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Gavin sighed. “Not everyone is going to want to gamble after dinner, but there’s safety in numbers.”
Mordecai stood, “Ah, I see the issue, and have an easy fix. I’ll have food delivered here for Lauren and Nick. Does that solve the problem?”
Lauren stood, “It does, but I didn’t mean for Gavin to announce to the room I don’t want to party with the rest of you.” She glared at her vampire and looked back to Mordecai. “I just don’t enjoy gambling. It isn’t that I don’t want to hang out with ya’ll. My plan was to eat with everyone and then head back this way.”
Kirsten stood beside Mordecai, “Not an option. You stay with the group, or with Gavin. Moving back and forth in small numbers isn’t safe for anyone.”
Ellania spoke without standing. “I’m not a huge fan of gambling, either, but Ambrose is. I’ll hang out here and act as guard.”
Chapter 36
It took nearly fifteen minutes to complete the meeting and politely usher everyone out of his suite. When he closed the door, Gavin turned to see Nick sitting on a sofa with Lauren leaned against him.
Surprisingly, this didn’t set his inner vampire off in a rage. Lauren was his, but so was Nick. It felt good to see the two of them relaxed in this space, knowing they were safe.
“Lauren said something that the three of us need to talk about,” Gavin told them as he walked towards them.
“What did I say?”
“That you weren’t interested in having sex with anyone except Nick and me.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“But you understand I’ll be having sex with others? And Nick will be having sex with the members of his pride? I don’t want you fucking anyone besides us, but I have no right to make that demand, and we need to be clear on everyone’s parameters before we set any expectations.”
Lauren’s scent went sour, but her face didn’t betray anything. Nick lifted her into his lap and tilted her head so he could see her face. “I can promise I won’t have serious romantic feelings for others, and that I’ll only fuck my pride as necessary.”
“Yeah, I knew that.” Lauren looked to Gavin. “You stopped fucking Queenie. You told me it was short term while we figured everything out. You’ve fucked others you’ve fed from though, right?”
Gavin moved so he sat on the same sofa, beside Nick, turned so he faced Lauren. “My relationship with Queenie isn’t romantic, but it has some intimacy. She’s mine to do with as I please. She gives herself to me when I hurt her.” He sighed. “I’m not sure how to explain it, but hurting her without fucking her isn’t healthy, and if I can’t hurt her, I may as well release her. It’s too much a part of how we interact.”
Nick rubbed her arm and told her, “If Gavin was dating someone with either his predilections or the opposite, then Queenie would be part of their intimacy. They’d either hurt her together, or Gavin would hurt him or her side-by-side with Queenie.”
“Yes, that’s true, but I don’t believe Lauren would enjoy seeing what I do to my slave, much less helping me.”
Lauren put her hand on Gavin’s mouth.Right over his mouth.
If anyone else had done that, he’d have struck out. Not even Zander would have done so, and yet, his little Lauren did it without thinking twice.
“Just be quiet a minute,” Lauren told him. “Stop explaining yourself into a deeper hole and let me think.”
She removed her hand and held eye contact with Gavin for a good thirty seconds before she said, “Feeding and fucking are so intertwined, I don’t think you see it the same as me, so expecting you to define sex the way I do doesn’t work.”
Gavin started to speak, and she shook her head. “What I need from you is an explanation of how sex with me is different from sex with the people you feed from. Not Queenie, we’ll get to her later, but for now, the people in your flock, and those sent as tribute.”
When Gavin didn’t answer, Lauren said, “I’m ready for you to talk now. Thanks for giving me a few minutes.”
In truth, the extra seconds had helped him figure out the best way to answer, but he’d let Lauren think he was being a smart-ass about being silenced.
“Sex with you is about your pleasure, and about joining our lives. It’s a form of intimacy so different from what I have with others, it’s like the move from black-and-white television to color.” There was more she needed to understand, so he kept going. “Sex with others while feeding is about getting as much of their lifeforce as I can without endangering them. There’s sexual pleasure, and I’d be lying if I tried to tell you that isn’t part of it, but it’s a means to an end. Vampires need not only blood, but the life energy of those who can walk in the sun. Sex helps in the transfer. I don’t know how, I only know it does. It isn’t necessary, but it helps, and I’m not interested in stopping the practice.”
“The promise I need from you is that if you ever feel as if you’d rather have sex with someone else, someone besides me, that you tell me up front, or you stop and never have sex with them again. The kind of feelings you have for me? If you ever develop them with someone else, you tell me as soon as you realize it. None of those kinds of secrets between us.”
“I can and will promise both of these things.”
Lauren sighed. “I like Queenie. I think I have barely an inkling of the relationship you have with her, but I know it isn’t anything close to what we have, and I know there’s an end date on it. So, whatever it is the two of you do, you should get back to it.”
“Why do I feel as if this was too easy?” Nick asked.
