Flirt

by Laurell K. Hamilton

Chapter 2

  Jason smiled, but shook his head. "It must have been on a night I wasn't working. I'd have remembered her. "

  Bennington held it out to Nathaniel. He didn't touch the phone, but looked at it, face solemn. He shook his head. "She's very beautiful. "

  "Was, Brandon, was beautiful. " He held the phone out to me. The woman was blond, and beautiful in that Hollywood way, so that she was truly beautiful but there was nothing to make her stand out from a dozen other blond beauties. It was a type of attractiveness that always seemed artificial, as if they were all made at the same factory and sent out into the world to seduce and marry well.

  Nathaniel said, "I'm sorry. "

  "Why are you sorry?" he asked, and that flash of anger was back.

  "Anita said she was sorry for your loss; isn't your wife who you lost?"

  Bennington nodded.

  "Then I am sorry. " I knew Nathaniel well enough to know that his emotion was a little stronger than just normal condolences, but I'd ask later when Tony Bennington was far away.

  I was still trying to usher him out, but I had one last boyfriend outside the door. Micah had been planning to join us for lunch, if he could, and there he was, joining us. He stepped in, my height with brown hair that curled past his shoulders, tied back in a ponytail that had too many curls to make his hair lie flat. His eyes were green and yellow, and not human. That beautiful face-and for Micah it truly was beauty, not handsome, more delicate jawline, more slender-was only just masculine. The leopard eyes in that lovely face just added to the impact. He wore sunglasses most of the time to hide the eyes. He started to get the glasses out automatically when he glimpsed the man behind me.

  "Don't bother hiding the eyes," Bennington said, "I saw the interview you did for the news. You're the head of the Coalition for Better Understanding Between Humans and Lycanthropes, and I know you're a wereleopard. "

  Micah stopped trying to fish his glasses out of his suit jacket pocket and just stepped in with a smile. "I believe if we keep hiding what we are, it just adds to the fear factor. " He didn't offer his hand, because some humans didn't want to touch any part of you once they knew you were a shapeshifter. Bennington put his hand out, and Micah took it.

  "Tony Bennington, this is Micah Callahan," I said.

  They shook hands just like normal folks. It got Bennington a brownie point.

  "Again, Mr. Bennington, I am sorry that I can't help you, but I urge you not to try to find someone else to raise your wife. "

  "It's my money; I can find someone who will take it. "

  "Yes, but no one will be able to give you back your wife. Trust me; a zombie is not the same thing, Mr. Bennington. "

  He nodded, and there was that glimpse of pain again. "I've already asked around, Ms. Blake; everyone said that if anyone can raise my Ilsa so she looks like herself and doesn't know she's dead, you are the only one to go to, and you've turned me down. " He bit his lip again, that swell of muscle showing his control beginning to slip.

  Micah said, "I am sorry for your loss, Mr. Bennington, but Anita is the expert on the undead; if she says it would go badly, I'd trust her. "

  Bennington 's gaze went straight to anger. He turned and put that gaze on Micah. "It's a terrible thing to lose the one you love, Mr. Callahan. "

  "Yes, it is," Micah said.

  The two men looked at each other, Micah exuding that calm that helped him talk new shapeshifters down when they were about to lose control, and Bennington giving off that tightly wound rage. He turned back to me. "Is that your final answer: you won't help me bring her back?"

  "It's the only answer I have, Mr. Bennington. I'm sorry that I can't help you. "

  "Won't help, you mean. "

  "I said what I meant-I can't. "

  He shook his head, over and over; his face was bleak, as if some light had gone out of him. Maybe it was hope; maybe I'd been his last hope and now it was gone. I would have given him back his hope, if I could have, but I honestly couldn't do what he wanted; no one could.

  He turned and looked at the three men, slowly, then back to me. "Do you love them?"

  I thought about telling him it was none of his business, but in the face of such pain, I told the truth. "Yes. "

  "All three of them?"

  I thought about quibbling, that I love-loved Micah and Nathaniel, but loved Jason as a friend. The fact that I had sex with all of them sort of muddied the waters for most people, but the four of us were clear on how we felt about each other, and all of us knew that Jason was my friend first and everything else second. We were secure, so I gave the short answer: "I do. "

  He looked at all of us again, nodded once, and then opened the door. "I've never been able to love more than one person at a time. It would be easier if I could. "

  I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't bother. I tried to put my sympathy into my face, and let it go at that.

  "Their being here with you proves that at least some of the tallest tales about you are true. "

  "You keep leaving me not knowing what to say, Mr. Bennington. "

  "I thought women always knew what to say. "

  "I don't. "

  "My wife was a very different kind of woman than you, Ms. Blake. "

  "I hear that a lot," I said.

  "Please, help me get her back. "

  "I can't give her back to you, Mr. Bennington. No human being could do what you truly want, no matter how psychically gifted they might be. "

  "And what do I truly want?"

  "You want resurrection of the body and mind and soul. I'm good, Mr. Bennington, maybe the best. But no one, not even me, is that good. "

  He left then without another word, closing the door carefully behind him. Micah hugged me. "That was unpleasant. "

  I raised my face for a kiss, which he gave, and hugged him back. "Unpleasant," I said. "That's one word for it. "

  Nathaniel hugged me from behind, and I was suddenly sandwiched between my two live-in sweeties. Nathaniel kissed the top of my head. "Come to lunch, and Jason and I will flirt outrageously, and make you smile. "

  "As long as I'm left out of the flirting," Micah said.

  "It's okay that you don't flirt in public," Nathaniel said, "you do fine at home. "

  Jason came to stand beside us. "If four's a crowd I can take a hint. "

  It was Micah who opened his arm and brought Jason into the group hug, which let Nathaniel do the same. We snuggled together for a moment, and Jason put his face against mine. "I don't know how you deal with clients all day, Anita. "

  "I could do without the grieving relatives, that's for sure," I said.

  "One of these days," Mary said from behind us, "you have to tell me how you do that. "

  We broke from the hug enough for me to look at her. "Do what?"

  She waved her hands at us all. "Three of the sexiest men I've seen in weeks and they're all here to take you to lunch. If you find one over thirty, throw him my way. " It made me laugh, which is what she meant it to do. Mary had worked here as long as I had, and she'd seen worse displays of grief than Tony Bennington's.

  I smiled to let her know it worked, and tried to shake the depressing feeling that I'd failed Bennington. I had told him the truth, but sometimes the last thing you want when you're grieving is truth.

  "I have a couple that are way over thirty, Mary, but I didn't think you were into vampires. "

  She made a girlish squeal, which was a sound that should have been outlawed once you hit the other side of fifty, but Mary could still pull it off. I was under thirty and still couldn't do the squeal without feeling like an idiot. It was never a voluntary sound for me.

  "See you after lunch, Mary. "

  "If I had all three of them with me, I would make it a long lunch. "

  I grinned, and then felt the blush start. I always had blushed easily, damn it.

  Mary laughed, until Jason walked over to her and kisse
d her cheek, and then it was her turn to blush. We left the office laughing, with Mary joining us. "Go on with you, cheeky kid," she said to Jason, but was still bright-eyed with the attention.

  "Cheeky, hmm," Jason said. I grabbed his arm and pulled him out the door before he could do whatever was behind that gleam in his eyes. I wasn't sure if Mary would thank me later, or be disappointed.

  We got to a booth in a restaurant that was near enough to my work that we'd walked-Micah and I in our suits, and the other two looking like gym bunnies who'd escaped to be among us mere mor tals. They had put on summer-weight workout pants over the shorts, which they'd gotten