of everyone like a 1950s housewife, but he isn't dominant enough to handle comforting Mephistopheles."
"So I'm the go-to person for the hand holding, I get that."
She shook her head hard enough to make her high, tight braid bounce. "We would never call Jean-Claude about this, that's my point."
I stopped walking and looked at her. "Okay, just stop being subtle; you're not good at it, and I'm not good at figuring it out."
She smiled. "You stand there dressed like one of us, and you don't get it."
I glanced down at my clothes and had to smile back. I was in black T-shirt, black jeans, black belt with a blackened belt buckle, and black boots. They had a heel on them, so they were a little more club than guard, but other than that Claudia was right. My holsters and weapons decorated me like every other guard's. Unless it was business hours, we didn't try to hide that we were armed.
"I guess I do have a lot of assassin chic in my closet."
"I know Nathaniel didn't pick the shirt because it doesn't show cleavage, and I'd send a guard back to get lower heels on the boots, but other than that you look like one of us."
"Thanks, I think."
She grinned, and it transformed her face into something beautiful, happy. She didn't smile like that enough. "We trust you to understand whatever we bring to you, Anita. We trust you with the decisions about the guns and violence, and this kind of stuff, too."
"You mean that Dev is crying?"
She nodded, and the grin faded around the edges. "I couldn't date this many people. It's hard enough dealing with just one person at a time. I can't imagine taking care of this many people."
"Are you dating someone right now?" I asked.
She blushed. I'd never seen Claudia blush.
It was my turn to grin. "Who is it?"
She shook her head. "You go take care of your lover, leave mine to me."
"Oooh, lover is it, not boyfriend."
She laughed, and it was the kind of laugh I'd never heard from her. "Go talk to the Devil." She walked away, still laughing. I watched her go, and wondered how I'd missed it. It had to be serious for her to mention it at all. Claudia in love; who'd have thunk it? Cool.
I went for the door to the underground, and to take care of my Devil. The thought made my shoulders want to slump a little, as if I were trying to carry something heavy, but I straightened up, took a deep breath, tightened my core, and stood as straight as my five foot three could manage with the help of the three-inch heels. It was a lot of work to take care of all the people I was dating, but there was no one I would trade away. Asher might force us to send him away, but I'd miss him, and I hadn't been his main sweetie for a year like Dev had. He'd wanted to add an extra girl, not lose the man he loved. I sighed, made sure I stayed standing straight, no slumping, and went to take care of my golden tiger to call, my Devil, who was crying over his broken heart. One of the hardest things to learn about being polyamorous was you could be totally heartbroken about relationship B, but still be happy about relationship C, but having C didn't make losing B less painful. It meant you had another established relationship to help you heal over the lost one, but your heart still broke. I'd had this idea that if you loved more people you wouldn't get your heart truly broken unless you lost them all, but like so many theories, reality was different. But as realities went, I wouldn't have traded mine. I hoped I could convince Dev the same.
Chapter Forty-One
I COULDN'T SEE Dev when I first pushed the curtains apart, but I felt him like a brush of heat across my face, which meant his emotions were strong enough that he wasn't shielding well. The golden tigers were masters of control - they'd had to be to hide from the Harlequin for centuries - but now he was leaking through all that practiced control. I followed that hint of energy to find him sitting beside the fireplace, back against the wall, muscular arms hugging his knees to that nice chest, his head bowed over them so that all I could see was the fall of his blond hair with