"Laurell K. Hamilton - Anita Blake 12 - Incubus Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hamilton Laurell K)

but the look in Nathaniel’s eyes was much more serious than what she’d done. As if
it bothered him more than it should have. Since in his day job he’s a stripper, you’d
think he’d be used to women pawing him. Of course, maybe that was the point. He
wasn’t at work.
She stayed molded to his body, and he stayed holding, with only that mute look
in his eyes to say he was unhappy. His body seemed happy and relaxed in the hug.
He never showed Jessica Arnet his confused eyes.
The hug had gone on longer than was polite, and I finally realized what part of the
problem was. Nathaniel was the least dominant person I’d ever met. He wanted out
of the hug, but he could not be the first one to pull back. Jessica had to let him go,
and she was probably waiting for him to move away, and getting all the wrong
signals from the fact that he wasn’t moving away. Shit. How do I end up with men in
my life who have such interesting problems? Lucky, I guess.
I held out my hand toward him, and the relief on his face was clear enough that
anyone down the hall would have seen it, and understood it. He kept his face turned
so Jessica never saw that look. It would have hurt her feelings, and Nathaniel didn’t
want to hurt anyone’s feelings. Which meant that he didn’t see her shining face, all
aglow with what she thought was mutual attraction. Truthfully, I’d thought Nathaniel
liked her, at least a little, but his face said otherwise. To me, anyway.
Nathaniel came to my hand like a scared child who’s just been saved from the
neighborhood bully. I drew him into a hug, and he clung to me, pressing our bodies
tighter than I would have liked in public, but I couldn’t blame him, not really. He
wanted the comfort of physical contact, and I think he’d figured out that Jessica
Arnet had gotten the wrong idea.
I held him as close as I could, as close as I’d wanted to hold Micah. With Micah,
it might have led to embarrassing things, but not with Nathaniel. With Nathaniel I
could control myself. I wasn’t in love with him. I caressed the long braid of his
auburn hair that fell nearly to his ankles. I played with the braid, as if it were other
more intimate things, hoping that Jessica would take the hint. I should have known
that a little extra hugging wouldn’t have done the job.
I drew back from the hug first, and he kept his gaze on my face. I could study his
face and understand what she saw there, so handsome, so amazingly beautiful. His
shoulders had broadened in the last few months, from weight lifting, or just the fact
that he was twenty and still filling out. He was luscious to look at, and I was almost
certain he would be nearly as luscious in bed. But though he was living with me,
cleaning my house, buying my groceries, running my errands, I still hadn’t had
intercourse with him. I was really trying to avoid that, since I didn’t plan on keeping
him. Someday Nathaniel would need to find a new place to live, a new life, because I
wouldn’t always need him the way I did now.
I was human, but just as I was the first human Nimir-Ra the leopards had ever
had, I was also the first human servant of a master vampire to acquire certain…
abilities. With those abilities came some downsides. One of those downsides was
needing to feed the ardeur every twelve hours or so. Ardeur is French for flame,
roughly translates to being consumed, being consumed by love. But it isn’t exactly
love.
I stared up into Nathaniel’s wide lilac eyes, cradled his face between my hands. I
did the only thing I could think of that might keep Jessica Arnet from embarrassing
them both at the reception to follow. I kissed him. I kissed him, because he needed
me to do it. I kissed him because it was strangely the right thing to do. I kissed him
because he was my pomme de sang, my apple of blood. I kissed him because he