“You didn’t feed the ardeur last night,” Nathaniel said.

   “Damn, I didn’t. That’s why I’m so hungry.”

   Bobby Lee said, “Are you really going to feed the ardeur, Anita?”

   “I think I have to; it’s like Jean-Claude’s bloodlust, or your own hunger for flesh; if you feed it before it gets too bad you have more control over it. I don’t think any of us want me losing control of the ardeur.” It was the power that allowed Jean-Claude to feed off the lust of the customers at Guilty Pleasures, and to feed through actual sex when he was with his lovers, including me. It was part of the gift of his original bloodline from Belle Morte, but our version of it wasn’t just lust but seemed to have more love mixed in with the lust than Belle did with hers. I’d inherited the power from Jean-Claude. Now, when I didn’t feed it often enough my ability to heal most injuries began to go back to human-normal. My healing abilities had saved my life more than once.

   “Then Kaazim and I will wait closer to the door.”

   “Jean-Claude was very clear that we are not to leave them unsupervised,” Kaazim said.

   “That was when they were just having sex. The ardeur can spread through a room unexpectedly. I don’t want to be anyone’s food.”

   “Nor anyone’s sex slave,” Kaazim added.

   “I resent that. I do not make people into sex slaves.”

   “I don’t know, Anita,” Nathaniel said. “I crave your sex all the time.”

   “You crave sex all the time.”

   He smiled. “That, too, but my therapist says I’m officially not addicted to it anymore.”

   “Good to know and yay, you,” I said, and meant it.

   “I like sex a lot, but now I am a recovering addict. I thought sex was my only value to anyone, so I offered the only thing I thought I was good for, which was sex.”

   I touched the side of his face that wasn’t covered in blood and smiled up at him. “You are so much more than just sex to me.”

   “I know that; that’s part of what helped me figure it all out,” he said, pressing his hand over mine.

   “Once we feel the ardeur rise, we’ll be outside the door,” Bobby Lee said.

   I looked at him and Kaazim. They both looked nervous. I would have said that nothing could have spooked the two of them, but this had. “You know that I can’t really make anyone my sex slave, right?”

   “Has anyone who has had sex with you wished to stop?” Kaazim asked.

   “Yes.”

   “Since you acquired the ardeur as a power?”

   I started to say Sure, then had to stop myself. Damn it, I think he was right. “I don’t know. I . . . I guess not.”

   “Then we will wait outside once you raise that particular power,” he said.

   I was out of arguments that made any sense, so I stopped trying to argue. A few years back I’d have argued until either we had a fight or the cows came home, but therapy had helped me realize that I could just let some things go. I let this go and let them stand by the door, which meant now they couldn’t see in the bathroom at all. My modesty was saved.

11

   THE SHOWER IN our room was big enough for all three of us with room to spare. It had multiple showerheads; in fact, water came from so many directions that if I was in it alone I only turned on part of them. Okay, I turned on one of them, but Nathaniel had a very different view of the shower. He liked all the showerheads and as much pounding, pouring water as possible. He opened the hinged glass door and walked inside so he could start turning on the water. He hadn’t even bothered to take off his shorts. He adjusted the temperature dial a little cooler, then stood to one side so the initial cold burst of water wouldn’t hit him. He let the water run while he came back out to us.

   “We all have too many clothes on,” he said.

   “I think you’re the only exhibitionist in the room,” I said.

   He shook his head. “Anita, this isn’t about being an exhibitionist. It’s just the three of us. It’s okay if we see each other nude.”

   Damian’s voice was soft and sort of sad as he said, “We haven’t seen each other nude since the first night Anita bound us to her as her servants.”

   “That doesn’t seem true,” I said.

   “You’ve seen Nathaniel nude a lot,” Damian said, then smiled. “We’ve all seen him nude just walking around here.”

   “I’m a wereanimal; none of us like clothes.”

   “Micah wears clothes when he’s outside the bedroom,” I said.

   “That’s just polite,” Nathaniel said with a smile and an eyebrow waggle.

   I laughed, partially from his delivery and partly out of something close to happy embarrassment.

   “The rest of us appreciate his consideration,” Damian said.

   I looked at him, expecting to see a smile, but he looked serious.

   “Micah’s well endowed, but he’s not scary big.”

   Damian raised one pale eyebrow.

   “Oh, come on,” I said.

   “Anita, if you don’t think Micah is scary big, then the rumor about you liking really well-endowed men has to be true.”

   “Oh, it’s not a rumor,” Nathaniel said, smiling.

   Damian nodded. “I figured as much.” He looked way more unhappy than he should have from the news.

   “I am not just a size queen,” I said. “Skill counts, too.”

   “Yes, yes, it does,” Nathaniel said, wrapping his arms around me so that our faces were almost close enough to kiss. It would have been more romantic if we hadn’t both still been covered in blood, but staring into his eyes from inches away it didn’t matter as much as it might have. He smiled that certain smile that said he was thinking of naughty things to do with and to me. It made me smile back and give my own version of the look.

   “I am sorry that I didn’t measure up, Anita,” Damian said.

   It startled us both, and we turned to stare at him with our arms still around each other. “What do you mean?” I asked.

   Nathaniel said, “If you mean you don’t measure up to Micah, then none of us do, except maybe Richard.”

   “Trust me, Damian, there’s more to what I like in the bedroom than just size.”

   He looked at the floor then and said, “Then I’m even sorrier that I disappointed you in other ways.”