JК
Bloody Bones :: Гамильтон Лорел
Страница: 206 из 272I movedthe gun to a better position and said, "We just won't, Jean-Claude, not ever. I just can't." A part of me regretted that, but only part.
"Why, Ma petite ?"
"Sex is about trust. I'd have to trust someone implicitly to have sex with them. I don't trust you."
He stared at me with his blue, blue eyes, looking all scrumptious and wet. "You mean that, don't you?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I do."
"I do not understand you, Ma petite . I try, but still I do not."
"You're pretty much a riddle to me, too. If that's any comfort."
"It isn't. If you were a woman who had casual lusts, we would have been in bed long ago." He sighed and sat up even straighter in the water so it hit him just above the waist. "Of course, if you were a woman of casual appetites, I don't think I would love you."
"You enjoy the chase, the challenge," I said.
"True, but it is more than that with you, if only you would believe me." He leaned forward, drawing his knees to his naked chest, rounding his shoulders to hug himself. White scars dribbled down his back from his shoulders to vanish into the water, not a lot of them, but enough.
"What made the scars on your back? Unless it was a holy item, you should have been able to heal them."
He laid his cheek on his knees so he could look at me. He looked younger, more human, vulnerable suddenly. "Not if the injury occurred before I died."
"Who whipped you?"
"I was the whipping boy for an aristocrat's son."
I stared at him. "You're telling me the truth, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Is that why Janos chose whips tonight, to remind you where you came from?"
"Yes."
"You weren't born into the aristocracy?"
"I was born in a house with a dirt floor, Ma petite ."
I looked at him. "Yeah, right."
He raised his head. "If I was going to make something up, Ma petite , it would be more romantic, more entertaining than being a French peasant."
"So you were a servant in the castle?"
"I was their only son's constant companion. When he had clothes made, so did I. His tutor was my tutor. His riding instructor, mine. I learned swordplay and dancing and the proper way to eat at table. And when he was bad I was punished, because he was their only child, their only heir to an old family name. People speak of child abuse now." He leaned back in the tub, cuddling down into the warm water. "They complain of spanking. They have no idea what true abuse is.
"Why, Ma petite ?"
"Sex is about trust. I'd have to trust someone implicitly to have sex with them. I don't trust you."
He stared at me with his blue, blue eyes, looking all scrumptious and wet. "You mean that, don't you?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I do."
"I do not understand you, Ma petite . I try, but still I do not."
"You're pretty much a riddle to me, too. If that's any comfort."
"It isn't. If you were a woman who had casual lusts, we would have been in bed long ago." He sighed and sat up even straighter in the water so it hit him just above the waist. "Of course, if you were a woman of casual appetites, I don't think I would love you."
"You enjoy the chase, the challenge," I said.
"True, but it is more than that with you, if only you would believe me." He leaned forward, drawing his knees to his naked chest, rounding his shoulders to hug himself. White scars dribbled down his back from his shoulders to vanish into the water, not a lot of them, but enough.
"What made the scars on your back? Unless it was a holy item, you should have been able to heal them."
He laid his cheek on his knees so he could look at me. He looked younger, more human, vulnerable suddenly. "Not if the injury occurred before I died."
"Who whipped you?"
"I was the whipping boy for an aristocrat's son."
I stared at him. "You're telling me the truth, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Is that why Janos chose whips tonight, to remind you where you came from?"
"Yes."
"You weren't born into the aristocracy?"
"I was born in a house with a dirt floor, Ma petite ."
I looked at him. "Yeah, right."
He raised his head. "If I was going to make something up, Ma petite , it would be more romantic, more entertaining than being a French peasant."
"So you were a servant in the castle?"
"I was their only son's constant companion. When he had clothes made, so did I. His tutor was my tutor. His riding instructor, mine. I learned swordplay and dancing and the proper way to eat at table. And when he was bad I was punished, because he was their only child, their only heir to an old family name. People speak of child abuse now." He leaned back in the tub, cuddling down into the warm water. "They complain of spanking. They have no idea what true abuse is.