Anita Blake 22 - Affliction (63 page)

I laughed. ‘We need to get the conditioner out, remember.’

‘Anything you say,’ and he backed us into the water still holding each other. It made me laugh, and that may have been his main goal all along. We finished our hair and then used Febreze on all the clothes, even the ones that were going to be laundered. It helped. Febreze was actually invented for stuff like body armor that got really smelly but couldn’t be traditionally cleaned.

The big hotel towel was so long it covered me from armpits to mid-calves. Nicky just dried off and didn’t bother with wrapping himself in the towel. Micah was the most body-modest wereanimal I’d ever met, and he wasn’t that modest. Nicky was like most of them, totally comfortable nude. I was more comfortable than I’d ever been, but I still covered up more than I didn’t.

I looked down at the weapons. Without the MOLLE straps to hold all the weapons, there was really no way to carry them all except piled in my arms like firewood, which made them useless as actual weapons, so I left most of them in the bathroom and just kept my Browning. Yes, I was in a room with Nicky, surrounded by our bodyguards, but there was still a window and this vampire had broken every rule so far. Sometimes I felt paranoid, sometimes I just felt careful.

Nicky slung his AR over one shoulder on its tactical strap. I felt less paranoid, and it was an interesting look with him buck naked. It made me smile.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘I was feeling paranoid until I saw you were toting your AR.’

‘You said it yourself: This vampire is breaking all the rules. I like to be prepared.’

I started to ask if he’d ever been a Boy Scout, but then realized I’d never been one and I liked to be prepared, too.

Nicky made me let him open the bathroom door and check the room. ‘There are guards in the hallway,’ I said.

‘There’s still a window,’ he said.

Since I’d already thought the same thing it was hard to bitch about it, so I didn’t.

He opened the door quietly, and when he’d looked around the room enough he moved to one side and held the door for me as if we were in public and he was on guard. I walked out into the hush of the room, and the pile of covers moved on the bed.

Nathaniel’s voice came thick with sleep. ‘Hey, was it as bad as it smelled?’

‘Almost,’ Nicky said.

‘Hey, Nicky,’ Nathaniel said.

‘Hey,’ he said with a smile.

I smiled; I couldn’t help it and went to the bed, where I still couldn’t see any of Nathaniel, just his voice from the nest of covers. I started to sit down on the edge of the bed, and he wiggled enough to make room. One arm came out of the covers first, and then his face peered up at me. He blinked at me, his face haloed by the sheets; it made him look younger than he was, like a glimpse into some little boy who must still be in there somewhere. He leaned upward, the covers spilling down to reveal the muscled shoulders and upper chest, the illusion of childhood vanished as the very adult body sat up to kiss me.

He was unbelievably warm straight from his nest of blankets as he stretched to kiss me, his hand on the side of my face, tracing the edge of my wet hair. He murmured as he pulled back from the kiss, ‘Come take a nap with me.’

‘Is this the first sleep you’ve had in what, twenty-four hours?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ he said, and wrapped his arms around me, trying to drag me under the covers.

I moved so he couldn’t do it, and he lay back against the bed, pouting at me. His hair in its thick braid curled around him like an auburn-haired Rapunzel. He kept my hand. ‘Come to bed.’

‘I have to get dressed and go be a cop,’ I said. ‘We only came back to shower and change.’

Nicky was already rummaging in his own luggage, getting clothes.

‘You can both come take a nap,’ he said.

‘No, we have to catch bad guys,’ I said.

‘I have to follow her around and pretend I’m not the bad guy,’ Nicky said.

‘Then you have to eat solid food, before you go back to work,’ Nathaniel said.

‘There’s no time for food,’ I said.

He sat up enough so that the covers pooled into his lap. ‘Make time, Anita; the reason I had to leave Micah at the hospital is that you’re draining energy from me. Dev started getting tired, too. You can’t ignore your physical body without affecting all of your animals to call, and Damian your vampire servant.’

‘I’m sorry, you’re right. How is Micah holding up?’

‘He won’t let himself cry. He’s just holding it inside. He holds my hand, lets me hold him, but he’s trying to be strong for his family and me. Sometimes it’s hard to take care of the two of you.’

‘I’m sorry we’re difficult,’ I said, ‘and doubly sorry I’m a pain in the ass.’

‘Want me to order room service?’ Nicky asked.

‘Go tell Edward we’re getting food and see if he wants anything.’

‘Have one of the other guards order the food and have it delivered to the conference room on this floor,’ Nathaniel said.

‘Conference room?’ I said.

‘Yeah, it’s got this huge oval table almost big enough for all of us to eat at once.’

‘How did you have time to see the conference room?’ I asked.

‘I knew you hadn’t eaten, so I asked where we could have food set out.’

‘Why didn’t Micah come back with you?’ I asked.

‘He won’t leave the hospital.’

I held Nathaniel’s hand. ‘I’m so sorry I had to leave you and Micah to deal with it all.’

‘You saved Henry; that’s what Micah wanted you to do.’

I nodded.

Nicky pulled on jeans. ‘What do you want for food?’

‘Get protein,’ Nathaniel said.

‘I always get protein,’ I said.

He smiled. ‘That’s true. I’m the salad eater.’

‘You take your clothes off for a living, you have to watch your girlish figure,’ I said, and kissed him again.

‘Food order,’ Nicky said.

I ordered a burger, fries, and a Coke. Nathaniel surprised the hell out of me by ordering the same thing, except for the Coke. ‘I don’t have to watch my figure for a day or two, and I need the protein,’ he said.

‘I drain that much energy from you?’ I asked, and now I was worried. He almost never ate a burger; lean steaks, but not hamburger.

‘Not yet, but you should feed the
ardeur
before you go back to work.’

‘If I’m already draining energy from you, I think feeding the
ardeur
would be bad.’

‘Feed on Nicky, have sex with both of us.’

‘I like the way he thinks,’ Nicky said from the door.

‘I thought you would,’ Nathaniel said with a grin.

‘It’s a fancy hotel and we have the whole floor; they’ll be fast on the food service. Thirty minutes tops,’ Nicky said.

‘Then you should write down what we all want for food, hand it to someone, and get into bed,’ Nathaniel said.

Nicky grinned at him, then got the bedside pad of paper and wrote down our orders and his. Then he strode to the door with the AR still on his shoulder. He left the door slightly ajar. I heard him knock on Edward’s door. There was a murmur of voices, and then Nicky was back in our room, closing the door firmly behind him.

‘Who’s ordering the food?’ I asked.

‘Edward is,’ he said, and walked around to the far side of the bed, the one closest to the window. He laid the AR on the floor.

‘That was really quick. What did you tell him?’ I asked.

‘That we were going to have sex and to text you when the food arrives.’ He unfastened his jeans and started peeling them down his hips, a little more carefully around the front, because his body was already partially erect, anticipating the sex.

I wanted to say,
You did not just tell Edward that
, but I knew Nicky had. It was Nicky; he didn’t see anything wrong with being honest. Nothing much embarrassed him so he didn’t always understand it might embarrass someone else, or maybe he didn’t care.

Nathaniel put my hand with the gun still in it on the bedside table. ‘We’re not that dangerous. I don’t think you need to be armed.’

I laid the gun on the table.

‘I am that dangerous, just not to you,’ Nicky said, as he pulled the covers out from the tangle Nathaniel had made of them.

Nathaniel raised up the covers, like an invitation. ‘You don’t need the towel either.’

I dropped the towel to the floor and crawled into the warm nest of the covers and Nathaniel’s body. ‘You sure you don’t need to sleep more than you need sex?’

‘Sex energizes me; you should know that by now.’

Nicky loomed over both of us, propped up on one shoulder. ‘I vote you as an honorary lion.’

‘High praise,’ Nathaniel said.

Nicky nodded hard enough that his bangs swung back and forth with the movement. ‘It
is
high praise; now let’s fuck.’

Nathaniel and I both laughed, high and delighted. ‘You sweet-talking bastard, you,’ Nathaniel said.

‘Thirty minutes, or less, tick-tock,’ Nicky said.

‘Don’t get spoiled by quickies,’ I said.

‘Never,’ Nathaniel said, and rolled me over his body so I was in the middle. I liked being in the middle.

Nathaniel kissed me loving and long under the warm nest of the covers, and then he moved gently back from me and Nicky kissed me. He kissed me like he had in the shower, a slow caress of lips, and his hand playing on the front of my throat like he was petting me with a hand that was almost big enough to encircle my entire throat. Nathaniel laid a gentle kiss on my upper chest, as Nicky continued to kiss me. Nathaniel kissed me again, a little lower, so that he touched the upper mound of my breast. Nicky’s mouth pressed more eagerly on mine, and I opened my mouth to him, arching my neck against his hand. Nicky squeezed his hand around my neck, just a little. It made me arch into his hand and kiss him harder.

He wrapped that big hand around the front of my neck and squeezed hard enough for me to make little protesting noises as we kissed, my body arching against the bed. He kissed me as if he would crawl in through my mouth, all tongue and teeth and eager fierceness.

Nathaniel licked my nipple, and then suddenly he was sucking me hard and fast with an edge of teeth. It made my spine arch, my body writhe, and me scream my pleasure into Nicky’s kiss.

Nicky’s hand clamped down on my throat so hard and sudden that there were no more eager noises, because I had no air to make them with. Nathaniel bit harder at my breast, sinking his teeth into the mound of it, so hard and sudden that I would have screamed for him, but I couldn’t make a sound. Nicky kissed me deeper, forcing my mouth open so wide it almost hurt, as if he were trying to reach things with his tongue that you were never supposed to touch. I writhed for them both, and then my body hit that moment where it began to panic for lack of air.

I fought the panic as long as I could, because I liked the feel of his hand so strong, so dangerous around my neck. The force of his kiss and Nathaniel’s teeth biting down on my breast were all amazing, but in the end I had to tap out, literally.

Nicky eased his hand and drew back from the kiss, so that I could draw my breath in a long wheezing gasp. Nathaniel raised his mouth from my breast. Nicky stared down into my eyes and said, ‘Are you having fun?’

I managed to gasp, ‘Yes.’

He grinned, showing a fierce flash of teeth. ‘Good, because so am I.’ He let me have two good deep breaths and then he squeezed my throat shut again. Nathaniel reached across my body and cupped my other breast in his hand. Nicky moved so that his body acted like a prop to give Nathaniel more room. He bent over my breast. Nicky eased his grip enough for me to catch a few shallow breaths, and then when Nathaniel had sucked my breast down, as if he meant to deep-throat it, Nicky squeezed his hand tight and cut off my air again. Nathaniel bit down and the feel of his teeth in my flesh, as Nicky held my throat tight and kissed me deep and hard, made me writhe on the bed, my hands grabbing at the sheets, knotting them under me. Nathaniel bit down hard and harder, a steady, growing pressure until it was just this side of too much, and my body began to scream for oxygen. My feet began to struggle and push against the bed, I couldn’t seem to help it. I tapped out, hand against Nicky’s arm, and he eased his hold, so that my breath came in a near-sobbing gasp for air.

Nathaniel rose up from my breast. I tried to focus on him but couldn’t make my eyes work quite right. They kept fluttering back into my head. Nicky gave a low chuckle. ‘I think she liked that.’

I felt Nathaniel move up higher on the other side of me so he could look down into my face, too. I could almost focus on him as he grinned down at me. ‘I think you’re right,’ he said, and he laughed, too.

I heard my text tone go off. I tried to say,
Don’t answer it
, but couldn’t remember how to form out loud words. It was like the afterglow to an orgasm.

Nathaniel reached for my phone from the bedside table. ‘Food will take at least forty-five minutes; apparently there’s a banquet.’

‘More time, awesome,’ Nicky said; his voice was a deeper bass with an edge of growl to it. Not werelion growl, but just that deep, dominant rumble that some men get when the sex is rough, or just like they want it.

Nathaniel bent over my breast and licked, very delicately, along the bite marks he’d left. It was an exquisite pain, almost pleasure and almost not, as if my body couldn’t decide which it would be.

I whispered, ‘Oh, my God.’

‘If we had a gag, I’d use it.’

‘Anita doesn’t like gags,’ Nathaniel said, and sounded a little sad.

I managed to say, ‘Would try it.’

Nathaniel came back up where I could see his face. I was able to focus on him now, though the look on his face was one I hadn’t seen before. ‘If you offered because you didn’t think we had any, you should know that I packed more than just the collar and leash.’

It took me a minute to realize what he meant. ‘You packed one.’

‘I packed two,’ he said.

‘Even though you knew we probably wouldn’t get to use them,’ I said.

‘High stress makes me want more bondage; even having some toys with me makes me feel better, and I figured this would be a high-stress trip.’

They were both propped up on one elbow looking down at me. ‘Will you wear a gag for us?’