Perilous Partnership (7 page)

The dark walls, covered in silk wallpaper, absorbed the little bit of light that filtered in from the other room, leaving both men cast in deep shadows as Raymond slowly undressed Jean, lingering over each bit of pale flesh as it was revealed, stroking, licking, even biting, determined to erase all thoughts of the past from his lover‟s mind. When Jean was finally naked, Raymond nudged him onto the bed, the black brocade curtains coming loose with a quick tug of the ties to enclose the bed in complete darkness. Raymond did not need light to make love to the vampire beneath him, though the darkness required him to use his other senses instead. He could have summoned light with a whispered spell, but he did not want anything to take his focus away from the task at hand.

Without his eyes to guide him, Raymond felt his other senses sharpen. The silk of the sheets, always soft against his skin, was suddenly another caress.

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Every falter in Jean‟s breathing sent a new bolt of desire down Raymond‟s spine. The smell of arousal curled around his nose, urging him to add to it. He stroked Jean‟s erection, feeling the dampness at its tip. Wanting to taste, he shifted unerringly until he could close his lips around the mushroomed head, his tongue pushing back the foreskin, seeking the familiar, salty flavor that exploded in his mouth. Jean‟s hips bucked up, pushing the thick shaft deeper into Raymond‟s mouth. He compensated by adjusting the angle so the head slid down his throat. At the same time, he slid one hand beneath Jean‟s body, cupping his hand around his lover‟s slim arse.

“Please,” Jean whispered above him. “Touch me.”

He almost asked Jean what he thought Raymond was doing, but that would have meant lifting his head and losing the delicious taste of his lover. Besides, he knew what Jean meant even if his request had been vague. Releasing his grip for a moment, he slid his hand up Jean‟s body, palm up. Seconds later, Jean placed their lube in his upturned hand. With a smile, Raymond squirted some on his fingers and slid them home. The moan that escaped Jean‟s throat brought another grin as Raymond lavished dual attentions on his vampire. Finding Jean‟s prostate, he settled in for a long, thorough massage. His own arousal nagged at him, but he found it easy to ignore in favor of giving Jean what he needed.

Beneath him, Jean writhed uncontrollably, gasping and panting with each pass of Raymond‟s fingers over his sensitive node. “Raymond, s‟il te plaît.”

Lifting his head finally, Raymond peered through the darkness as if he could see his lover and make out the expression on the vampire‟s face. “What do you need, Jean? Tell me.”

Jean bit back the words that wanted to come. He had decided a year ago not to pressure Raymond with declarations of any kind, acting on his emotions for his reluctant partner without ever putting them into words. “Inside me,” he said instead.

Raymond wiggled his fingers, wringing another deep groan from Jean.

“Don‟t be dense. I want your cock inside me. Now.”

Raymond obliged, moving between Jean‟s willingly parted legs so he could lower himself onto his lover‟s body, taking a moment to kiss the softness of Jean‟s lips, his tongue ghosting across the tips of Jean‟s fangs, before moving back to position himself at Jean‟s entrance. He slicked himself quickly, rocking his way slowly inside, taking care to lift Jean‟s hips onto his thighs so the tip of his cock would nudge his lover‟s prostate with every pass. If Jean‟s desperate thrashing was any indication, Raymond had succeeded. Once he had them positioned the way he wanted, the wizard leaned forward again, rejoining their lips as well. They never spoke of love, but Raymond fully intended to make

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love to Jean, not merely fuck him through the mattress. He knew his own heart even if he had never worked up the courage to speak it aloud. Surely Jean knew, as often as he fed from Raymond.

Long moments passed as they strove together for release, the darkness enshrouding them, giving them these private moments to be Raymond and Jean rather than the president of l‟ANS and the chef de la Cour parisienne. They took full advantage of it, wrapping around each other like they never intended to let go. When they reached the limits of their control finally, they shattered together, Jean‟s fangs piercing Raymond‟s tongue, the hot rush of blood surprising both of them and sending Jean over the edge as he tasted the unmistakable emotions. He almost spoke his heart then, but simply because Raymond shared Jean‟s feelings did not mean the wizard was ready to admit them or talk about them. Jean could afford to be patient. Declaration or not, he and Raymond were clearly building a life together, and that was all that mattered.

In the aftermath, Raymond cradled Jean against his shoulder. “That‟s going to hurt when I have my coffee in the morning,” he joked.

In reply, Jean pulled Raymond‟s head to his, their lips meeting. He sucked Raymond‟s tongue into his mouth, laving the wounds carefully and thoroughly enough to have Raymond moaning against him again. “That will help. I‟ll be glad to do it again in the morning.”

Raymond chuckled. “I‟ll take you up on that. Now, tell me what the story is with the chef de la Cour in Autun.”

Jean rolled his eyes, though he knew Raymond could not see him. “He‟s another reactionary. I haven‟t talked to him in probably twenty years, but our last meeting did not go well. Each Cour is independent, but we do have some contact with each other, and as a rule, we try to maintain amicable ties at least.

You never know when one of us might need something only another chef de la Cour can provide. Think about Luc Cabalet and his contribution to the war.”

Raymond remembered the chef de la Cour amiénoise well. He had arrived, demanding an explanation from Jean, only to find himself partnered with one of the few wizards Raymond would not have wanted to face in a fight. While the posturing between the two vampires had been obvious even to an outsider, they had set their differences aside to fight a common enemy. “But the chef de la Cour in Autun doesn‟t maintain those ties?”

“Not at all. Every few years the chefs de la Cour will gather to discuss matters that affect us all. He stormed out twenty years ago and has not returned.

As far as I know, he tolerates the chefs de la Cour from Dijon and Auxerre because they‟re his nearest neighbors, but only when he has no other choice. I

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don‟t think he‟ll challenge our undertakings in Dommartin, but we shouldn‟t expect any help from him.”

“What did you disagree about?” Raymond asked.

“Does it really matter?”

“I don‟t know,” Raymond replied, “but the fact that you won‟t tell me makes me think it was more important than you want to let on. I‟m not asking as the president of l‟ANS. I‟m asking as your lover. I promised to support you in any way I could before I knew what Marcel had in store for me. That promise still holds, except it‟s even more vital now that I have a public role as well. I don‟t want to do anything through ignorance that would make life more difficult for you.”

Jean nodded. “And I appreciate that, but it‟s a moot point now even if he agrees to have anything to do with us.”

“Jean.”

“Raymond.”

Jean‟s tone mimicked Raymond‟s exasperation so perfectly that the wizard laughed. “All right, I won‟t pressure you to tell me, but promise me you will tell me if it becomes relevant again. I meant what I said about not wanting to cause you to lose face.”

“I know, and I appreciate it,” Jean said. “Now, you should get some sleep.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. We have to start figuring out what repairs need to be done to the abbey and how soon we can make it habitable. We don‟t have to have everything finished before we start, but we‟ll need the basics covered.”

Raymond smiled and kissed Jean lightly. “I think you‟re more excited about this than I am.”

Jean chuckled. “It‟s been a long time since I‟ve had a project of this scope to oversee. And don‟t tell me you aren‟t interested in the results of the research we‟ll be able to do. I know you‟re as fascinated by how and why the partnership bonds work as I am.”

Raymond could hardly deny it when that had been one of the major reasons for establishing l‟Institut in the first place. “There will be more than enough work for both of us, I‟m sure.”

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“YOU‟RE late.”

Raymond met Jean‟s eyes with a smothered grin. The wizard they had arranged to meet was as stunningly beautiful and as caustically impatient as ever. “We had an emergency come up at the last minute, and even though we delegated it to someone else, we still had to decide who to call on.”

Jean nudged Raymond‟s side as he walked past him, approaching Adèle with a smile and a courtly bow over her hand. Her current garb, heavy hiking boots, jeans, a fisherman‟s sweater, and a heavy coat, might bear no resemblance to the chic attire she had worn when they first met in Paris and he had imagined she might be the partner for him, but if anything, she was even more attractive this way for being more genuine than she had been then.

“Forgive our tardiness?”

Adèle rolled her eyes, having been on the receiving end of Jean‟s suave charm more than once. She was woman enough to appreciate it even as she reminded herself that Jean and Raymond were far more than colleagues. The fading bite marks she could see above Raymond‟s collar proclaimed them to be paired, and while Adèle knew her experience with her own partner was atypical, she also knew how hard the bond between a pair drove them toward each other. She would bet a year‟s salary they were lovers. She felt a pang for what might have been if her blood had been compatible with some other vampire instead of her antiquated, self-important bastard of a partner. “Marcel had no idea what he was doing, putting you two in charge. You‟re a potent team.”

Jean chuckled. “That‟s exactly why he did it, my dear. Because nobody can resist us both at once.”

And that was God‟s own truth as far as Adèle could see. She had sworn to stay as far away from l‟ANS and politics as possible after she returned to le Morvan at the end of the war, her temporary assignment with the Gendarmerie Nationale to gather up any remaining agents notwithstanding, and she had kept that promise for eleven months. It had only taken one phone call from Raymond to make her break it. Granted, the request required her to drive all of

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fifteen minutes from her sleepy village of Château-Chinon, but that was not the point. “So what do you need me to do? You weren‟t very clear on the phone.”

“You‟re standing outside the gate to the newly founded Institut Marcel Chavinier,” Raymond said proudly, his hand sweeping wide to encompass the monastery and the surrounding grounds. “Inside these walls we will study magic, especially the magic that binds our races together, and we will use what we learn to help prepare vampires and wizards for the creation of a partnership bond instead of having people stumbling into them with no idea of the repercussions of such a relationship.” He laughed ruefully, his voice taking on a less bombastic tone as he continued. “Obviously it needs some work first, but our biggest concern, both now and in the future, will be the security of the complex. We haven‟t received any threats yet, but you know how the right wing loves to complain about everything we do.”

Adèle nodded, hiding her flinch at Raymond‟s choice of words. She knew all about the repercussions of the partnership bonds. She barely managed to keep from rubbing the scar on her left breast, the two puncture wounds from her partner‟s fangs a reminder of all the reasons to resist the pull of their bond.

“Unless you were planning on turning it into something like a hotel, you‟d want security of some sort. Take me around. Let me see what you have in mind so I can figure out the best options.”

“Inside or outside first?” Raymond asked. He knew where he would start if he were doing the wards, but Adèle knew more about the kinds of wards they would need than any other wizard in France. He would trust her judgment.

“Outside,” Adèle replied. “I‟ll start here at the door and work my way around the perimeter, but I want to walk it first and see where my grounding points will be. I imagine you‟ll want the wards to include at least some of the grounds.”

“Yes, especially down to the lake,” Raymond said. “Thierry and Alain checked their elements and fire sprang right to my fingertips when I called it, but I could only draw on the water when I went down to the shore.”

“Do you want the barriers to go out into the lake at all?”

Raymond frowned. “We don‟t own the lake, just the lakeside property. If people want to swim later, they‟ll do so at their own risk. I don‟t want people wandering in out of curiosity that way, that‟s all.”

“Which answers my next question,” Adèle said with a smile. “You want barriers to keep people from getting in without permission rather than wards to hold off spells.”

“Do you really think we need that kind of ward?” Jean asked. “We aren‟t anticipating any resistance within l‟ANS or from non-affiliated wizards, unless you know something we don‟t.”

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Adèle shook her head. “No. I just wanted to make sure you didn‟t know something
I
don‟t. I‟m not exactly high on the list of people with access to classified information these days.”