“Some people would say that homosexuality is a type of kink,” Micah said.

“Then some people haven’t been around enough homosexuals, because they can be every bit as conservative and narrow-minded as any heterosexual.”

“My experience is limited, and most of the bisexuals I know are also kinky.”

“Bisexuals seem to have a higher kink level than either end of the scale,” I said.

“At least the ones we know,” he said.

“Fair enough, so do you want me to leave Dev at home?”

“You’d really do that just because I’m blaming him for something that is my fault?”

“No, because Dev is charming and I don’t want to make this problem between Nathaniel and you worse. I don’t know if I want Dev living with us constantly. He doesn’t work with our entire poly group as well as some of the others do.”

“Nicky works great, but neither Jean-Claude nor I will do a commitment ceremony with him. Sin works great, but neither you, I, or Jean-Claude will commit to him.”

“He’s a nephew to Jean-Claude and a brother-husband to the rest of you.”

“I’ll call Sin that, but not Nicky.”

“Nicky is only a lion, so he doesn’t help us over the whole tiger issue anyway,” I said.

“I know that the tiger clan leaders won’t rest until you’re married off to one of the clan tigers.”

“Legend says that if I don’t marry a tiger, the Mother of All Darkness will return from the dead and destroy the world.”

“Nice to know they backed off on the tiger being your legal spouse and are content with a commitment ceremony,” he said.

“Yeah, it was big of them.”

“You’re being sarcastic, but it really was a compromise for them.”

“So we need a tiger as part of the commitment ceremony that we’re all willing to live with, and the group of us can’t agree on one.”

“Welcome to one of the serious downsides of polyamory when everyone has veto power over everyone else’s lovers,” Micah said.

“Lovers, schmovers, it’s the living-with part that’s making the choice impossible.”

“Agreed. I’m being signaled that it’s time to talk some more here. Have a safe flight. I wish I were able to go with you and help keep Nathaniel’s and your minds off Damian.”

“Me, too.”

“I love you, Anita Blake.”

“I love you more, Micah Callahan.”

“I love you most.”

“I love you mostest.”

“I’ve got to go make sure they don’t start trying to kill each other.”

“And I’ve got to go to Ireland and stop them from killing each other.”

I heard a voice on his end, someone talking low to him. He had to go, and so did I. Both of our jobs saved lives, and both of us would take a life if we thought it would save more lives down the road. Most of the time I did it with the legal blessing of my country. When Micah killed someone in a duel it was never legal, because duels were illegal no matter if you were human or more than human.

26

I FOUND NATHANIEL and Damian back in Damian’s bedroom. I almost didn’t recognize the room. There was a large mirror that covered the half wall that held the bathroom door. The mirror had a heavy antique-looking frame and the glass would reflect anything happening on the bed. Nathaniel was both a serious voyeur and exhibitionist; mirrors seemed to satisfy both needs for him. He’d been asking Micah and me to put one in our shared bedroom, but we’d been resisting. I didn’t want to sit up in bed and see my reflection every morning, or in the middle of the night when I was half asleep. There’d been an incident on an out-of-town business trip where I’d damn near shot the full-length mirror in the hotel room, because I thought it was an intruder. That had been years ago when I was new to hunting killers and carrying a gun, but the moment had stayed with me. Micah didn’t really want the mirror either, but obviously Nathaniel did, and Damian had let him do something that his two fiancées had refused him for years.

The bed was now covered in a very dark green bedspread with pillows in browns, dark purples, and a shade of orange that had brown undertones so it all matched. If you’d set me loose in a store with this as a color scheme, it would have looked like it had been put together by a partially color-blind lover of autumn, but this was magazine perfect. The brown and orange were a new addition, but they echoed the purple and green of our own room, though our shades were brighter, shinier, more vibrant, and this was muted, more autumn leaves than summer flowers. It still had Nathaniel’s touch everywhere.

It had taken months of negotiations for Nathaniel to do our room; this had to have happened in less than two hours. Either Damian was more bespelled than I was, or he was always this easy a touch for a lover to control the decorating. Maybe it hadn’t been all Cardinale’s fault that the room had reflected mostly her, which said something important about Damian. I just didn’t know exactly what.

They were sitting on the bed, their heads together over Nathaniel’s iPad. He looked up, smiling. “We’re looking online for new towels for the bathroom, so we can get rid of all the pink ones.”

“Nothing wrong with pink if you like the color,” I said.

“I don’t,” Damian said, looking up.

Their faces were very close together, the bright green eyes and the lavender ones, milk pale skin and the darker pale that let you know Nathaniel might tan if he ever tried. His face was wider through the cheekbones, Damian’s longer and narrower. Was Nathaniel more beautiful? Yes, but it was like saying a rose is more beautiful than a lily. They were both beautiful flowers. It just depended on whether you wanted something rounder, fuller, more lush, or if you wanted something leaner, taller, more careless summer garden instead of formal rose garden. I preferred roses to lilies, but they grew well next to each other if you were willing to have your rose garden a little less formal and a little more cottage.




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