Smolder (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #29)(87)

“If you could have stayed with your contract firm, would you have?” Richard asked.

“You know I would.”

“On condition that you never let anyone outside your firm know you were a werewolf?”

“A lot of countries won’t let shifters in, so sure, we’d have a secret weapon,” Demo said.

“How would you work out?”

Demo frowned. “If there’s a gym, I use that. If not, run, push-ups, pull-ups, you know, whatever I can to stay in shape.”

“How would you know how to fast to move, or how many reps to do and still come off as human?”

“What?”

“I have to work out with humans. I can never run fast enough, or do enough push-ups, or pull-ups, or lift heavy enough to really get a good workout, because if I do, then I’ll lose the job I love.”

I wanted to say You teach college now, not junior high like when we met, maybe you wouldn’t, but I didn’t say anything, because Demo seemed to be listening and that didn’t happen often. “So, you can never push yourself?”

“Never,” Richard said. “It’s impossible to get away from everyone’s phones. They’re always there waiting to film anything interesting or weird and putting it online instantly.”

Demo looked thoughtful, honestly more thoughtful than I’d thought he was capable of, but maybe his bad attitude made me underestimate him? I’d try to keep an open mind if Demo would just stop doing stupid, mean-spirited things.

“I get it, fucking phones are everywhere, and the fuckers put everything online,” Demo said.

“We’re having to watch out for them in really remote areas where you’d think no one would have a smartphone,” one of the tall, dark werewolves said. What was his name? Jones, Jim, J-something.

“Got that right,” Demo said, and the others agreed.

Crisis averted; Demo went through the door without a complaint. The other werewolves went with him as if afraid he would do something they’d regret. They seemed to feel responsible for him since they’d all survived the same attack, but I wasn’t sure they liked him much. I wasn’t sure anyone here in St. Louis liked him much. What were we going to do with him?

Richard walked toward us, then looked at how the three of us were standing. I watched doubts and questions go through his eyes, while he fought to keep them off his face. Only knowing him so well once upon a time let me see the confusion.

“Is there something I need to know about Nicky and Jean-Claude?” he asked.

I reached out to him delicately, using some of the new skills I’d learned at last, but his own confused emotions were blinding him. He couldn’t feel anything outside himself. Strong emotions could fuel your magic or cripple it. I realized that Jean-Claude had narrowed the marks between us, so that we weren’t getting every damn emotion back and forth. Great by me, but I wondered what Jean-Claude wanted to hide enough to do it. Weren’t we supposed to keep the marks open for power right now?

“I’m not his type, not pretty enough,” Nicky said, smiling wide enough to make his face crinkle all the way to the scars where his eye should have been. I loved that he was willing to smile like that now. I went up on tiptoe to kiss his cheek; to reach his lips he had to meet me partway, but he didn’t.

He kept staring at Richard, only changing from holding my hand to wrapping his arm around me. It forced me to wrap my arm around his waist, or just stand there awkwardly, but I didn’t like that he had passed up a chance to kiss me to play dominance games with Richard.

Nicky said, “Sorry, babe,” and he started to lean down for a kiss.

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Babe?”

“We’re supposed to be trying out endearments,” he said.

“Not ‘babe,’ or ‘baby,’?” I said.

He grinned at me. “I’d let you call me ‘baby.’?”

“Would you, really? Baby?” I said, smiling.

He grinned. “Let us confound societal expectations, Big Daddy.”

I laughed out loud, and everyone left with us joined in, even Richard. Ethan said, “If you’re actually going to call each other ‘baby’ and ‘Big Daddy,’ please do it where I can watch people’s faces.”

“I tried to be jealous, I mean I am jealous, but you are fun together. It’s like this couple dynamic I’ve never seen Anita do before,” Richard said.

“You will find ma petite much more comfortable and much lighter with many things, and many people,” Jean-Claude said.

“I can’t wait,” Richard said.

“Then let’s get you all through the door and secure it behind us,” Jake said.

“You really think Deimos could attack us here in the Circus?” I asked.

“He is a powerful foe who has surprised us once tonight, it would be foolish to underestimate him again.”

Suddenly I didn’t feel cheerful, I felt scared. Nicky hugged me, then stepped back so Jean-Claude could lead me forward. He started to, then stopped and reached his other hand out to Richard. I didn’t complain, I didn’t even feel weird about it. Richard had been a really good sport tonight and there would be a lot more chances for him to keep being a good sport tonight. We followed Jake and Wicked through the door hand in hand in hand.