“How is that teasing?”
He reached across the table and cleaned the corner of her mouth with his napkin as she frowned at him. “You had a piece of parsley—”
“Did you sustain a head injury of some kind? If you have, we need to contact—”
“Tenzin, I’m teasing you.” He leaned his chin on his hand and didn’t try to stop the smile. “I was pretending you were a pretty girl in a restaurant I was just meeting. I was playing with you. There’s nothing wrong with my memory.”
“You were playing?”
“Yes.” He reached for the chopsticks their waiter had set on the table. “The noodles are good here. You should have some.” He couldn’t wait; it had been ages since he’d had hand-pulled noodles cooked this way.
Tenzin was still staring at him. “Is this your way of suggesting we incorporate role-play into our sexual practices?”
Ben nearly spit out the mouthful of noodles he’d just stuffed in his mouth. He tried to swallow as quickly as possible while simultaneously reaching across the table to cover Tenzin’s mouth.
“I don’t have any objections to that, though there are some scenarios that I would not find arousing, such as—”
“Oh my God, please be quiet.” Ben finally managed to speak. “No, this was not a suggestion to incorporate… You know what? Let’s change the subject. I should tell you about my meeting too.”
“Props might be fun, but we’d want to be careful with any fully functional weapons, because we both tend to forget our strength sometimes when we’re—”
“Blueprints! I think I can get them for the house. Good news, right?” Ben had to get her off the subject before all of immortal San Francisco had a clear picture of Tenzin’s particular sexual proclivities, which were wide, varied, and none of their damn business. “Remember the meeting I had?”
Tenzin frowned, then nodded. “Right. And we didn’t finish talking about Lucien.”
“He doesn’t believe in it and doesn’t think the guy has it, right?”
“Right.” She opened her mouth, then closed it. “Yes. I suppose those are the main points of the conversation.”
She was keeping something back, which exasperated him, but he was learning to be patient. Since they’d reunited, Tenzin had been learning to open up, but she was a five-thousand-year-old creature who’d survived by secrecy and evasion; hiding things was second nature. She was making an effort to share more with him, but it took some practice.
Ben let the silence hang for a moment. “So that was it? He doesn’t think the guy has it?”
“Yes. That was what we talked about.” She ate some polo. “And they were at Giovanni and Beatrice’s for Christmas.”
He glanced at her since it was a sore spot. “We were invited.”
“Your aunt is very… polite.” Tenzin focused on her food, very deliberately not looking at Ben. “I’m not going to do that.”
“B is going to get over it.” His aunt, who had once been like family with Tenzin, had been furious when Ben had turned. He knew Beatrice had been angry that Tenzin had taken the choice of turning away from him, but he thought things had been getting better. “One step at a time. She smiled at you in Rome.”
“Because Sadia was there.” Tenzin was concentrating on her noodles. “Beatrice can carry a grudge longer than you or Giovanni. It will likely be some time before we are friends again.” She turned her head. “Aldiyar, your noodles are better than ever.”
The brooding vampire in the corner grunted but didn’t say anything.
“So you think she’s going to avoid the house all next week?” Ben asked. “That doesn’t sound practical.”
“No, she will be very” —Tenzin bristled at the word— “polite.”
Since they were working on the West Coast, they’d planned a visit for Ben to see his family in Los Angeles. His aunt, uncle, and their adopted daughter Sadia—who was Ben’s baby sister in all ways but blood—were excited to see him. Giovanni and Sadia were also excited to see Tenzin, but Beatrice was notably silent when Ben called to tell the family they’d both be coming.
Ben tipped up her chin and forced Tenzin’s eyes to his. “Hey.”
She met his eyes with her own stormy grey ones, incongruous in a face that hailed from Northern Asia. “Benjamin.”
“She loves you. We’ll get past this.”
Her ever-present fangs appeared behind her lips. “I want to leave now.”
“I’ll have them pack up the food.” He nodded toward the door. “Do you want to head out first?” Two vampires flying were considerably more noticeable than one, even at night.
She nodded. “Don’t take too long.” She stood and headed for the door. “We will try the role-playing sex later.”
At least everyone in the diner waited for Tenzin to leave before they chuckled.
As Ben was leaving, the gruff Aldiyar waved him over.
Ben smiled. “Everything tasted great. Thanks for—”
“They warned you, yes?” Aldiyar nodded toward the door. “About that one?”
Ben struck an innocent expression. “Warned me about what?”
Aldiyar narrowed his eyes and waved a dismissive hand at Ben, who smiled and headed out the door.
Since Tenzin had collected a wide variety of residences in her nearly five thousand years of life, when she told Ben she “had a place” in San Francisco to stay, he simply assumed he was going to find out about another real estate purchase.
In fact, Tenzin’s “place” was the attic of an enormous Victorian house off of Alamo Square, owned by an elderly woman who didn’t realize the attic window was easily accessed by someone flying outside.
While Ben couldn’t complain about the spacious attic or the light-safe modifications Tenzin had made over the years, he felt distinctly uncomfortable with what was basically a squatting situation.
He was lying back on the comfortable king-sized mattress she’d somehow gotten into the place. “I just don’t know how you believe she’d be comfortable with this arrangement if she found out about it. She doesn’t even know about vampires, Tenzin.”
“I realize that, but I’ve met her. I pretended I was a new neighbor once, and she invited me in for a glass of wine.” Tenzin lay next to him, snuggling into the crook of his arm. “Mavis is very generous, and I wanted to get a look inside the house.”
“Are you warm enough?”
“I’m completely dry.” Tenzin leaned in and kissed his neck. “Stop fussing.”
Kiss, don’t bite. He felt his body react to her. Like an electrical current, all it took was a moment of contact. Ben closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Tenzin’s hand sneaking under his shirt. It would be gone shortly, but he’d discovered that she liked to disrobe him and take her time.
“Mavis is generous because she thought you were her new neighbor, Tenzin, not because you wanted to steal her attic.”
“I contributed to the foundation work several years ago, Ben. I made a deal with the contractor and paid for most of it. Don’t insinuate I’m a leech. If you want to talk about parasites, those are her children.” She muttered something in Mandarin that would likely make the old woman’s ears bleed. “They’re waiting for her to die. I hate them.”