Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,176

he jerked back. ‘I’ve got … stuff on me.’

‘Me, too,’ I said, my voice soft.

His eyes fluttered and flashed white like a horse about to bolt.

‘It’s okay, Dev, it’s okay.’

He shook his head.

‘You said you thought you’d never get me out of my clothes, and you haven’t even said how cute I look,’ Nicky said.

That got a smile from Dev; it was weak, and a little uncertain, but it was better than I’d gotten out of him. He looked at Nicky then, really looked at the other man. He looked at his bare, muscled chest, the way Nicky had looked at my breasts. There were some men in my life who, even as comfortable as they were sharing a bed with me and other men all at the same time, they wouldn’t have taken that look from Dev without it being a fight, or at least severely uncomfortable, but Nicky took it in stride.

‘That’s better,’ Nicky said.

Dev put his head to one side and said, ‘You don’t like men, so why do you care if I admire the view?’

Nicky shrugged as much as his shoulder muscles would let him. ‘I like knowing that you’re not just kidding about it.’

‘You like knowing that I’d do you if you’d let me, and you’re still going to get in the shower with me. Most straight men would be totally creeped by it.’

‘I’m secure in my masculinity.’

‘Well, that’s the truth,’ I said.

Nicky smiled at me, and I smiled back.

‘But you wouldn’t be doing me; I don’t bottom to anyone,’ Nicky said.

‘That works for me,’ Dev said.

I was no longer certain we were joking.

Nicky grinned. ‘If I come across for you then I’ll have to fight off Jean-Claude and Asher. I think I’ll stay on this side of the heteroflexible divide; it’ll make things less complicated.’

Dev pouted at him, and if you’ve never seen a handsome, athletic, six-foot-three man pout and be able to make it totally work for him, then I’m sorry, because it was way fun to watch.

Nicky laughed. ‘Let’s get naked and wet.’

The look on Dev’s face at such a bold comment from the other man ruined the pout and stripped his face to something uncertain and hopeful. I hadn’t known that Dev thought Nicky was cute, but Nicky’s maneuvering of the other man let me know that my werelion had known. Was I that blind, or was Nicky just that observant?

Dev stripped off his shirt in one fast motion and threw it on the floor as if he didn’t want to touch it any longer than he had to, but he unzipped his pants and stripped them off to join his socks and boots, which were already on the floor beside him. He was suddenly totally nude and beautiful, but he wasn’t looking defiantly at me, he was looking at the other man. It was almost as if he thought Nicky would chicken out and have a moment of heterosexual panic, but I knew better. If it was a test of nerves, my money was on Nicky.

He didn’t disappoint me. He just unfastened his pants and stripped them off – okay, he had to peel them off due to some fluid that had dried on one leg, but he got them off and let them fall on top of his own boots and socks. He stood there naked and yummy and stared at Dev like he was daring him to say something.

Dev opened his mouth, closed it, and then laughed, head back, eyes closed, totally delighted. Nicky looked at me and smiled. I decided then and there that I would never try to bluff Nicky, because he was out of my league. I could lie, but I couldn’t manipulate like that, not even for a good cause.

Nicky held his hand out to me, and I went to him. ‘You have too many clothes on,’ he said.

‘We can fix that,’ I said.

‘Yes,’ Dev said, his voice still holding an edge of laughter, ‘we can.’

We did.

53

We helped one another get clean. It took three times through the shampoo for Dev’s hair to get clean. He’d gotten hit the worst from something, or maybe it was the baby-fine texture of his hair; whatever. Nicky helped me pick bits out of the back of Dev’s hair. He started shivering even though the water was steaming hot, but there is cold that no amount of hot water will warm. I think we could have turned his skin pink with heat and he would still have shivered.

He