Dead Ice
Page 25“You checked our schedules,” I said.
“I know your schedules, or at least Jean-Claude’s. Yours is too flexible to memorize.”
“Okay, sit down and talk instead of cuddle.”
He gave me a look that took in every inch of me in the nice bra and panties. “I’ll try, but you in more clothes might help me focus on talking.”
I blushed and hated it.
He grinned and leaned down to lay a careful kiss on my mouth. “I love that you still blush.”
I frowned at him. “Well, I don’t.”
“It is very endearing,” Jean-Claude said.
“Don’t you start.”
“What is it you need to speak about?” he said, looking up at Micah.
Micah sat down on the couch, holding my hand, but perching on the edge of the couch as if touching me at all would make him forget what he wanted to say. “You know that I don’t have a problem with Jean-Claude and you getting married. You can only legally wed one person and that’s got to be our master, which is him.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“You have been most gracious,” Jean-Claude said.
“You know that Nathaniel and I have been talking about having a handfasting ceremony with Anita for the three of us.”
Jean-Claude nodded.
“I wish you better luck getting her to approve designs than I am having.”
“You want such elaborate rings, Jean-Claude. Either they won’t fly at my work, or they’re just so expensive the thought of wearing them every day makes me nervous. It’s like wearing Fort Knox on my hand.”
“We do have different tastes in this area.”
“We’re going for something simpler,” Micah said.
Jean-Claude looked at me. “Are you saying your taste matches theirs more than mine?”
“You know it does,” I said.
He sighed and settled back on the couch a little more, which seemed a little less cuddling to me.
“Are you upset?” I asked.
Some thought passed over his face too fast or too faint for me to decipher. “No, but in a way I suppose I am. You and I have been debating for weeks on designs for our rings. I think the only reason we were moving ahead with the more elaborate set to be used in the ceremony and state events afterward is that you gave up and let me have my way.”
I shrugged. “It’s important to you, and I don’t have to wear them every day.”
“But we are no closer to a design for the set we will wear every day,” he said.
“True.”
“But with Micah and Nathaniel you almost have an everyday design, do you not?”
I glanced at Micah. He was studying the other man’s face.
“It seems childish, but I believe it will bother me if you have your rings designed before ours.”
“I’m sorry, Jean-Claude, I had no idea,” Micah said.
“Nor did I; it is strange what will and will not bother you in this complicated domestic arrangement of ours.”
“Remember how upset the rest of our domestic arrangement was when they thought the four of us were planning a commitment ceremony?”
“Yes, but once they realized the wedding is just ma petite and myself, they quieted.”
“Until they found out that the three of us were still looking at having a commitment ceremony.”
“I take it they found out about the rings,” I said.
He nodded.
I just hid my face against Jean-Claude’s chest. I did not want to deal with the fights and recriminations from some of the other lovers in our lives about this again.
“They want to be included, or rather not feel excluded,” Micah said.
“We cannot marry everyone we are sleeping with,” Jean-Claude said.
“No, and I think all of us would be willing to include one other person; unfortunately it wouldn’t be the same person.”
“You put it well, mon ami.”
“Jean-Claude has been in love with Asher for centuries, but none of the rest of us is willing to tie ourselves to his moods.”
“Anita and Nathaniel would marry Nicky, but I won’t,” Micah said.
“Nor will I,” Jean-Claude said.
“Nathaniel would include more people than any of us, but it doesn’t include the ones the rest of us would include.”
“So what, either we include everybody, or we can’t have a commitment ceremony?” I asked.
“How big a fight do you want on your hands?” Micah asked.
“I will not be forced to marry someone I don’t love, even if it isn’t legally binding,” I said.
“If we don’t have our ceremony, then the problem goes away,” Micah said.
“Are you willing to just give up on that?” I asked.
“Are you?” he asked.
“No; if I could figure out a way to marry all three of you for legal real, I would.”
“I got the clan tigers to agree that if we included one of them in our commitment ceremony, the others would back off,” Micah said.
It was our turn to look at him.
“You did what?” I asked.