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call but because their leaders value the order you’ve brought to the city and they want to help that along.”

Jean-Claude spoke into the air, into his earpiece, whatever. “Give us a moment.” He forgot all about code names as he turned to me. “The lions are outside the door, and making Haven wait will not help things. Do you want me to try to seduce one of the women into my bed? It must be yes or no.”

“Can I think about it?” I asked.

“No. Yes or no.”

“No sex for tonight, but make friends so that maybe another night soon you can.”

“Not precise enough,” he said. “I will not be punished for doing what you tell me to do. Tell me to seduce them, or tell me don’t, and tell me now.”

I stared at him and didn’t know what to say. But he was right; I had to decide now. Fuck. “I don’t know how I feel about you with another woman that I haven’t met. Can I meet them first and then ask me again?”

He smiled at me. “You may.” He spoke back to the headgear. “Let the White King through.” Silence and then he said, “Yes, the Black Queen and the Black King are in agreement, bring them through.”

I didn’t bother to turn my own headset back on because I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t want anything I said in the next few minutes on an open frequency, and I didn’t have to worry about giving a green light to one of our snipers. The lions had all gone home except the ones pushing their way through the curtains now. All the dangerous things were in here with us.

16

TWO OF OUR guards came through first, holding the long drapes aside so that Haven and his lions could go through. He was around six feet tall, a little narrower through the shoulders than I liked, but what frame he had was muscled. He took his conditioning seriously, but lions are more prone to have fights for dominance at short notice. Staying in shape could be the difference between living or dying. Most lions took their exercise pretty seriously because of that.

He was wearing a long, pale trench coat over a nice suit. He was all tans and cream, as if the clothing were a preview of the lion inside him. His hair was still shades of blue, with highlights and lowlights as if blue were a natural color for human hair, so that the dye job was still one of the best unnatural shades I’d ever seen. The hair was shaved short on the sides and longer on top so he could gel it in little spikes. His eyes were still blue. My lioness sniffed the air as soon as I saw him, because primate that I was, I wanted to see him, but my lioness wanted to smell him.

His power crept over me as if warm breath had suddenly drifted over every inch of my skin. I shivered and my lioness began to pad up that long metaphysical path. She’d liked Haven from the moment we met him. I’d known bad news when I saw it. But nothing changed how much my body wanted him. I wanted to be naked and roll every inch of me over every inch of him the way a cat will luxuriate while it’s scent-marking. He was mine and I was his the way that Micah and I had belonged to each other. My pulse sped.

Nathaniel’s hand tightened in mine, and Damian scooted closer, putting his arm around us both. It helped me think, helped slow my pulse. Jean-Claude put his hand in my last free hand, and that helped even more. I didn’t have to look to know that Richard had put his arm across the couch so that he was touching Jean-Claude, too. I knew we were all touching, and with every touch I was a little less the victim of the lion inside me, and the one walking into the room.

Haven’s energy breathed harder against my skin. I smelled sun-burnt grass, dust, and the rich scent of lion. Once it would have been enough to bring my lioness crashing against the walls of my body; with everyone’s hands on me it was tempting, but I didn’t have to give in to it.

A low growl vibrated out from between those human lips. The sound of it seemed to vibrate along my spine, as if my body were a tuning fork and