Sucker Punch (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter #27) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,116

out without giving him an answer? He won’t like that, Anita.”

“I gave him an answer,” I said.

“He’ll hate you saying no.”

“I didn’t say no.”

“What did you just say?”

“I didn’t say no.”

Edward stared at me.

“Don’t look at me like that, Edward. I feel bad enough.”

He blinked, and I watched him fight to process it all. “So, you agreed to kiss him?”

I nodded.

“Anita, he’s going to expect you to make good on that.”

“I already did.”

“What?” He looked shocked. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him look quite that much at a loss.

“I said yes, and he kissed me.”

Edward just stared at me for a few heartbeats, and then he finally asked, “What am I supposed to do with that, Anita? Do I ask how it was?”

“Gentle.”

“What?”

“It was gentle. The kiss, the touch to my face—they were both gentle.”

“He’s not gentle. Don’t let him fool you the way I’ve seen him fool other victims. You of all people know what he is.”

I nodded a little too fast. “That’s just it, Edward. I do know. So how the fuck do I tell if he’s just pretending and setting me up for the kill, or if he’s as sincere as he’s capable of?”

“He is not capable of having a normal relationship, Anita.”

I nodded again. “I think you’re right.”

That seemed to settle Edward down a little. It was rare to see his calm broken so badly. Once I’d lived for moments when I could make him drop his cool, but not now, not about Olaf.

“Good. Then we’re still on the same page.”

“Yes, but I’m not good at pretending things I don’t feel. I will not be able to keep up this act for much longer, Edward. We’re getting too close to me having to put up or shut up with Olaf, and I don’t know what to do.”

He took in a lot of air and let it out slow, as if he was thinking about our options because it wasn’t just my life on the line. Yes, metaphysically the people tied to me might die if I died, but that wasn’t all. Edward was right about Olaf probably starting with killing him. Olaf thought we were lovers, so if he was going to kidnap, rape, torture, and kill Edward’s girlfriend and live through it, then he had to start by killing Edward. It was just logical, and underneath the pathology, Olaf was cold, dispassionate, and logical, just like Edward and me. Practical, we were utterly practical about survival most of the time. Of course, it wasn’t logical for Edward to have tried to pretend to be my lover so Olaf would back off. It hadn’t been logical of me to play along, or to keep talking to Olaf as if any change on his part would make him datable for me. It wasn’t practical or logical that Olaf had been willing to compromise and grow as a person to get to a point where I’d been willing to agree to a kiss.

“I thought he’d cross the line with you before it got this far, Anita. It never occurred to me that he’d try this hard.”

“Me either, but he is, so what the fuck do we do now?”

Edward shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Newman’s voice rang out far louder than it should have for what he said. “Yes, Duke, Marshal Ted Forrester just arrived. Blake is filling him in on the case.” Newman was telling us that the sheriff was about to get us in his sights. We weren’t doing anything we didn’t want him to see, but Newman didn’t know that. Bless his heart, he was a good wingman.

I whispered fast, “What do I do when we go inside?”

“Did you kiss him in front of everyone?”

“No, of course not. Told him no romance in front of other cops.”

“Then act like nothing happened and stay in sight of other people until we figure something out.”

I might have said more about the mess of it, but I could hear the sheriff’s feet crunching across the gravel of the parking area. He was almost here; we’d have to talk about the personal mess later. We had to put our cop faces on and catch the bad guys.

39

WE MOVED OUT from the SUV so that we were walking toward Leduc as he came rolling toward us.

“Newman and I have been on the ground since the start of this case, Marshal Forrester. We can fill you in on things that Blake wasn’t here for.” Leduc managed to sound belligerent and helpful,