Perilous Partnership (4 page)

Perilous Partnership

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Raymond must not have done as good a job hiding his reaction as he thought, because Jean pulled him into a hard embrace, kissing him thoroughly, leaving no doubt where his interests lay.

“I don‟t want them,” Jean growled, releasing Raymond‟s lips only long enough to speak. He captured them again, manhandling Raymond backward until his hips hit his desk. He swallowed Raymond‟s moan, hands flying over the wizard‟s body as he pushed and pulled at his lover‟s clothes. He didn‟t bother trying to remove them. He only needed access to certain parts of Raymond‟s body anyway.

Raymond gasped again as Jean‟s hands burrowed beneath his shirt and into his trousers, finding all his sensitive spots and exploiting them mercilessly. His vampire had two distinct personalities inside his handsome exterior, and Raymond still could not always predict which one would surface at any given moment. He was not sure what had set Jean off this time, but since his lover always left him completely sated either way, he was not about to complain. He simply leaned back against the desk and gave himself over to Jean‟s mastery.

The inherent surrender in Raymond‟s posture fired Jean‟s blood. He tore open his trousers and spat in his palm, smearing the saliva over his rigid cock.

Without prompting, Raymond turned, offering his bare backside to his lover.

Jean stepped forward, his cock burrowing into the welcoming furrow between Raymond‟s cheeks. He grabbed Raymond‟s shoulders, lifting him into a more upright position so he could reach the curve of his lover‟s neck with his fangs.

Teeth and cock pierced the wizard simultaneously, winning a hoarse shout from Raymond‟s throat. Jean smiled as hot blood rushed over his tongue, hoping Fabienne was at her desk and would hear the sounds they were making.

Rationally, he knew she had no interest in his lover, nor did Raymond have any in her, but the feelings surging within him had no grounding in rationality.

They were as primitive, as primal as the magic that had maintained Jean‟s existence for over a millennium.

Raymond spared a second‟s thought for the press conference he had to attend that afternoon and the marks on his neck that wouldn‟t be healed by then. He could heal them himself or ask another wizard to do that, but he would not. He never had, refusing to act as if his relationship with Jean shamed him in any way. They generally took pains not to flaunt the personal side of their relationship so as not to call into question the professional side, but this would not be the first time Raymond had arrived at a public appearance with a fresh bite mark on his neck. Raymond hoped no one would comment on it. He would hate to have to hex anyone.

Then Jean‟s cock hit his sweet spot and Raymond could not think anymore, the delicious pressure blanking his mind completely. He never remembered to tell Jean later, but he cherished that as much as any other part of their

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lovemaking. An academic and historian by nature, his mind was never a quiet place, except when Jean stole all thought, all breath this way. “More,” he whispered, not averse to begging if it got him what he wanted.

It always got him what he wanted.

Jean‟s hips moved faster, harder, striving for that extra millimeter of connection as he sucked more deeply on Raymond‟s neck, plundering the tender flesh for the nourishment of his body, but far more importantly, for the nourishment of his soul. Raymond‟s blood always tasted sweet, but it usually had an underlying savor to it, the little piece of himself that Raymond held back, that gave him his extraordinary control, even in the midst of sex; but every once in awhile, everything would click together and Raymond‟s mind would surrender. It was Jean‟s Holy Grail, that moment when he tasted true abandon in his lover‟s blood. Knowing he had achieved it now, with Fabienne on the other side of the door and a press conference in an hour and all the work they needed to do looming over them, sent Jean‟s passion spiraling out of control. Reaching around Raymond, he sought his lover‟s shaft, pumping it in time with his pistoning hips. It took only moments before Raymond found his release, the contractions rippling through his passage enough to trigger Jean‟s orgasm as well.

Some minutes later, as their pulses steadied and their breathing eased, Jean carefully extracted his fangs, licking tenderly along the line of Raymond‟s throat to speed the healing of the torn skin as much as his saliva could do.

“That‟s still going to be there tonight, no matter how many times I lick it,” he warned Raymond.

“And you are oh so bothered by that fact,” Raymond teased, hearing the note of satisfaction in Jean‟s voice.

“I‟m not bothered by it at all,” Jean replied lazily. “I‟ve never felt constrained to hide what we are to each other, on any level. I usually do a better job of respecting your concerns though.”

“You know that if we were anyone other than the chef de la Cour and the president of l‟ANS, I‟d proclaim it from the housetops,” Raymond declared, straightening so he could turn in Jean‟s arms. He rued the loss of their intimate connection, but he needed to see Jean‟s face, needed Jean to see his face so Jean would see how serious he was. “I don‟t want to hide that you‟re my lover. I‟ve never wanted that, but when proclaiming it could hurt our political agenda and choosing to be discreet allows us to function effectively, the good outweighs the subterfuge. I choose not to volunteer information, and so far no one has dared to ask me outright.”

“And if they did?” Jean asked, muscles tensing.

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“I wouldn‟t deny it,” Raymond promised, kissing Jean heedless of the blood still staining his lips. “I‟m not ashamed of you or of us. I simply choose not to flaunt it.”

“Usually.”

Raymond lifted a hand to his neck, feeling the incisions left by Jean‟s fangs. “Usually,” he agreed. “You normally leave marks where no one else can see them, so it isn‟t an issue of hiding or flaunting anything.”

Only because Raymond worried so about appearances and their impact on the political agenda of l‟ANS. Jean did not know if that kind of tension could break the partnership bond between them, but he knew enough of personal relationships to know that constant arguments would make their lives hell. It was a small enough concession to make when he got Raymond and his tireless hard work against discrimination in the bargain. Either way, discussing it further would only annoy him and probably Raymond as well.

“What‟s on the agenda for the press conference tonight?” Jean asked, changing the subject.

“Announcing the new responsibilities we‟ve delegated and unveiling the timeline for l‟Institut,” Raymond replied. “Nothing groundbreaking as far as I can foresee.”

“Do you want me to be there?”

Raymond shrugged. “Only if you want. I‟d think you could find some more enjoyable way to use your time.”

He probably could, but that would mean letting Raymond out of his sight.

The fresh bites made that marginally easier, but nothing made it easy. He made a mental note to ask one of the other paired vampires if he had the same problem. Not Orlando; the Aveu de Sang skewed everything about his relationship with Alain. Sebastien, perhaps, although Jean had still not completely assimilated the sudden cessation in tension between them after nearly four hundred years of misunderstanding. “I have a few things to take care of, but I‟ll see you before the conference starts.”

Raymond smiled. He always offered to let Jean skip the tedious question-and-answer sessions. The vampire always refused. “Then I‟ll see you at seven.”

Jean leaned in for one more quick kiss, his sensitive nose catching the smell of sex still surrounding Raymond. “Take a shower before then or everyone in the room will know I did more than bite you.”

Raymond laughed and incanted a quick cleaning spell. “Better?”

It was not better at all as far as Jean was concerned. He was tempted to start all over again so Raymond would stay covered in his scent, but he would have

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to be satisfied with seeing the imprint of his fangs on Raymond‟s neck instead.

“I think I like you the other way.”

Raymond shook his head at Jean‟s grumbling. “Get out of here. Some of us have work to do.”

Jean laughed as he left Raymond‟s office, but the questions raised by his sudden jealousy lingered. He wandered past the office Sebastien and Thierry shared, but the door was shut, and the light was off. He did not want to have this conversation over the phone, and he did not have time to take the train all the way out to Versailles and back before the press conference. His feet carried him out of l‟ANS headquarters and halfway to Sang Froid before he even realized where he was going. Once he did, he sped up, hoping Angelique would be in and have time to talk. She had been a friend for many long years, as in touch with her vampire nature as any vampire he had ever known. If anyone could help him make sense of his feelings, it would be Angelique.

Arriving in Montmartre, he smiled to see the improvements to the exterior of Sang Froid in the year since the passage of the equality legislation that had allowed vampire business owners to come out of hiding. Where once the entrance had been nondescript, not attempting to draw attention to itself, now the entrance had an elegant sign proclaiming the name of the business. Where once Jean would have slipped across the square clinging to the shadows, now he walked openly to the door, not worrying someone would see him and wonder about the nature of his visit.

“Jean!” Angelique said, surprise and delight clear in her voice at the sight of the chef de la Cour. “What are you doing here? I know you don‟t need the services of my employees.”

Jean laughed. “You never know, Angelique. Raymond could have decided he‟s done with me.”

Angelique rolled eyes. “You don‟t expect me to believe that. I can smell the blood and sex on you, mon cher. You‟re as besotted with him as ever.”

Jean nodded. “That‟s why I‟m here, actually. I seem to fall more in love with him every day, to the point that I have trouble letting him out of my sight.

If we were simply Raymond and Jean, that might not be a problem, but we‟re also president of l‟ANS and chef de la Cour.”

Angelique nodded. “Come into my parlor,” she said with a wink, leading Jean toward the room she used as an office. Only the escritoire against one wall gave any indication of the functional purpose of the room. Beyond that, the room could have been the boudoir of any high-class Middle Eastern courtesan, a reminder of her origins. Jean had often wondered how Angelique‟s partner had adjusted to her past. “What brought this on? You‟ve been chef de la Cour

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for almost four hundred years. I realize Raymond‟s position is newer, but he doesn‟t strike me as someone whose head would be turned by the spotlight.”

“It isn‟t that,” Jean said. “He is one of the most down-to-earth people I know. He keeps insisting we need to be discreet about the depth of our personal relationship because of the nature of our public personas. I know he‟s right, but it goes against everything I am. I want to declare him to the Cour as my Consort. I want to give him that security and have it for myself, but I can‟t. No one would care who my Consort was if it were anyone else, but I don‟t have a different partner. I have Raymond.”

“Do you really want a different partner?” Angelique asked.

“No! Mon Dieu, non!” Jean exclaimed. “I can‟t imagine being with anyone else this way, not when I can have him. If, God forbid, he had not survived the war, perhaps I would have considered finding someone else, but he is as much a part of me as my hand.”

“Or your cock?” Angelique teased.

Jean flushed, something he swore he had overcome centuries ago. He could hardly deny it, though. “Or that. The point is that I don‟t want anyone else. I have to learn to live with the partner I have, with all that entails. And at the moment, letting him out of my sight is nearly impossible, which makes doing our jobs difficult.”

“So what do you need from me, besides someone to listen to you vent?”

“I need to know if I‟m the only one feeling this way. We haven‟t made the announcement yet, but we‟re going forward with a research institute to try to understand the partnership bonds. If I‟m the only one feeling this way, then I‟ll just have to learn to live with it, but if I‟m not, we need to address that as we begin our research and as we prepare other wizards and vampires to take partners,” Jean explained.

Angelique smiled. “You aren‟t the only one, and you‟re doing far better than many. You wouldn‟t believe the number of vampires who have come to visit me, hoping the taste of someone else‟s blood would help them put things back in perspective. It has yet to work.”

“Who?” Jean asked, worried now about the stability of the Cour.

Angelique shook her head. “I don‟t share information about my customers.

You know that. It‟s one of the reasons you always felt safe coming here before you met Raymond. I won‟t jeopardize my business without a legal order requiring I share those records. I will tell you that most of them left with the intention of making things work with their partners since they couldn‟t rid themselves of the need for them. And I don‟t have to tell you who doesn‟t feel that way.”

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