Laurell Hamilton - Affliction

I digested that bit of information. ‘So, every vampire I meet is potentially already sort of predisposed to be connected to me?’

‘Potentially, yes,’ Micah said.

‘Shit,’ I said.

‘Potentially problematic, yes.’

‘Unless she uses them as food,’ Edward said.

‘You really think it’s a good idea for me to fuck Dr Cross?’ I asked.

‘No, or I would have just stepped out of the room and let nature takes its course.’

‘Then what are you saying, Ed … Ted?’

‘You’re in the hospital, and Micah’s family lives here, plus other cops are just outside this room. You can’t afford to go all predator on the good doctor, but for later why not feed on what’s at hand?’

‘I don’t do casual sex, you know that.’

‘I’ve never understood why it bothers you. It’s a need like eating.’

‘Said the man who’s monogamous and the father of two.’

‘Sex with Donna isn’t casual, but I don’t remember us talking about my state of monogamy, or lack of it.’

I stared at him. ‘Are you saying you cheat on Donna?’

‘I’m saying that if I’m away from her as Edward, sex isn’t out of the question. Ted is a one-woman man; Edward not so much.’

‘You do realize that you talked about yourself twice in third person?’ Micah said.

‘He does that sometimes – creepy, isn’t it?’ I asked.

‘A little bit,’ Micah said.

‘Why does it bother you that I might have other lovers when you’re sleeping with about twenty people?’

‘All my lovers know that they aren’t the only one. I haven’t lied to anyone, not even by omission.’

‘We’re polyamorous,’ Micah said, ‘which means everyone knows what everyone is doing. If we were human and could catch sexually transmitted diseases, then the honesty would be part of protecting everyone’s health.’

‘If that was a reminder that I need to be careful, I have never had unprotected sex since I’ve been with Donna. I would never endanger her and our family.’

‘I don’t know why, but it bugs me to think you could cheat on Donna.’

‘You don’t even like her that much,’ he said.

‘I don’t dislike her, but I don’t understand her in your life. I do understand that she makes you happier than I’ve ever seen you, and that’s good enough for me.’

‘Same about you and some of your men,’ he said.

‘I guess that’s my point – why would you risk your happiness and your family for extracurricular sex? It seems like a lot to risk.’

‘You’re that sure Donna wouldn’t forgive it?’

‘She was jealous of me when we met. She guarded her territory all over you. That is not a woman who would share well.’

‘She still doesn’t understand you and me,’ Edward said.

‘Most men and women can’t be friends without sex,’ Micah said.

‘And you can’t be friends once you have sex,’ I said. ‘You can be in love, or be lovers, but not just friends.’

‘Jason is one of your best friends and you have sex with him,’ Micah said.

I grinned, thinking of the blond werewolf manager and dancer at Guilty Pleasures. ‘Jason is different. He’s … Jason, and he was Nathaniel’s best friend before I ever had sex with either of them.’

‘That smile is not just a friend smile,’ Edward said.

‘Jason is the only man I’ve had sex with where it didn’t change the friendship.’

‘Why do you think that is?’

I shrugged. ‘I’m not sure. I think it’s just Jason. His attitude toward it, I guess.’

‘Donna told me that it was okay that I was sleeping with you.’

‘What?’ I asked.

‘She assumed that we were having sex when we worked together.’

‘We both told her that we didn’t,’ I said.

‘She sees how close we are, and in her mind men and women can’t be this close without sex.’

‘So she’s assumed we were lovers the whole time and just lying to her?’

‘Apparently.’

‘I thought she liked me.’

‘She does.’

I frowned at him. ‘She assumed you and I were lovers and lying to her the whole time you’ve been together. She should hate me.’

‘She thinks you’ve respected our bond, respected her, and she sees that you care about the kids and us being a family.’

‘How do you know that much detail about what she thinks?’ Micah asked. I wouldn’t have thought to ask that, but that’s why he was the head of the Coalition and I was mostly muscle.

‘She told me that she forgives me for you. That she sees that it doesn’t change anything between her and me and that you belong to that other part of my life, the part where the violence stays. She told me that she will be Ted’s wife, and she understands that Edward can never marry.’

‘She’s still seeing that therapist?’ I asked.

‘Yeah, and yes, it probably is something she and her therapist worked out between them.’

‘So both you and Donna think of Ted and Edward as separate?’ Micah asked.

He nodded. ‘Seems so.’

‘How did that make you feel?’ I asked.

‘Like Donna gets me more than most.’

‘So you think Donna will overlook Edward sleeping with other women, because she’s okay with you sleeping with Anita?’

‘Something like that.’

‘But we aren’t sleeping together,’ I said.

‘When I tried to tell her that, she got mad at me and told me that if she could be brave enough to let us have our relationship, the least I could do was admit it.’

‘What did you say?’

Edward looked at Micah. ‘What do you think I said?’

I looked at Micah. He was looking at the other man as he said, ‘You said, Yes, dear .’

Edward smiled and nodded. ‘Exactly.’

‘You told Donna we were having sex?’

‘No, I didn’t argue with her when she said we were having sex.’

‘That’s the same thing.’

‘No,’ both men said together, ‘it’s not.’

‘What?’ I asked.

‘Oh, and now that she’s worked all that out, she accepted my proposal and we’re setting a date,’ Edward said.

It took me a second to process what he’d said. ‘You and Donna are finally getting married for real?’

‘Yes,’ he said, and he smiled. It was a real smile. He was pleased.

I smiled.

Micah said, ‘Congratulations.’ He was smiling, too.

‘When?’ I asked.

‘When can you clear your calendar?’ he asked.

‘Me? Why? I mean, I’ll be there with bells on, but we’ll all work around your schedule.’

‘Good, because I want you to be my best man.’

‘I would love to be, but won’t the whole Donna-thinking-I’m-your-lover be a problem?’

‘She says not.’

I tried to wrap my head around it. ‘You know, if you just hadn’t told me that Donna thought that, then I wouldn’t have felt weird about this, but now … wow, awkward.’

Edward laughed, and it was a good, wholehearted laugh, the one that Donna had helped him find. It made me smile. For that laugh I could handle the weirdness, couldn’t I? ‘I would be honored to stand as your best man,’ I said, because in the end, really, what else was I going to say?

‘Donna has made one request.’

‘What?’

‘That one of your men be on her side of the aisle.’

‘She’s never met any of the men in my life,’ I said.

He shrugged. ‘I think she believes that if you have a lover in town with you, that will cut down on our time together.’

‘So she trusts us, but not really.’

‘She never said she trusted us. She said she forgave us, and she understood what we were to each other; she never said she trusted us.’

‘That’s just weird. Sorry, I know you love her, and everything, but that makes no sense,’ I said.