I lay back I'd be able to cuddle in against him. I wasn't sure I was going to be cuddling anybody. I wanted answers. "It's been a day, just a day. Alex and I have been taking turns sleeping with you so that our energy helped you heal."
"If a wereanimal of the same flavor sleeps with any of us, we heal faster, yeah." I frowned. "Wait, with a whole clan of weretigers, why is it just one of you at a time? I'd heal faster if I had two of you sharing your energy."
"The Red Queen will not risk more of her males with you. You've had only two of us near you and we're both smitten."
"Smitten?" I said.
He smiled, and nodded. "Yes, smitten." He rubbed the back of his head against the pillow, and the movement went down his spine, so that he writhed in pieces, as if someone were petting his back, until the writhing vanished under the sheet that was still pooled at his hips.
I seemed strangely fascinated with the way the covers were angled across his hips. His legs trembled under the sheet as the writhing spilled out the last of his body. The movement pulled the sheet a little lower over his hips, so that one side of the covers showed almost all of his hip, but only on the one side. The covers were pinned under his other hip, so they were held in place.
He gave a small deep chuckle. It made me look at his face and ask, "What?"
"I love the way you look at me."
I frowned at him.
"What did I say that was wrong?"
I frowned a little harder, and then just shook my head. I made myself look away from him, pulling my knees to my chest, so the front of me was covered, though it left the back of my body completely bare, but nothing was perfect.
"May I touch your back?"
I almost said no automatically, and then made myself be reasonable. I was going to have to feed the ardeur. I couldn't afford to be this hurt again. The Harlequin were in town. I needed all the metaphysical help I could get. If Alex wasn't here, then Ethan was going to have to be food. But I so didn't want to add a new person to my life. Yes, hopefully he wouldn't be coming home with me, but still . . .
"Oh," he said, "your friend left this for you." He stretched out one arm, and the nightstand between the two beds in yet another generic hotel room was so close he didn't have to move his body at all, just his arm. He handed me a folded piece of white paper.
I unfolded the paper and recognized Edward's precise printing. He almost always printed. The message was short and direct. "No more fast food. Eat a good meal. I need you at my back, Ted." The "Ted" was an actual signature, small and strangely sloppy. When he signed "Edward" it was neater; his two personas had different signatures as if they were each real people.
I reread the note. Edward acted like I just needed a good steak dinner as opposed to fast-food burgers. It wasn't like that; it wasn't like that at all. But Edward was out there without me. He was out there hunting the Harlequin without me at his back. What would I say to Donna and the kids if he died because I wasn't there? What would I say to myself? Fuck.
"Was it bad news?" Ethan asked.
I glanced at him. "You didn't peek at the note?"
"It's not my note," he said.
"It wasn't sealed, just folded over, and you didn't peek?"
He frowned and said, "No, it's not my note."
I looked at him. I'd been attracted to him from the moment I met him, or my tigers had, or hell, I didn't know anymore, maybe it was all me. Maybe the beasts just opened up things that were already there? Who the hell knew? Sex with this man wasn't a fate worse than death. Was it sex with a stranger that bothered me, or just sex in general, or both? I was betting both. I looked away from Ethan, stared at the pale wall with its copy-of-a-copy painting beside the dresser and its TV. I'd try it, and if it felt too weird, I'd say stop, and wait for Alex; at least I'd already slept with him.
"Yes, you can touch my back," I said, but couldn't make my voice sound