Crimson Death
Page 115

   “He really is good at sex. Anita can back me up on that,” Dev said.
   They looked at me, even Pride.
   “Yeah, he’s good in bed, but he’s not better than Jean-Claude, or Nathaniel, and you’re getting to sleep with both of them,” I said.
   “You’re getting to fuck women again, and that’s worth getting rid of Asher right there,” Nicky said.
   “I love women, but I was willing to give them up for him,” Dev said.
   “I don’t see how you agreed to give up women,” Pride said.
   “You don’t like men at all, cousin. Of course you wouldn’t understand it. I saw it as the same as being monogamous for marriage.”
   “But most monogamous people are just into the sex of the person they married, so they give up everyone else, but if they like men they still have a man to sleep with, and same if they love women. You agreed to give up half the human race that you loved having sex with, and Asher was still getting to sleep with Anita, so only you gave up women. It was totally shitty of him to ask you to do that,” Pride said.
   “I didn’t realize you disliked him that much,” Dev said.
   “He treated my cousin like shit. He’s hurt my friends. He’s injured people I’m supposed to be protecting as my job. Why wouldn’t I dislike him?”
   “Why wouldn’t you hate him?” Nicky asked.
   “He’s not worth that much emotion,” Pride said.
   “If you liked men, you’d understand.”
   “No, Dev, I wouldn’t. I don’t have any crazy exes. I don’t do the bad girl or boy. I like nice, kind, and the sex can be just as hot.”
   “How do you know that nice sex is as hot as bad-girl sex if you’ve never had bad-girl sex?” Nicky asked.
   Pride opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, looked puzzled, and finally laughed. “Okay, okay, I guess I don’t, but I have great sex and she’s not crazy.”
   “Who are you having sex with?” Dev asked.
   Pride shook his head. “None of your business.”
   “Hey, you brought it up.”
   “I did not bring it up. In fact, I’m sorry I said anything.”
   “Are you dating someone and I didn’t know about it?” Dev asked.
   “We’re not eight anymore, Dev. We all have grown-up secrets.”
   “If Pride is dating someone, then no one knows about it,” Nicky said.
   I shook my head. “News to me.”
   “Who is it?” Nicky asked.
   “Why do you care?” he asked.
   Nicky grinned. “Because you want to keep it a secret.”
   “That’s Dev’s kind of reasoning,” Pride said.
   “I’m actually with Nicky on this one, because I’m reviewing every interaction with any woman I’ve seen you with, trying to figure out who it is,” I said.
   “And why you’d want to keep it a secret,” Dev said.
   “Married?” Nicky asked.
   “No, I would never help anyone cheat on their vows.”
   “So if she’s not married, then why the deep, dark secret?” I asked.
   He shook his head. “No, I’m done, because if I keep answering questions you may figure it out and she would be pissed at me. I’m not screwing this up.”
   I narrowed my eyes at him as if I were trying to bring him into better focus. It would bug me, but more because most shapeshifters are incredibly open about sex and relationships to other people they consider part of their community. There just wasn’t the taboo among them that some normal humans had.
   “Is she human, like mundane human?” I asked.
   He shook his head. “No, I am done talking about this. She’s too important to me for me to mess up because I’m trapped on a plane and we have nothing better to do than talk.”
   The plane swayed in the air, as if it had heard him talk about it. I clutched the armrest and Nathaniel’s hand. “Talking about something would be good,” I said, my voice a little strained.
   “I’m sorry, Anita, but even to distract you while you’re being all brave about your fears, I’m not blowing this relationship. It’s too important.”
   Dev looked at his cousin. “You’re serious about whoever it is.”
   Pride nodded.
   He stared at the other man and finally clasped his shoulder, so that Pride looked at him. “Would you marry her?”
   Pride shook his head, then said, “I mean, yes, if she’d have me, but right now she doesn’t want to marry anyone.”
   “How long are you willing to wait?” I asked, because getting all up in Pride’s personal business was better than worrying about how aerodynamics worked.
   “As long as it takes,” he said.
   “Depending on who or what she is, that could be a really long time,” I said.
   “She’s worth it.”
   “Wow,” Dev said, “I haven’t heard you this serious since we were thirteen and you wanted to marry the little girl next door.”
   “I was thirteen, and you and your sister both broke my heart with the little girl next door.”
   “We played ‘show me yours and I’ll show you mine’ with her. You could have come and played with us.”
   “I was as serious as a thirteen-year-old boy could be about her. I didn’t want to play with her. I wanted to profess my first true love.” Pride laughed at himself, I think.
   “She grew up way too kinky for you, Pride.”
   Pride looked at the other man. “How do you know?”
   Dev grinned. “Angel went to the same college.”
   “Do I want to know?”
   Dev grinned wider. “Probably not.”
   Pride shook his head and rolled his eyes. “I’ll keep my illusions about my first serious crush, thank you.”
   “If Angel decides to bring her home to visit, I’ll warn you first.”
   “Wait. What?” Pride asked.
   “Could we really get to meet the little girl you guys first played house with?” I asked.
   Dev grinned at me. “Angel and she kept in touch after college. They’re both bi, so they got a place together with some other recent graduates trying to make it in the big city.”