Page 66 of Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter 29)

“It was a first date, and I was bored out of mind. I’m sorry that people are in danger, but I’m not sorry that I’m here with the two of you instead of with a stranger droning on about her divorce and how I was nothing like her ex-husband and wasn’t that good.”

“That sounds awful,” I said.

Jean-Claude stroked his arm and said, “Why would you be on such a date?”

“Fixed up by another teacher, and my therapist has been encouraging me to date more.”

“What’s your therapist going to say about being here with us?”

“Nothing, she told me to either date and find someone to make me stop mooning over you and Jean-Claude or to get back with you.”

I was glad that Jean-Claude was in between us because I went very still. The sex was fabulous, and we needed to repair the triumvirate to secure Jean-Claude’s power base, but we weren’t back together. We were not suddenly a threesome. Richard had alienated so many people in our poly group that they’d never have sex with him, and he couldn’t seduce them into thinking it was a good idea. I didn’t even think it was a good idea and I had the benefit of seeing him naked. Did Richard really believe that one good fuck and all was forgiven, or had I misunderstood? Please let me have misunderstood.

“I know that this doesn’t make everything all right between us. I’m not expecting one good fuck, and everything is forgiven.”

“Thank you for saying that out loud,” I said.

He hugged us both again and then his arm moved, and I looked back over my shoulder. I caught a glimpse of his hair and upper body, so I rolled over still in Jean-Claude’s arms so I could see both of their faces.

He idly stroked Jean-Claude’s arm as he spoke. “I don’t know how comfortable I’ll be with certain things, but I finally changed therapists a few months ago, because the first one was an older man and he was more homophobic than I was, and one of my major issues was that I was totally captivated by this beautiful man that I kept trying to hate, because I didn’t want to be bisexual on top of being a werewolf. It’s one of the reasons I freaked out after we were together with Asher in the bedroom that first time. It felt great and then I went home and tried to be what I thought I was supposed to be instead of what I was.”

We both just stared at him. “Wait, go back, did you just say you were bisexual?”

He nodded.

“Richard,” Jean-Claude said, “I am astonished. I... you have rendered me speechless.”

“Am I too late? Is there no room for me in the poly group? I’ve been horrible and I’ve vanished for months on all of you, so if it’s too late then I understand. It’s my own fault.”

“It is never too late while life remains,” Jean-Claude said. “Only true death takes away our second chances.”

“I agree,” I said, “but we have to talk to the rest of our people. Some of the newer ones haven’t even met you or only in passing.”

“I know, and I’m sorry that it took me this long to admit the truth to myself.”

Jean-Claude rolled over on his back to look up at Richard, and for some reason that made me go up on one elbow so that I was mirroring Richard’s pose. He got totally distracted by my breasts for a second and couldn’t make eye contact with either of us.

“If that look on your face is you trying not to stare at my breasts, it’s okay to stare. We just had sex, so you’re allowed,” I said.

Richard smiled and looked embarrassed. “Not all women feel that way, even after sex.”

“That’s their issue, not mine.”

He looked at my face and there was a depth of feeling in his brown eyes that once would have made my heart sing but now forced me to look down so he couldn’t read the uncertainty in mine.

“I’m tired of their issues,” he said, then added, “and so tired of my own.” He bent down and I looked in time to see him kiss Jean-Claude softly, tenderly, the way most women like to be kissed. He drew back and Jean-Claude’s eyes were still closed, the black lace of his lashes making him look like Snow White in some gender-switch porn. I had sex on my mind but after what we’d just done together and gazing at the two of them nude knowing I could just reach across and touch them... who could blame me?

Jean-Claude opened his eyes and gazed up at Richard. “I feel like I am dreaming, and I do not wish to wake, but we must clean up enough to be presentable and use our combined energies to send the audience home safe and sound.”

“Just tell me what to do,” Richard said.

Jean-Claude sat up, then got to his feet like he was dancing onstage. I was not going to be anywhere near that smooth standing up in my heels. Maybe he read my mind, or maybe he just knew me well enough, because he offered me a hand up, which I happily took, because I actually needed it. Richard stood up with us. There was a moment of awkwardness when it was like he didn’t know whose hand to take.

“Ma petiteneeds the most help in those delicious shoes.”

Richard moved so he could take my other hand, and we walked toward the door, and then I stopped so they had to stop. “Not everyone in the hallway gets to see me naked on a regular basis; I need my dress.”

“I should put on my clothes, too,” Richard said.

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