Reluctant Partnerships (35 page)

“It’s already broken,” Pascale said. “What could you do to make it worse?”

Adèle smiled. “That’s the attitude. You don’t have shoes on, so don’t get up until we’re sure this works. I don’t want you to cut your feet on the glass.”

Pascale nodded, setting down the piece of glass she already had in her hand. “
Rassemblez
!” Adèle said, directing her magic at the shards of glass. Slowly the pieces reassembled into the form of a vase. Pascale reached for it, but Adèle stopped her. “I’m not done yet. I don’t have Thierry’s gift of reknitting stone. I’ll have to try refiring it. I’m not sure it will work, but it’s the best I can do. If you’ll let me, that is.”

“Your spell won’t hold it together?” Pascale asked.

“It will make it look pretty, but you couldn’t use it as a vase,” Adèle said. “The water would seep right through the cracks. If I fire it again, if that works, it will be remade.”

“And if it doesn’t work?”

“I can stop now,” Adèle said, “and you will have a pretty decoration to set on your shelf. If I try firing it and it works, you’ll have a functional vase again. If I try firing it and it doesn’t work, you may be left with nothing recognizable or usable. It’s entirely up to you.”

Pascale looked at the vase and back at Adèle. “I trust you.”

“Then come over here. The heat from the fire will be intense, and I don’t want you to get burned.”

Pascale joined Adèle in the doorway of the room. Closing her eyes, Adèle focused all her power on connecting with the elemental magic within her, drawing the fire from deep inside and channeling it around the vase. The heat was intense, but she ignored it, pouring all her power and all her concentration into surrounding and reforging the vase held in her magical grip.

The touch of Pascale’s hand on her arm drew her momentarily out of her magical trance, causing the temperature to drop. “Let me help.”

Adèle nodded, keeping her eyes on the inferno before her as Pascale moved in front of her. She nearly lost control of her magic when the vampire unbuttoned the blouse she was wearing enough to bare her collarbone. The flames wavered as Pascale’s fingers traced the scars on Adèle’s breast, her reminder of what Jude had been capable of.

“I’m not him,” Pascale said again, as if she could read Adèle’s thoughts. “I won’t treat you that way.”

“I know,” Adèle said hoarsely. “Bite me now. We have to finish the spell.”

Pascale nodded, leaning in and licking along Adèle’s collarbone until she found a place where she could drive her fangs between bones. The tickle of her tongue sent desire skittering along Adèle’s nerves, but the moment her fangs penetrated, Adèle felt the incredible rush of magical symbiosis and bone-deep need she had known in her time with Jude, except that this time, she did not have to fight it. Suddenly the means to fix the vase seemed obvious, a simple wave of her hand. She set it gently on the shelf, releasing it from her magic, and let her hands fall to Pascale’s waist. “It’s done.”

Pascale looked up, her fangs slipping free of Adèle’s skin. “I’m not.”

“Neither am I,” Adèle said, lowering her head and covering Pascale’s lips with her own. Another time she might have hesitated, either because of the blood on the vampire’s lips or because she had never kissed a woman before, but the past few moments had broken all her reserves, leaving her prey to a need too great to ignore.

Pascale returned the embrace and the kiss eagerly, leaning against Adèle so that their bodies rubbed together. Pascale’s fingers still covered the scar from Jude’s fangs, but her hand settled against Adèle’s breast now, cupping the swell in her palm. Adèle shivered at the unfamiliar, intimate touch, need growing apace. To her surprise, Pascale broke the kiss and took a step back, catching Adèle’s hands. “We don’t have to do this tonight. You came here so we could talk, not so I could drag you into bed.”

“You could stop now?” Adèle asked incredulously, memories of Jude pinning her against any available surface to have his way with her coming back.

Pascale lifted their joined hands to her lips, kissing Adèle’s knuckles softly. “I’m not him,” she said one more time before releasing Adèle’s hands and closing the buttons on her shirt. “Come in the living room with me. We’ll talk like we said we would and we’ll see what we see when we’re done.”

Desire simmering still, Adèle followed Pascale back into the living room, joining her on the couch where Pascale had fed from her twice before. Determined to begin as she intended to go on, Adèle sat close enough to Pascale that she could put her arms around the slighter woman, pulling her close. “We’ll talk,” she promised, “but will you let me hold you while we do?”

Pascale snuggled deeper into Adèle’s embrace, perfectly content to curl up next to the woman who had haunted her dreams since the first night they met. “What happened?” she asked. “The last time we spoke, you stormed out of her declaring you weren’t interested in women, and now you’re here, kissing me, holding me close, letting me bite you intimately.”

“I stormed out of here and went to Paris, determined to forget about you,” Adèle admitted, blushing at the memory. “It didn’t work. So I went to talk to Thierry. He was married, had never been interested in men before he formed a partnership with Sebastien. Kind of the same situation I found myself in. I thought maybe he could give me some advice.”

“Apparently he did,” Pascale said, leaning up and kissing Adèle’s jaw. “What did he say?”

“He reminded me that there’s no such thing as a love potion,” Adèle said. “If I’m attracted to you—and I think it’s pretty obvious that I am—then I’m attracted to you. No external magical force made me feel this way. You made me feel this way. Yes, it’s going to take some adjustment to my thinking, and yes, I’ll probably do stupid shit because I’m not used to being with a woman, but I can take a chance on you and maybe find something special, or I can keep denying it and pass up what might be the chance of a lifetime. I may be temperamental, but I’m not stupid.”

“I don’t know,” Pascale teased. “Some of the things you said the other night….”

“Like I said, temperamental,” Adèle said, “and I already apologized.”

“No, you said you owed me an apology. You didn’t actually say you were sorry,” Pascale reminded her.

Adèle pushed Pascale backward onto the couch, pinning her in place as she hovered over the vampire. “I’m sorry, all right?” she all but shouted. “I was jealous, only I wasn’t ready to admit it, even to myself, and tonight only made it worse. That woman came out in her skimpy little nightgown and I could see where you’d bitten her and it was all I could do not to hex her into next week.”

“Can you really do that?” Pascale asked, twining her arms around Adèle’s neck.

“Not literally,” Adèle replied, nuzzling Pascale’s neck in turn, “but I could have left her in a world of hurt.”

“If you’re angry at someone, you really should be angry at me, not at her,” Pascale pointed out logically. “She didn’t know about you until you arrived here tonight.”

Adèle shrugged. “I wasn’t angry at her; I was jealous of her. And I can’t really be angry at you when, if I’d been more honest with myself, you wouldn’t have felt the need to see her in the first place.”

“So what happens now?” Pascale asked, her hands sliding down Adèle’s back to her waist. “I mean, as tempting as you are, I probably shouldn’t feed again yet. Between Nicole and then biting you while you fixed my vase—thank you, by the way—I’m probably close to the point of making myself sick if I take anymore.”

“You’re welcome for the vase,” Adèle replied. “I’ve never felt that kind of clarity when working with fire, not even with Jude. It was like all the mysteries of it suddenly disappeared. I’d already made up my mind when I came here tonight that I wanted to give a true partnership a try, but if I needed proof that this time was different, that was it.”

“Really?” Pascale asked shyly. “But he was a much more powerful vampire than I am and—”

“It’s not the age of the vampire that matters,” Adèle interrupted. “It’s the strength of the connection. There’s a lot we don’t know about the partnerships, but there’s no doubt that when Orlando feeds from Alain, his increase in power outstrips all the rest because of their Aveu de Sang. I hated Jude. The one time he fed from me to actually consciously increase my power, he kept touching me, distracting me. I lost control of the fire I’d summoned because it was too strong for me to handle even with his so-called help. What I did tonight with your vase was far more difficult, far more intricate than what I attempted with him, and yet I had no problem controlling the fire. I don’t know why he and I were paired in the first place when things were so very wrong between us from the beginning, but I do know that you’re already more of a partner to me than he ever could have been.”

“I’m glad we fit that way,” Pascale said, shifting beneath Adèle and drawing the wizard’s attention back to the press of body against body. “I like the idea of being your source of strength.”

Adèle closed her eyes, struggling against the ingrained habit of denying she needed any outside support. Pascale was not offering because she thought Adèle was weak. She was offering out of a sincere desire to build a relationship. Opening her eyes again, she gazed down into Pascale’s blue eyes. “Don’t make me go home tonight.”

Pascale’s arms tightened. “Only if you want to leave.”

Adèle doubted she would ever want to leave if Pascale was there to keep her company. “You know I’m not much of a catch, right?” Adèle felt compelled to say.

“Stop that,” Pascale said, her fingers digging into Adèle’s sides. “You keep saying these things about yourself, and I don’t like it. You’re strong and beautiful and loyal. So maybe you have a temper, but you controlled it tonight. And maybe you’re stubborn, but you thought things through and you saw reason eventually. Don’t put yourself down.”

Adèle flushed, feeling incredibly vulnerable. Pascale saw straight through her, it seemed, leaving Adèle feeling completely off balance. “I’ll try.”

“You’ll do more than try,” Pascale insisted, “because I’m going to correct you every time you say something self-deprecating until you stop doing it. Modesty is one thing, but not putting yourself down.” She pulled at the band holding Adèle’s hair back in a tight bun. “And another thing. When we’re home together, you should wear your hair down.”

Adèle shook her head, her dark hair falling over her shoulders and down around her face. Pascale combed her fingers through the long strands. “Yes, exactly like that.”

“When did you get so bossy?” Adèle teased, leaning into the caress. “What happened to the woman I stopped from jumping off a bridge?”

“Extenuating circumstances,” Pascale retorted. “I’m not usually quite that flaky.” She pushed at Adèle’s shoulders, urging her to sit up. “Is that really who you wanted?”

“No,” Adèle admitted, sitting up but pulling Pascale into her arms. “That was another of my hesitations, honestly. I didn’t want someone who would always be weepy or hysterical, but you haven’t been since that night, and I think you were entitled under the circumstances. This is just the first time you’ve been quite so emphatic. I didn’t expect that either.”

Pascale shrugged. “This is the first time you’ve been mine enough that I could say that kind of thing. If it really bothers you—”

“It doesn’t,” Adèle assured her, “although if you get to tell me what to do sometimes, then I get to do the same.”

“Like what?” Pascale asked.

“Like finding a more flattering robe,” Adèle said with a grin. “This one looks like a sack on you.”

“I put it on to answer the door, not to seduce a lover,” Pascale retorted. “Stay right there. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Adèle let the vampire go, toeing off the boots she wore and undoing the top button of the blouse Pascale had closed again after she finished the spell. Her fingers lingered over the marks left by Pascale’s fangs before drifting lower to the ones Jude had left. Looking around for her wand, she picked it up and touched it to the scars. All the reasons to keep them as a reminder had disappeared with her new partner’s kiss.

“
Soulagez
,” she whispered, watching as the scars slowly faded. She left the marks from Pascale’s fangs untouched. They would heal in time, but even if they did not, they were a reminder of a very different sort. She slid her wand into her coat pocket and waited for Pascale to return.

Moments later, Pascale reappeared in the doorway. Gone was the staid cotton robe, replaced by a satin kimono wrap that stopped mid-thigh. It hung open to reveal a figure-hugging satin slip in the palest of lavenders.

“I think it’s a good thing you didn’t answer the door dressed that way,” Adèle said, swallowing around the lump of need clogging her throat. She rose slowly and crossed the room to where Pascale stood. “I really would have hexed her if I’d known she saw you looking like this.”

Pascale smiled shyly. “You like it?”

Adèle traced the neckline of the gown over the top of Pascale’s breasts. “Yes, I like it, although I bet it looks even better tossed on the floor. Or maybe you’re the one who will look even better with it tossed on the floor.”

“Are you ready for that?” Pascale asked seriously. “I’m not saying no, because I’d love nothing more than to take you to bed and show you what you’ve been missing, but I’ll understand if that’s too much too fast.”

Adèle wanted to shrug and pretend she was not apprehensive, but she could not make herself lie to her partner. “Maybe we could take our time?”

Pascale pulled her head down for a kiss. “All the time you need,” she promised when she released Adèle’s lips. “Do you want to borrow a nightgown? You’ll be more comfortable in that than you would be completely dressed or undressed.”

“I’m not sure your gowns will fit me,” Adèle replied, resting her chin on the crown of Pascale’s head.

Pascale chuckled. “All the better for me. The gowns probably won’t fit, but one of my robes that’s intended to be long will be mid-calf on you instead.”

Adèle hesitated a moment longer. “I can try a gown for tonight, even if it’s a little small, and then bring something from home tomorrow night. I didn’t want to get my hopes up tonight.”