“Yeah, I guess I was.” I kept walking, which actually brought me closer to him, but if I kept moving maybe I wouldn’t get caught in our usual snark-tastic repartee.

“Like what you see?”

“I was actually wondering if you tanned darker than Micah, or if your natural skin color was paler, and that’s why your tan lines are more pronounced.”

“What, you don’t like tan lines?”

“I think I’m neutral about tan lines.”

Some of the guards close to us were rushing their showers. They darted covert glances from me to Kane. They shouldn’t have been looking at him like that; he wasn’t their king, or a prince, or whatever. He was just the lover of one of our shared lovers, but there it was; they were treating him like he had enough power to make them afraid, or at least enough that they didn’t want to get caught in the middle of us. Asher was technically Jean-Claude’s second-in-command if you were counting vampires, but honestly as Micah and I had taken on more responsibilities Asher’s role had gotten smaller, partly because his emotions got in his way, a lot, and partly because Asher had spent over six months exiled to another city. By the time he came back we’d divided up a lot of the daily upkeep without him. So why were the guards looking at Kane like getting on his shit list could ruin their day?

Kane turned around in the shower, so I could see that the tan lines went all the way around. It was a nice view, but the sourness that always seemed to roll off him ruined any momentary attractiveness. Asher had finally found someone who was more cranky than he was, and dealing with Asher was hard enough; Kane just seemed like too much work for too little payback to me.

He ran his hands down his body to cup himself, massaging a little so I could see he had room to grow. I raised an eyebrow and started walking. I was done here.

“Does it bother you to know you can see, but not touch?” he asked, with that edge of meanness his voice so often held.

That made me stop and look back at him. “Excuse me?”

He was working himself up with his hands in the spray of the shower, almost like he was masturbating. “There’s finally a man in town that you want, but who doesn’t want you; how does it feel, Anita?”

I laughed; I couldn’t help it. It was the wrong thing to do if I’d wanted to de-escalate; most men don’t like being laughed at when they’re naked and turgid, but Kane had no sense of humor about it. His face went from sexy pouting to scowling at me.

“You think you can lead everyone around with your pussy; well, here’s one man who doesn’t give a damn about it. If it’s not a cock, I don’t care.”

“Trust me, Kane, you’re not on my hit list either.”

Two of the guards turned off their showers and hurried past me through the door into the locker room. They smelled scared, and they shouldn’t have been. Kane wasn’t good enough to be one of our guards, which meant they could have taken him in a fair fight, so why that cold sense of panic?

“But you like dick.”

“I like dick when it’s attached to the right person. Since you make such a big deal of being monogamous for Asher, I’d think you, of all people, would understand that.”

Two more guards got out of the showers and fled, and that was the right word. They sensed a fight that no matter which way it went gave them something to lose. They shouldn’t have felt that way, which meant I had missed something important between our bodyguards and Kane, but what was it?

“Asher said you liked men.”

“I do, but not all men, and I have a couple of female lovers now, so I’m exploring my options sans dick.” I smiled when I said the last, because it was just such a weird conversation to be having, especially with Kane. It was probably the longest one-on-one conversation we’d ever had.

“I’ve got to go meet Micah; enjoy your shower.” I was actually at the door this time when he said something that stopped me.

“How many lycanthropes did you fuck last night to cover yourself in that much of us?”

I frowned at him. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I had to call Domino’s beast to save his life. Forcing the change like that can be violent and messy.”

“Nice story, but if that were true then you wouldn’t have had sperm mixed with Domino’s juices so that the guards didn’t recognize you.”

“I know stories grow in the retelling, but I was only in the shower for an hour, that’s damn quick embellishing.”

“You’re denying it?”

“Yeah, though frankly if I wanted to bring in all my wereanimal lovers and have a bukkake festival, what difference would it make to you, Kane?”

“Your level of debauchery keeps surprising me, Anita, that’s all.”

“You’re the one who was playing with himself in the shower, trying to get me to watch the show, so tell me again which of us is debauched?”

His anger flared like a hot wind, the edge of his beast riding with it. It was a lot of heat, far more power than the last time I’d been near him when he’d been pissy. “You’ve had a power jump, Kane. How?”

“Guess,” he said, and he was far too pleased with himself, so whatever had happened, he didn’t think I’d like it.

“I don’t know, and I really do have to meet Micah before I go meet with the FBI, so I really don’t have time to play twenty questions.”

“Let’s play Jeopardy instead,” he said.