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"Ah, older women." Bastien glanced around at the others, shrugging his shoulders with feigned haplessness. "Always so sure of themselves."
"So, explain how this works," Cody urged eagerly, young eyes on Bastien. "You're like the male equivalent of Georgina, right? You shape-shift and everything?" Having been an immortal for less than ten years, Cody was always learning something new about us. I realized he'd probably never even met an incubus before.
"Well, there's really no equivalent for Fleur , but yes, something like that." I think he preferred calling me Fleur because it was easier than trying to remember the names I kept acquiring over the years.
"So you seduce women?" pushed Cody.
"Exactly."
"Wow. That must actually be hard."
"It's not so - wait a minute," I said. "What are you implying over there? What's this "actually" business?"
"Well, he's got a point," insisted Peter, handing Bastien the drink. "It's not like your job's all that difficult, Georgina. By comparison, I mean."
"My job's very difficult!"
"What, getting men to have sex with a beautiful woman?" Hugh shook his head. "That's not hard. That's not even remedial."
I looked at them incredulously. "It's not like I can just jump into bed with anyone. I have to get quality guys."
"Yeah, as of a month ago maybe."
Bastien shot me a sharp look at that remark, but I was too annoyed to acknowledge it. "Hey, I just won an award, you know. Got the certificate and everything. And anyway, contrary to your pathetic love lives, not all guys will immediately give in to sex. It takes work."
"What, like horns and a whip?" suggested Peter slyly, referring to a particularly embarrassing incident from my past.
"That's different. He wanted it."
"They all want it. That's the point." Hugh turned to Bastien reverentially. "How do you do it? Got any pointers you can share with the rest of us?"
"Several lifetimes' worth," chuckled Bastien, still watching me. "Those are trade secrets, I'm afraid. Although, really, in Fleur 's defense, the techniques are the same for both of us. You should have been paying more attention to her. "
"Low-cut necklines aren't exactly a trade secret."
"Much more to it than that, my friend. Especially with Georgina. She's one of the best."
Hugh and the vampires looked at me as though they'd never noticed me before, apparently attempting to figure out if what Bastien said was true.
"No need to start that up," I pointed out hastily.
"Come on, weren't you just bragging about how you taught me everything I know? You and I used to run some good rackets back in the day."
"What kind of rackets?" asked Peter.
When I wouldn't answer, Bastien merely shrugged. "Oh, you know. The kind that require a partner. "
Cody's eyes widened. "Like...group sex?"
"No!" I protested, unable to stay silent at that. Not that it wasn't in my curriculum vitae. "Partnerships to suck somebody in. Play husband and wife. Or brother and sister. Or...or...whatever it takes to nail your mark."
Bastien nodded along with me. "Men really like the thrill of winning over someone's beautiful young wife. Women too, for that matter. The forbidden always has a certain allure to it."
"Wow." Cody and the others pondered this new development and tried probing us a bit more for details. Bastien, sensing my reluctance to elaborate about the past, gave vague answers, and conversation soon drifted to other topics - as well as to Peter's amazing dinner. It wasn't Met good, but maybe the company had biased me.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" I murmured to the incubus later, as our group finally rose from the table and began making motions to leave. I was dying to know what could have drawn him here and earned Jerome's approval. Hell's denizens could take vacations, but this smacked of business.
Bastien patted me on the back, giving me his trademark grin. "In good time, my sweet. Is there somewhere we can talk?"
"Sure. I'll take you back to my place. You can meet my cat."
When Bastien left me to once again thank Peter for dinner, Carter strolled over.
"Are you seeing Seth soon?"
"Later tonight." Seeing his amused expression, I scowled. "Just get it over with, okay?"
"Get what over with?"
"The part where you tell me how stupid it is to try to have a serious relationship with a mortal."
The mirth faded from his face. "I don't think it's stupid."
I studied him, waiting for the punch line. "Everyone else does."
"Does Seth? Do you?"
I looked away, thinking about Seth. That funny, distracted look on his face when inspiration seized him. His goofy T-shirt collection. The exquisite way he could capture the world on paper. How warm his hand was when it slid into mine. The way I just couldn't stay away from him, despite the million reasons that said I should. Suddenly, caught in Carter's penetrating eyes, something inside of me let loose. I hated how the angel could do this to me.
"Sometimes I do. Sometimes I look at him...and I remember how it was when I kissed him and felt that love. It makes me want that back. I want to feel it again. I want to return it. Other times, though...other times, I'm so scared. I listen to these guys...and to Jerome...and then the doubts gnaw at me. I can't get them out of my head. We've been sleeping together, you know. Literally. It hasn't been a problem so far, but sometimes I lie awake watching him, thinking this can't last. The longer it does...I feel like...like I'm standing on a high wire, with Seth at one end and me at the other. We're trying to reach each other, but one misstep, one breeze, one side-glance, and I'll fall over the edge. And keep falling and falling."
I took in a shaking breath when I finished.
Carter leaned toward me and brushed the hair away from the side of my face. "Don't look down then," he whispered.
Bastien had returned, catching the end of my soliloquy.
"Who's Seth?" he wanted to know later, once we were back at my apartment.
"Long story." Yet I found myself spilling it anyway.
Of course, telling Bastien about Seth meant telling him about a lot of other things too. Like a recent encounter with Jerome's half-human, half-angel son - a stunningly beautiful man with a twisted sense of social justice who had been on a semipsychotic mission to make other immortals pay for the shoddy treatment of him and his kind. The fact that he had been a good dancer and a phenomenal lover had not really been enough to make up for his wanton killing of lesser immortals and subsequent attempt on Carter.
That, of course, led me to next explain how Seth had witnessed the inevitable showdown and had been injured when I kissed him to get an emergency fix of energy. Jerome had wanted to erase Seth's memory of the whole event, as well as the writer's love for me. I had begged the demon not to, finally getting him to agree when I offered to devote all of my efforts back to seducing and corrupting decent men like a good little succubus should. Horatio's visit had been the ultimate testimony to my "new and improved" self.
Bastien, sprawling on my sofa, listened thoughtfully and frowned when I finished. "What do you mean? Why weren't you going after decent ones already?"
"I got tired of it. Didn't like hurting them."
"So what? You were going after bad ones?"
I nodded.
He shook his head, knowing as well as I did how little life energy an ignoble mortal yielded compared to a good one. "Poor Fleur . What a miserable existence that must have been."
I gave him a bittersweet smile. "I think you're the first person that's ever sounded more sympathetic than incredulous. Most people think I'm idiotic for getting by like that."
"It's a pain, yes," Bastien agreed, "and requires more frequent fixes, but hardly idiotic. You don't think I have days when I feel the same way? When I just want to throw my hands up and leave decent women alone?"
"Why don't you?"
"Not our lot. You and I are glorified prostitutes - courtesans, if you want to be more genteel, but it's all the same thing. Switching to bad ones won't change our fates. Won't even do anything in the long run, really, except relieve our guilt a bit, and even that relief doesn't last forever. "
