Page 61 of Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 29)

“Richard,” Nathaniel said, “you need to ask for what you need.”

“I haven’t seen Anita in almost a year, how do I come in and make demands?”

“I said need, not demand.”

“Okay, one of you please explain what I’m missing,” I said.

The men looked at each other. “How much do you want me to help out here?” Nathaniel asked, and I realized he was talking to Richard.

“She tends to take things like this better from you than me.”

Nathaniel looked at me and smiled that smile that said he thought it was adorable that I was totally missing this. Richard was right, from Nathaniel I’d take that look, from most anyone else it would have been condescending.

“Just tell me,” I said.

“Condoms only fit if a man is hard.”

“I know that,” I said, frowning.

“Richard isn’t hard anymore.”

I looked back at Richard, except this time I let myself look farther down his body. Damn. “Too much talking after the clothes came off,” I said.

“Yes.” Richard and Nathaniel said it together.

It made me laugh and some tension in me loosened. It would be okay; Nathaniel would be here to wingman for us. Richard had even acknowledged we needed him to do just that; if we could just keep being that honest with each other we’d be good.

25

WE STARTED WITHa hug, wrapping our arms around each other. The heels meant that I was tall enough that our hips were pressed against each other, so that the soft mound of his body lay warm and solid against me. The feel of just that made me shudder in his arms and bury my face against his shoulder. Hiding my face against the smoothness of his skin. His arms tightened around me, and I raised my face up for a kiss. His lips were as soft and full and kissable as I remembered. Sometimes you try to drown yourself in the kisses of other people, trying to forget how the one that got away tasted, but they’re like that rare vintage of wine that you think you’ll never drink again; the first sip reminds you why you loved it.

His body was starting to grow firmer just from kissing. I ran one hand up to touch his hair. The texture was rougher than all those foamy waves looked, but it was still soft, just not as soft as others. It filled my hand and made me go up on tiptoe to kiss him harder, pressing our bodies closer, starting to grind gently against that growing point of his body as the kiss became more. I bit gently on his lower lip, and he growled for me, pulling away, and since I knew he didn’t like pain I let him. Richard bit my lower lip, tit for tat, but I didn’t pull away, because I did like pain. He bit down a little harderand my eyes rolled back into my head, and then he bit more, and that was too much for there. I patted his shoulder like tapping out in the dojo, but he took it as me pretending to struggle. I hit his shoulder harder, and he let go, moving back so he could see my face. “Too much?”

“Yes,” I said.

Nathaniel said, “If she can’t talk she taps out.”

“I didn’t know,” Richard said, and it was the truth.

“Now you know and just in case it comes up, my safeword is ‘safeword.’ ”

He widened his eyes at me. “ ‘Safeword,’ really?”

I frowned at him. “Yes, really.”

“Mine’s ‘red.’ ”

“Red as in stop,” I said. He nodded, looking down at me, and it was both familiar and weird as hell to be gazing up at him naked. “You’re a top to a dominant, since when did you ever need a safeword?”

“Recently,” he said, and he was searching my face as if not sure how I’d take it.

“Are you telling me you’re a switch like I am?”

“Yes, no, I’m still figuring it all out, but you should always share safewords beforehand, don’t you think?”

“I do, actually,” I said. His body chose that moment to do one of those involuntary twitches that can happen when a man is very eager and very hard. I had to close my eyes and concentrate on my breathing for a second. I had a second of hating that his body could still make me react this strongly, and then Jean-Claude was in both our heads.

“Release theardeurnow!” He’d been shielding us, because now we could feel the other vampire’s power creeping into him, into us. He was the king with the power of a million vampires shared inside him; no other vampire should have been able to touch him, but the powerof this vampire was like black smoke engulfing Jean-Claude. We could see him covered in it as if there was a fire between us and him.

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