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  Micah stood up, the water and bubbles clinging to his body, some of the suds beginning to slide down his skin as he reached for Nathaniel. I wanted to help the suds caress his skin, wanted to help them hurry down his thigh, cup my hand over that strangely thick pile of bubbles on the front of his body. The first time we'd ever made love together there had been suds and water involved.

  I laid the guns and knives on a corner of the black marble where most people would have put candles, and put the holsters on the edge of the sink, farther away from the potential splash zone of the bathtub. Free of the holsters and all the weapons, I could finally start to pull my shirt over my head, but Jean-Claude said, "Ma petite, come here, let me undress you."

  He'd come to the side of the tub while I'd been watching Nathaniel and Micah. How had I missed him just feet away moving through the water? He was on his knees, hands resting on the edge of the tub so that he lifted himself half out of the water toward me. I was suddenly staring into the midnight blue of his eyes, the darkest blue I'd ever seen, so that it was almost black, almost, and then he'd turn and the light would catch it, and the deep blue of his eyes would gleam to life. The night sky is never truly black, it just looks like that when there's no light to see by, but I could always see the light in Jean-Claude's eyes, no matter how dark.

  I went to him and he raised himself even higher from the water. I had a moment of thinking of mermaids lifting themselves up on rocks at the edge of the sea to kiss their sailors, or princes. Of course, the raven-haired beauty offering me a kiss was a king. Did that make me the mermaid? Nah.

  I met his lips with mine so that we kissed with me still dressed at the edge of the marble tub. I felt his fingers on the bottom of my T-shirt. "Sit on the edge of the tub, ma petite, so I can use both hands."

  I did what he asked, because who wouldn't? He leaned back into the water enough to make room for me, face lifted toward mine, so that it was the most natural thing in the world to meet his lips with mine. He slid his hands underneath my shirt, lifting it upward as we kissed. I raised my arms so he could pull it over them, but he stopped with it up to my shoulders, and kept kissing me. I pressed into the kiss as I felt his fingers at the back of my bra. The snap gave and his hands glided under the line of my bra, spilling over my breasts, and the kiss grew. I pressed my mouth against his, my tongue sliding between his lips and oh so carefully between the dainty hardness of his fangs. His hands touched my breasts with the water still clinging to them, so that he made my breasts as wet as other parts of me were starting to become.

  He finally drew my shirt over my head and the kiss had to stop. I glanced over to find Micah and Nathaniel in their own kiss, though since they were both naked and one of them was wet and covered in suds it distracted me a little more than it should have in Jean-Claude's arms. I turned to him to kiss him again, to apologize for ogling other men while I was almost in the middle of a kiss with him, but he was looking at the other men. I wrapped my arms across his shoulders, pressing my breasts against the wet slickness of his skin, and put my face against his while we watched our two shared men share a very passionate kiss.

  Jean-Claude put his arm around my waist and sighed. "We are lucky, you and I, ma petite."

  "We are, but I'm wearing too many clothes." I whispered it against his face.

  "You are," he whispered back.

  Micah and Nathaniel came up for air, half laughing. "I think we're distracting them," Nathaniel said.

  "I think you're right," Micah said, and he aimed a smile around the edge of Nathaniel's body. It was a smile that would have been more at home on Nathaniel's face, or Jean-Claude's, but there it was on his face, a look that said he knew his worth and he knew just how hot he was, all wet and wrapped around our shared boy.

  Nathaniel kissed his cheek and said, "We better stop distracting them, so Anita can get naked." He pulled Micah with him through the water to settle against the far side of the bath. He threw an arm across Micah's shoulders and drew him in against his body, because it was always easier for the taller half of the couple to throw an arm across. Micah cuddled in against him, tracing one hand over the other man's chest. Nathaniel raised Micah's hand and kissed his palm.

  Micah closed his eyes as Nathaniel kissed across his hand and licked delicately across his wrist. "Stop that or we'll just keep distracting them."

  Nathaniel rose from Micah's wrist, smiling. "I'll behave myself until Anita is out of her clothes, then no promises."

  "Off with the clothes," I said.

  "Yes, please," Nathaniel said, grinning at us.

  "We'll watch you and Jean-Claude now," Micah said.

  "We must make it worth your while, then, mon chat." Jean-Claude turned to me and said, "Give me your foot, ma petite."

  "I'm wearing combat boots, not high heels."

  "It does not matter what you wear. I would still want to help you out of them."

  That made me smile, and I lifted my leg up so he could reach my boot. He unlaced it slowly, making what would have been awkward for anyone else graceful, sensual. He pulled the boot off, and there was the thick boot sock, about as unromantic as it gets, but he just tossed the boot to the floor and then reached up under my jeans with those long, slender fingers, rolling my sock down slowly. He did the same on the other side, and once I was barefoot, he helped me stand up on the top step leading to the tub so that he could unsnap my jeans. I reached to help him unzip them, but he moved my hands away, shaking his head at me. I let my hands fall to my sides and he began to pull my jeans down my hips. He pulled the lacy thong down with them, so that as he pulled the jeans he revealed me nude. He got the jeans to midthigh and then leaned in and laid the gentlest of kisses against that line where thigh and hip meet. It brought my breath in a sigh, my head falling back, my eyes closing as he kissed the other side where my hip met more intimate things.

  He eased the jeans downward, placing kisses on my legs as he did it, until he licked behind my knee, which was a ticklish spot, and I squirmed for him. "No fair, no fair."

  "I think it is very fair," he said and licked behind my other knee.

  I laughed, squirmed, and tried to cover the backs of my knees, but my ankles were still trapped in my jeans, so it was like being in soft ankle-cuffs, which meant that squirming around on a marble step wasn't my best move. I fell trying to "get away" from the tickling.

  Jean-Claude caught me, but I was trying to catch myself at the same time and we both fell into the water. I remembered to hold my breath as we went through the suds and underwater. I started to try to swim my way to the surface, but Jean-Claude stood up with me in his arms, water and suds streaming off both of us. I was coughing and sputtering. He didn't have to breathe, so at least he wasn't dealing with that. My jeans were soaking wet and trailed down from my ankles, trapping them even more than when they'd been dry. Jean-Claude's careful hairdo was a wet mass, and whatever had been holding it in place was still trying to hold on with the heavy wet curls, so that it was just tangled around his face and neck but wasn't free of the bobby pins, or combs, or whatever.

  I wiped suds from my face, and he was trying to blink them out of his eyes because he was using both hands to hold me. Nathaniel and Micah were both laughing. I reached out and wiped the bubbles out of Jean-Claude's eyes and started to laugh.

  "The first time we made love I fell into the bath with all my clothes on," Jean-Claude said.

  "Well, at least it's just my jeans getting wet this time."

  "I have been a ladies' man for centuries. I am truly suave and debonair, except with you, ma petite, except with you."

  "I think I told you, it was a hint, that first time."

  "You did," he said, and smiled.

  Nathaniel asked, "Are your lower legs as tangled as they look?"

  "Wet jeans cling like crazy," Micah said.

  "We could use the jeans for bondage," Nathaniel said.

  I shook my head, laughing. "No, not tonight. I just want to get the jeans off so that I can ge
t in the nice hot bath with the rest of you."

  "You do not want me to simply stand here and hold you, ma petite?" Jean-Claude's smile widened as he said it.

  "No," I said, laughing.

  Nathaniel reached up to take one leg of the jeans and Micah took the other. There were suds in their hair and I realized we'd splashed them when we fell in. We'd also splashed my guns, but lucky for me, the days of having to keep your powder dry so that a gun would fire were long past. Most modern guns could be dragged through water, or even mud, and still shoot.

  They got me out of the jeans and Nathaniel tossed them over the edge of the tub to the floor. The fall into the water had broken some of the momentum to rush into sex and gave me time to remember the idea I'd had about the lamia and helping Micah's clients in Florida.

  I was still in Jean-Claude's arms when I said, "Have you thought about talking to Melanie about your clients in Florida?"

  Jean-Claude put me down into the hot, sudsy bathwater and there was that moment when my body just relaxed into it. It wasn't about sex or anything but my body letting go of more of the stress that I seemed to carry around.

  "What did you say about Melanie?" Micah asked.

  "She's a lamia," I said.

  He blinked at me and then said, "I can't believe I didn't think of talking to her. I've been agonizing about this for weeks and it never occurred to me to talk to her."

  "You are talking about the sad shapeshifters that Micah and the Coalition have been trying to help," Jean-Claude said.

  I looked up at him from the water, nodding. "I don't know how much he told you, but the lamia is the closest to their type of shapeshifting that I've seen."

  "He told me some, but I was more intent on the two of us spending time together, to ease each other's . . . stress, than talking about work." There was something in his voice that made me look up at him again. All the warmth and laughter of a few seconds ago was gone. His face was still lovely to look at, but the cold expression made it more like a statue, a work of art that you could look at but weren't allowed to touch.

  I reached out to touch his arm and he actually moved back from me. I knew something was wrong, but it took Nathaniel moving back to join Jean-Claude on their side of the tub before I realized what.

  "We're all naked in the bathtub and I'm talking business," I said.

  Nathaniel nodded. Jean-Claude just looked at me. It was one of the downsides to being polyamorous: You could get the same looks from more than one person at the same time when you fucked up.

  "I'm sorry, Jean-Claude, Nathaniel, but Anita knows how much this has been bothering me," Micah said, coming up to hug me. I think he needed the same reassurance I did, that not everyone in the tub was angry with him.

  "And we don't know how much it's been bothering you?" Nathaniel asked, arms crossing over his chest so that I noticed the swell in his biceps, but the attitude that went with it made it less sexy and more You don't get to play with this.

  "Of course you both know. You went with me to Florida and they were so protective of their secret that I had to keep sending you off by yourself with just a bodyguard," he said, and then looked at Jean-Claude. "And you've just spent time helping me climb out of the darkness in my head from this case."

  "And yet, it is Anita that knows how much it is bothering you?" Jean-Claude said, and it was that girlfriend/boyfriend accusatory voice.

  Micah hugged me a little closer and I hugged him back. I didn't want this to turn into a fight, but I wasn't always good at avoiding them. I finally decided to be very honest. "I don't want this to turn into a full-fledged fight. I'm sorry that I just blurted out the idea of talking to Melanie about the other shapeshifters, but I was just excited that I might have a clue that would help Micah."

  "More excited than being with us?" Nathaniel said.

  "Have we become less exciting than your cases, ma petite?"

  Oh shit. "No, of course not."

  Micah tried to help me dig myself out of the hole that our evening was rapidly disappearing into. "Please, Jean-Claude, Nathaniel, we were both thoughtless and careless of your feelings, but no one is as important to us as the two of you."

  "Please," I said, "it's the first time the four of us have been together in weeks. Don't let this ruin the evening."

  "And that is exactly why it hurts so much, ma petite."

  I looked at Micah. "You try. I can't seem to keep my foot out of my mouth."

  "I am sorry that we started talking business in that moment, but Anita is the only one who has seen the pictures of what is happening to the family down in Florida. It's awful enough that it's haunting us both."

  "They wouldn't let me see them in animal form," Nathaniel said.

  "And perhaps if you had shown me the same pictures you showed to Anita, I would have thought of sending you to Melanie, as well."

  "You're right, you're both right, but I know that Anita sees worse on her job than I do on mine, so I knew she would see it as part of the job. I didn't want to burden the two of you with things that give me nightmares."

  I hugged him tighter.

  Nathaniel's face softened and Jean-Claude stopped looking so still and statue-like, as if he'd finally allowed himself to start breathing again. "We are not children to be protected against the harshness of your job, Micah," Jean-Claude said.

  "I didn't mean it that way . . ."

  Jean-Claude waved him to silence. "It is a noble sentiment, Micah, but it is not necessary for me. I have seen more blood spilled and lives lost than you have. I would say that all four of us have seen horrors that haunt us. We are none of us sheep that need to be tended and watched over; we are wolves to hunt together. I do not know when you decided that you and Anita were wolves to our sheep, but it is not true. We must be equals, or at least the power must not be so uneven as this."

  Micah opened his mouth, closed it, and didn't seem to know what to say. I hugged him, rubbing one hand along the smoothness of his back. I finally said, "What can we do to fix the mood?"

  "I did not realize that the three of you would be home and unoccupied tonight, or I would have not agreed to the regular business meeting being moved to tonight, so my time here is limited. I will have to start over with my hair, and that will take more time."

  "So, we've ruined the mood and spoiled the evening," Micah said.

  I shook my head. "Wait, I know I fucked up the way I said it, but if Melanie does have information that could help the other shapeshifters, then that's important. It's not more important than the two of you, or the four of us, but moments like this are what make Micah and me not talk about work with the two of you. You're complaining that Micah shares more information with me than with you, but in the same breath you're saying you don't want us to talk about work."

  "No, ma petite, we are complaining that you thought to speak of work in the middle of foreplay."

  I didn't have a comeback for that, because there really wasn't one. Not a good one, anyway.

  "That's fair," Micah said, "and I apologize for my part in it. I am obsessed with this case."

  "As we discussed, mon chat, you must find someone trustworthy enough to send out on some Coalition business without you, for there is too much for you to oversee everything personally."

  "It was a great idea, Jean-Claude. I am thinking about people I could send."

  "Is this business, or can I offer a suggestion?" I asked.

  "It is," Jean-Claude said, "but make your suggestion, ma petite."

  "Socrates was really good with the marshal that got lycanthropy on the job with me. He talked to her family and everything."

  "I remember you telling me about that," Micah said. "He might be able to take some of the survivor interventions."

  "I would trust him to handle survivors," I said.

  "So would I," Nathaniel said.

  "Now that we have settled some of our worries, I must wash my hair and begin to get ready for the business meeting."

  Nathaniel hugged him, put
ting his face on his shoulder. "No, I just got here."

  I half walked, half swam through the water to him and took Jean-Claude's arm. "We haven't been here that long; do you really have to go now?"

  Jean-Claude looked down at the two of us and smiled. "Such faces, you really do not want me to go."

  "Of course not," we said together.

  "I can feel your sorrow at the thought of me leaving, ma petite." He kissed the top of Nathaniel's head. "And you, but not so loudly, our pussycat."

  "Can you read my feelings?" Micah asked.

  "Only as one person knows another; you are not tied to ma petite in a way that allows me access to your inner thoughts and feelings."

  "Sometimes I'm happy about that and sometimes it makes me feel left out."

  "I'm sorry for the latter, mon chat."

  "This wouldn't have been enough time for the four of us to have sex, even without the misunderstanding. You don't really have to leave for your meeting yet, do you?" Micah asked.

  Nathaniel and I went still beside Jean-Claude. "It will take longer to get ready now that my hair is wet. I had put it up for a reason."

  "That doesn't answer Micah's question," I said, studying his face.

  "No, it does not. I wanted to see if you truly would be sorry that I had to leave before I had joined you for sex, or if you did not care."

  I looked at him, and even with his wet hair clumped around his face, in probably the worst hairdo that I'd ever seen on him, he was still so beautiful that I felt like, what was he doing with me, but then who could equal him? When you're a twenty-one on a ten scale of beauty, you have to date someone. When he first started trying to date me, I was so insecure about it. It took me a long time to realize that no matter how beautiful or handsome or graceful or smart you are, you still have insecurities. We all have them--even kings, even Jean-Claude.

  "It was childish to need the reassurance, ma petite."

  I touched his face, moving closer so I could kiss him. "I love you all the more for needing the reassurance, but I'm sorry that I caused the need."