had contacts, brown contacts, I said, and even my voice sounded disconnected, flat.
He nodded. You made me take them out.
I wouldnt let you touch me until I saw your tiger eyes, I said, voice soft. Why?
Crispin answered, Your tiger acts like a true-blood queen. Most of the time they wont mate with anyone who doesnt have the eyes.
Why not? I turned to him, and found thaTHE was still nude. Unselfconsciously so. Strangely, I had no trouble keeping eye contact. In fact, I seemed unduly fascinated with the pale blue jewel color of his eyes.
The eyes mark us both as natural-born, and they prove our bloodline is closer to pure, Crispin said.
I dont know what that means, I said, in that strange, unemotional voice.
The clans have started to try to intermarry with other bloodlines in the last few years, the other tiger said.
Why? I asked, but again my voice made it sound as if I didnt really care about the answer.
Our queens are having trouble getting pregnant, and the rate of birth defects was going up, Alex said.
My queen has forbidden our clan to talk about it, Crispin said.
Im so high on my queens shit list, it doesnt matter for me. Let me be very clear, Anita. He smiled and shook his head, and only then could I really notice thaTHE was handsome. It was the smile, the turn of the head, a flash of personality that helped me see his whole face and not just the eyes. I feel like we need to be introduced before I use your first name. Seems weird when you may be He stopped in midsentence, suddenly looking uncomfortable.
I finished for him. Weird when I may be pregnant with your child. Just saying it out loud made me feel colder.
He nodded, and he looked very unhappy. I dont know exactly what happened here, but I am sorry about my part of it. I thought when the call went out that my clan had found me and found a queen strong enough that I couldnt not come to her. I thought they were going to try to trap me into a pregnancy so Id be forced back into the clan. But you look less happy about this than I am; you didnt want this either.
No, I said, voice almost too low to be out loud.
He held out his hand to me. Im Alex Pinn, and I dont even know what else to say.
I almost smiled, which I guess was a good thing. Im Anita Blake. We shook hands, like civilized people.
His hand was large enough thaTHE had to work to shake mine, buTHE did it. He didnt make it awkward just because my hand was small in his. I liked that.
I cant do this. It was Richard. Of course, it was Richard.
I let go of Alexs hand and turned to find him leaning against the far wall. Id avoided looking at him while Jason and I lied. One, it was a lie. Two, I did not want to see his face while he thought it was the truth. His face didnt disappoint me.
Hed undone his hair and put it back in a tight ponytail that left that painfully handsome face naked for the eye. All the men in his family had the kind of cheekbones and jaw that other men went to plastic surgeons for, perfect bone structure. If you were into that utterly masculine handsome look.
He leaned against the wall, his hands pressed behind him. He was flexing his hands behind his back, because I could see it in the muscles of his shoulders and the glimpse of upper arm. Flexing his hands over and over, which he did sometimes when he was angry. Angry, and fighting himself not to be.
Something about the lack of lamps in the hotel room had put his eyes in shadow so they looked even darker than the brown I knew they were. The shadows took the gold from his hair and made it seem simply chestnut brown.
Shang-Da was standing beside him. He was the only person in the room taller than Richard. Shang-Da glanced at Richard, then back to the room. There was a moment when Shang-Das eyes met mine. Was it just shock, or had he, for a split second, felt sorry for me? Surely not.
Richard repeated, I cant do this.
Cant do what, Ulfric? Jamil asked.
I cant watch her take another man to her bed. I cant do it. His voice was calm, no anger, not even any