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you - feel it. Or maybe 'sense' is a better word. It pulls you in. It's very attractive. "

I sunk lower into my seat, trying to decide if anyone would notice if I suddenly turned invisible. I might as well have been since no one was listening to my protests anyway.

"You must have noticed it," pointed out Hugh, taking a swig of whiskey. "There must be days when you see Georgina and practically can't control yourself because of how hot she is. You can only stare. Of course, it's probably hard to tell the difference since she's always so hot, huh?"

Everyone except Carter, Seth, and I laughed. I knew the imp had meant that last part as a compliment, but I wanted to throw my gimlet glass at him nonetheless. The hilarity soon died down, and we returned to cards. But the damage was done. Seth and I hardly spoke for the rest of the night, not that anyone - save Carter, I suspected - even noticed.

When Seth and I left, I knew something bad was coming. I dropped him off at his place, and he invited me inside to eat Rocky Road ice cream. He was a big ice cream fan. I should have just turned around and left, but Rocky Road has supernatural powers. Plus, I remembered what Seth and I had discussed after the recent make-out session in bed - how we had to communicate about issues, rather than ignore them. I still believed that to be true, but theory and practice were two completely different things.

He made up two bowls for us, and we ate the ice cream in silence for a while. When he finished, Seth played with his spoon, not looking at me.

"So," he asked, "is it true?"

"Is what true?" Like I didn't know.

"Come on, don't make me spell it out," he said gently. "I just want to hear your version, that's all."

I opened my mouth to speak, to find some way to neutralize all this, but my tongue felt thick and useless. No coherent words formed.

"Is it true?" repeated Seth. When I still didn't answer, he continued, "When I see you sometimes...when I see you - like that one night - and can barely even breathe because you are so beautiful...so beautiful that I can do nothing but act like an idiot, does that mean that you've just...slept with someone? But, of course, I don't actually mean, um, 'sleep'..."

Damn, this communication thing really did suck.

CHAPTER 12

"Thetis," he said after several more moments of silence, "talk to me here."

I looked up sharply. "What do you want me to say? You already know the answer. They wouldn't lie. Well, actually, they lie all the time but not about something like that."

He nodded and set the bowl and spoon on the coffee table. Slouching back on the couch, he didn't look at me, instead staring off across the room in thought. I could guess what was going through his mind. He knew what I was and what I did. But it was one thing to have a superficial knowledge of it and another to suddenly know there was tangible evidence each time I had sex. He would recognize the glow now and know that I had just come from someone else's bed, that not so long ago I'd been in someone else's arms doing the most intimate things two people could do. Things I couldn't do with him.

"I'm sorry," I said, not knowing what else I could say.

"For what?"

"For...this. For doing what I do."

"Why? It is what you do. It's what you have to do, right? There's no need to apologize for your own...uh, nature."

"So...what? You're okay with that? Knowing what I'm doing with other guys? Or rather, when I'm doing it?"

"'Okay' is a funny word, but yeah, I guess. What I'm not okay with is..." He paused, as always considering his words before speaking. "What I'm not okay with is you being afraid to tell me about this. You must have seen how...entranced...I was. But you never brought it up or explained it to me."

"What was I supposed to say? 'Thanks for noticing how pretty I am. It's because I just went down on some stranger in a sleazy club.'"

Seth flinched, and I immediately regretted my example.

"Maybe...maybe it could be phrased a bit more, uh, tactfully than that, but yeah. I guess essentially that's what you could tell me."

I poked at the melted remains of my ice cream. "It's not that easy, and