by now, but guy friends are different Sometimes you have to sneak up on them like some sort of wild animal, no wereanimal pun intended; all men are leery of their emotions, spook theer, sometimes youll learn more Of course, sometiet any sense out of them, but they prefer to speak from a quiet place

Jason had his head against Nathaniels shoulder, and a hand onAt least he, like most of the men in my life, was cuddlier than most I appreciated that

Jasons voice came flat, e My fathers dying of cancer My ht just after Perdy and I broke up

I exchanged a glance with Nathaniel His wide eyes let me know that it was news to him, too

Jesus, Jason, Im sorry, I said

We hate each other, of course, and now the cold bastards dying and I wont have tiive him before he dies