“So I’m not just being all stupid straight girl?”

Nathaniel hugged me. “I told you that you weren’t.”

“But you love me, and you’re not a girl.”

J.J. smiled. “No, you’re not being all stupid straight girl. You’re actually being very responsible and trying your best, which is a hell of a lot more than most lovers do.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I would be honored to try to help you do oral sex with Jade, but how different are you and Jade on oral sex?”

“What do you mean, different?”

“Nathaniel, you got to watch, how different are they?”

“From what I could see, Anita takes longer to go with oral, and in fact Jade can be incredibly quick clitorally if issues don’t get in her way.”

“Any other differences?”

“Jade’s clit is lower down than Anita’s, so the positioning is different, and I think that Jade likes less direct stimulation there than Anita, which makes Anita have to go even lower most of the time.”

“That makes it harder to breathe sometimes if you bury your face deep; you could actually not be able to breathe.” She looked at me, raising the gold arch of her eyebrows.

“Let me just say, this is all a little too clinical for me, and I’m very uncomfortable right now, but yeah, sometimes my ability to hold my breath, from doing boy oral, helps me go down on Jade, because it’s just too weird to try to breathe and be that . . . low on her.”

“Okay, that gives me a starting point,” J.J. said, and then she grinned again, face lighting up with it.

“What?” I asked, and knew the one word sounded suspicious.

She rolled her eyes so she could glance at Jason, and the look of mischief was so close to some of his, I knew I wasn’t going to like whatever she was about to say.

“I know that look,” Jason said. “Anita may not like what you’re going to say.”

“Should I not say it?”

He laughed. “Go ahead.”

She turned back to me, face still shining with humor. “First, serious question: Would Jade let Jason be in the room?”

“I don’t know; she hasn’t before.”

“What men does she allow?”

“Domino we actually have sex with; well, I have intercourse with him, but Jade doesn’t yet. She lets him touch her and do her by hand and orally, so he’s good. Nathaniel if he touches only me except for sleep cuddling, which was a big deal when she finally allowed it. Jean-Claude is okay, though she’s still nervous around vampires, so he has to be careful of her issues.”

“Does she have sex with Jean-Claude?”

“No.”

“So Domino is the only man she lets touch her sexually at all?”

“Yes.”

“Why just him?” she asked.

“I think it’s because he’s the only black tiger we have, and the clan tigers enjoy being with others of their own clan.”

She mulled that over, and then said, “I wouldn’t be comfortable having Domino, I don’t know him. Jean-Claude makes me nervous in that cat-and-mouse sort of way. Nathaniel would be okay, but only if Jason was with us.”

“I should have asked Jade about Jason, too. It was stupid of me not to take your nerves into account; I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, Anita; you’re doing your best for Jade, for all of us.” She seemed to think more on it, face very serious, eyes showing the level of concentration.

“I let them tie me up; Jade seems to like that,” Nathaniel said.

“Nope,” Jason said, “don’t even ask. I don’t bottom to submissives either, and I especially don’t let myself get tied up with women who have serious issues with men.”

“Jade’s never hurt anyone,” I said.

“No, but who knows what might send her into a flashback? Anita, she may seem all gentle with you, but when she’s working out in the gym she’s wicked fast and stronger than that body looks; if she could get over the issues her old master beat into her she would be one of the most efficient killing machines I’ve ever seen.”

I blinked at him. “Jade?”

“She doesn’t work out in front of you to the best of her ability, Anita. I think that goes back to her old master not liking that maybe she was faster or better at some of the fighting skills than he was; I think she doesn’t want to show you up.”

“She’s a weretiger, Jason; she’s supposed to be faster and stronger than I am.”

“You know that, but she sure as hell isn’t comfortable with you seeing her in the gym. Haven’t you noticed that she never works out when you’re there unless forced?”

I thought about it, and then said, “Is that why she sucks at hand to hand and most weapons practice, because I’m always there?”

“I think so, because when you’re not in the weight room, or the track, or . . . she works a heavy bag over like she’d make a person into so much meat, real quick.”

“Have you seen her do that?” I asked Nathaniel.

“Yes, but only when you and Nicky aren’t with me. She’s different without the two of you in the gym.”

“Okay, I sort of understand her having issues with showing me up, but why does she care about Nicky?”

“I think she doesn’t want anyone she considers a threat to see how good she is,” Jason said.

“Nicky hasn’t threatened her, has he?” I asked.

“No, he hasn’t hurt her; he’s just really big, really physical, and really good at fighting.”

“Well, crap,” I said.

“I wouldn’t let anyone tie me down and put me at her mercy; just call me cautious, but there’s a look in her eyes sometimes that I do not want aimed at me when I can’t fight back,” Jason said.

“You’re not a fighter,” I said.

“I’m not a bodyguard, but I’m a werewolf, and that means you have to fight to keep your place in the pack. All wereanimals can fight, Anita, but I also know I’m a small guy. That limits me.”

“Micah is smaller than you and he’s an alpha.”

“Yeah, but he’s way more ruthless than I am. He’s more like you. You’ll both just kill people if they threaten you or your people. I won’t go for the kill unless I have to; that makes me not a threat.”

J.J. looked from one to the other of us. “Are you serious about the killing part?”

Jason and I exchanged a look. I don’t know what we would have said, because Nathaniel said, “I think that look in Jade’s eyes is why I liked being tied up with her in the bed.”

That made us all look at him, which was probably what he’d planned. He was distracting J.J. from the fact that she could know most of our sex secrets, but the violence part . . . she was too much a civilian to know that part.

“You know that Jade is dangerous, so it gives you a kick to be tied up and at her mercy?” I asked.

He nodded. “Asher thinks she’s the perfect victim and would love to have her in the dungeon, but I think he’s wrong. I think that under the right circumstances, Jade would be incredibly dangerous.” He gave a little cuddling shiver, and I felt his body begin to react where it had been pressed inert against the back of my body. The thought of how dangerous she might be excited him. I loved Nathaniel more than almost anyone, but there were moments, like this, when I didn’t understand him. I liked the pretend of danger in bondage with people I trusted utterly; yes, I pushed the edge, but not like Nathaniel did. He liked real danger when he could get it, and thanks to being a wereleopard, he healed almost anything, emphasis on the “almost.”