“Yes.”
“Since you acquired the ardeur as a power?”
I started to say Sure, then had to stop myself. Damn it, I think he was right. “I don’t know. I . . . I guess not.”
“Then we will wait outside once you raise that particular power,” he said.
I was out of arguments that made any sense, so I stopped trying to argue. A few years back I’d have argued until either we had a fight or the cows came home, but therapy had helped me realize that I could just let some things go. I let this go and let them stand by the door, which meant now they couldn’t see in the bathroom at all. My modesty was saved.
11
THE SHOWER IN our room was big enough for all three of us with room to spare. It had multiple showerheads; in fact, water came from so many directions that if I was in it alone I only turned on part of them. Okay, I turned on one of them, but Nathaniel had a very different view of the shower. He liked all the showerheads and as much pounding, pouring water as possible. He opened the hinged glass door and walked inside so he could start turning on the water. He hadn’t even bothered to take off his shorts. He adjusted the temperature dial a little cooler, then stood to one side so the initial cold burst of water wouldn’t hit him. He let the water run while he came back out to us.
“We all have too many clothes on,” he said.
“I think you’re the only exhibitionist in the room,” I said.
He shook his head. “Anita, this isn’t about being an exhibitionist. It’s just the three of us. It’s okay if we see each other nude.”
Damian’s voice was soft and sort of sad as he said, “We haven’t seen each other nude since the first night Anita bound us to her as her servants.”
“That doesn’t seem true,” I said.
“You’ve seen Nathaniel nude a lot,” Damian said, then smiled. “We’ve all seen him nude just walking around here.”
“I’m a wereanimal; none of us like clothes.”
“Micah wears clothes when he’s outside the bedroom,” I said.
“That’s just polite,” Nathaniel said with a smile and an eyebrow waggle.
I laughed, partially from his delivery and partly out of something close to happy embarrassment.
“The rest of us appreciate his consideration,” Damian said.
I looked at him, expecting to see a smile, but he looked serious.
“Micah’s well endowed, but he’s not scary big.”
Damian raised one pale eyebrow.
“Oh, come on,” I said.
“Anita, if you don’t think Micah is scary big, then the rumor about you liking really well-endowed men has to be true.”
“Oh, it’s not a rumor,” Nathaniel said, smiling.
Damian nodded. “I figured as much.” He looked way more unhappy than he should have from the news.
“I am not just a size queen,” I said. “Skill counts, too.”
“Yes, yes, it does,” Nathaniel said, wrapping his arms around me so that our faces were almost close enough to kiss. It would have been more romantic if we hadn’t both still been covered in blood, but staring into his eyes from inches away it didn’t matter as much as it might have. He smiled that certain smile that said he was thinking of naughty things to do with and to me. It made me smile back and give my own version of the look.
“I am sorry that I didn’t measure up, Anita,” Damian said.
It startled us both, and we turned to stare at him with our arms still around each other. “What do you mean?” I asked.
Nathaniel said, “If you mean you don’t measure up to Micah, then none of us do, except maybe Richard.”
“Trust me, Damian, there’s more to what I like in the bedroom than just size.”
He looked at the floor then and said, “Then I’m even sorrier that I disappointed you in other ways.”
Nathaniel and I exchanged looks; he gave a little shrug and let me go, so I could move to stand in front of Damian. I touched his arm, and he flinched, as if I’d hurt him. “Damian, are you . . .” I tried to think how to say it, because if I was misunderstanding and said the wrong thing, then I could give him a complex where he hadn’t had one.
Nathaniel helped me by saying, “Do you think the reason Anita hasn’t been back for more sex is that she wasn’t happy with you?”
Damian sort of nodded, still not making eye contact. His green eyes rolled up just enough to see my face, and whatever he saw there made him look at me a little harder. I must have looked as astonished as I felt. I finally found some words and said, “Damian, I swear to you that your skills, or lack, or anything about you was not why I didn’t pursue you as a lover.”
“She didn’t mean you lack skills,” Nathaniel added for me.
I glanced at him and then back to the vampire in front of me. “No, of course not.”
“Then why did you cut me out of that part of your life after that?”
“I don’t know, except it was pretty overwhelming finding out that I had a vampire servant, which was supposed to be impossible, and an animal to call, which should only work if I were a vampire.”
“She didn’t have sex with me at all that night, remember,” Nathaniel said.
“You weren’t my lover for months after that,” I said.
“Almost a year,” he said.
Damian looked shocked. “But you’d been living with Anita for months by then.”