Crimson Death
Page 27

   I lay down next to Jean-Claude; this would be a sort of test for me, too, because I generally put one of the other men between me and the vampire. I loved Jean-Claude to pieces, but the fact that he did usually die at dawn was unnerving to me. His body cooled as the hours passed, and sometimes I would wake from nightmares of being trapped in coffins with other vampires. I’d been a little claustrophobic thanks to a diving accident, but that first time waking up trapped in a coffin built for one but holding two, one corpse and me trapped in the dark, the other body cold and dead, and knowing that if I screamed no one was coming to help me, and I’d screamed anyway, had put the scary cherry on my phobia. So I’d earned my issues about sleeping beside vampires, but Jean-Claude and I were going to get married, so I needed to try.
   Jean-Claude kissed my cheek as I snuggled under the covers and up against his still very warm and wonderful body. “Thank you, ma petite. I know this is trying for you.”
   “I don’t mean to be a burden,” Damian said.
   “It is not you that is a burden, Damian. It is any vampire that sleeps pressed against her. She finds it disturbing that we grow cooler as the hours pass until it is truly like sleeping beside the dead.”
   Damian climbed under the covers and settled down close, but not touching me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that was an issue for you.”
   “You said you don’t die at dawn now, so you won’t be an issue,” I said.
   “Aren’t we hoping that he does die at dawn and there are no nightmares because we’re here with him?” Nathaniel asked.
   “Oui, mon minet, but perhaps saying it out loud like that to ma petite was not diplomatic.”
   Nathaniel looked very sorry. I could feel his instant regret. “I’m so sorry, Anita. I wasn’t thinking.”
   “It’s okay, but please start thinking more.” I wasn’t really referring to what he’d said, but more how he’d acted as if he wanted to make Damian run away from us. Nathaniel had been asking for more up close and personal with Damian for months; I didn’t understand why he wasn’t helping more now that he had the chance.
   There was another awkward moment as we all tried to settle into sleep, but Jean-Claude was there this time and didn’t let the awkwardness grow.
   “Damian, do you sleep on your side, your back, or your stomach?”
   “My back, or sometimes my stomach,” Damian answered.
   “Ma petite and Nathaniel are side sleepers. I prefer my back but we will do what we can to compromise.”
   Jean-Claude turned off the bedside lamp and snuggled up against my back until I could feel his groin pressed against the silk-and-lace boy shorts so that I wiggled against him just a little. His upper body curled over me almost protectively, one arm holding me close against him. “It has been too long since I took blood, ma petite. You can writhe against me all you like, but I will be of no use to you.”
   Nathaniel was on his side on the other side of Damian, who was still sitting upright.
   “Lie down, Damian, please,” I said, and smoothed some of the covers near me.
   He did what he was told, but he lay on his back with the arm closest to me across his stomach and the one beside Nathaniel straight at his side. Both arms were above the covers. Nathaniel and I looked across the vampire’s body at each other. Nathaniel raised his eyebrows at me, as if asking, What now? We both had our arms underneath the covers, but Damian’s arms now had them pinned so we couldn’t reach under them toward each other.
   Most of my lovers were side sleepers or had trained up to sleep on their side after a few months. Here was a new one to try to train all over again to sleep on his side so we could spoon while we slept. I freed a hand from the covers and laid it across his bare chest. He moved under my touch, but it was like he was as afraid to touch me now as when he first came into the room.
   “At least put a hand or arm across her, Damian.”
   “I thought you might not want me to touch her, my king.”
   “If I did not want you to touch her, I would not have insisted you sleep with us today.”
   “I suppose not.” And Damian touched my hand where it lay on his chest.
   “You have to move this arm, Damian,” Nathaniel said.
   “Why?” he asked.
   “Because you’ve trapped the covers, and I can’t reach across you and touch Anita without getting my arm out of the covers. I like under the covers when I sleep.”
   Damian sighed but turned onto his stomach, with one arm tucked up under his body and the other reaching over my side, but that had him touching Jean-Claude’s bare side, and Damian pulled back.
   “I gave you my word of honor when you first came here that I would never force myself on you. I have never given you a reason to doubt my word.”
   “You have been a man of your word, Jean-Claude.”
   “Then put your arm over ma petite and touch me, or not, but do not flinch every time you touch me accidentally or none of us will sleep tonight.”
   “I’m not comfortable yet,” Nathaniel said.
   “Then get comfortable, our pussycat.”
   Nathaniel slid an arm across Damian’s back until he could touch me, and lightly Jean-Claude if he stretched.
   “Damian, scoot closer to Anita, so we can all cuddle.”
   Damian drew a breath, as if to argue, then seemed to finally give in to the whole idea. He didn’t say anything, but his arm went over me and across Jean-Claude, and then Damian snuggled in against me, pinning Jean-Claude’s arm between us. Nathaniel snuggled in tighter on Damian’s other side, throwing a leg across the other man’s legs, which pressed his body tight against Jean-Claude’s arm and Damian’s side. Nathaniel stretched out his arm across Damian’s back and finally must have put part of his shoulder on the other man’s back, because he could reach not only me but enough of Jean-Claude so he was able to wrap his hand over the other vampire’s side and hold him, too. Jean-Claude raised his arm and put it across Damian’s back and Nathaniel’s side. Now Damian could press himself closer against me. He turned a little bit on his side so that his arm and a bit of hip were propped up on me, which meant that Nathaniel pretty much rolled partially on top of him, but he didn’t protest this time. It wasn’t perfect with him on his stomach and me on my side, but as I let my hand and then my arm slide over his back, some tension in me eased. I was able to stroke Damian’s back at the same time that I could caress Nathaniel’s side, we were all so intertwined. It was always good to have Jean-Claude pressed in at my back, but there was a goodness to Damian’s and Nathaniel’s skin touching mine that wasn’t about love, but almost about need, as if I’d been needing to touch both of them together for a very long time.