Vampire Drug Lord (Hypernaturals 5)

Conversation on the Porch

We sat on the porch, drinks at hand. Morgan was holding Diana in an upright chair, and caressing her sleeping face. Diana's face was clean after all the beans had been gently scrubbed off, and picked from her hair and eyebrows. Seems refried beans are not just for dinner but are an all-over body skin treatment.

Morgan looked happy. Looking at my hard ass Detective's face melted down into features of love for Diana made me happy.

Jessica laid on a lounge chair, and I was next to her on a second lounger.

We looked out over the water. The waves slowing rolling about, the sound of the distant and relaxing surf.

Jessica asked "Morgan: You said something earlier about your lovers in Houston. Can I ask how many that was? Just curious. You never really talk about back then."

Morgan looked out at the ocean. After a silence filled with the sounds of the surf, Morgan answered "I don't like to think about it much. Painful memories and hard lessons. When I was in Houston, younger, stupider almost by definition, and righteously sure I knew myself and my heart and which way the world should work, I never quite could settle down with just one person. I was never even sure all the time that was a thing I wanted to do. I did want to and I also did not. I mentioned to Adrian recently, the only thing I really knew was that if I was to have children, I wanted a partner with me to do it."

"You HAD a sex life back then..." Jessica half asked, and by placing in past tense underlined that Morgan did not have one now.

"Yes. I did. A very good one. I accepted sexuality as being healthy, and so I dated many men. A woman. If I liked him, and he was a decent sort of person, then he was a candidate for being a lover. If he turned out to be a considerate lover, then if he was so inclined, we saw each other again. As we used to say, they became someone I was 'dating'. Dating could be getting together for sex, going out to dinner, with sex for dessert, going on trips to places like Galveston or Mexico or whatever. I was not raised to attach moral judgment to animal needs. I need sex, and I found men I was happy with as lovers. I was not exclusive. I felt no need to limit myself to just one man, or even a few. There was one man... But there were insurmountable issues." Morgan trailed off.

"That is all very reasonable. Almost Vampire like." Jessica said. "How many lovers have you had since you moved to Austin?"

"Not counting DeWayne? None. Counting DeWayne... Still almost none." Morgan said.

Morgan touched Diana's face as she stirred slightly and smiled.

"I am confused." Jessica said. "Lovers galore and orgasms to go when you were there, then suddenly you are a monk?"

"Just how it worked out. I left Houston in a huge flame of controversy. People died. My sexuality was at the center of it. Powerful people that did not want me to be the way I am. The way I was, I suppose." Morgan paused here. We said nothing. She was clearly thinking about then. She never talks about then. We waited, fearing to even breath.

Morgan took a long, slow breath. "I went after them. I went, in a manner of speaking, insane. My attitude about sex had a price. It should not have. Were I a man, it would not have. Still: It did."

Morgan glanced at Jessica, then me. "I need sex. A great deal of it. I did not and I very much still do not care what ethnicity my lovers are. If I like them, that was and is sufficient for me. The woman I mentioned? For reasons I never understood she affected me sexually. I was attracted to her. As a heterosexual female, as was she, it was confusing. I did not think I could be attracted to a woman until I was. Then I met you, Jessica. I thought she was a one of a kind experience. You are different to me. It is not just your physicality, though it also is. I see in you what Adrian see's in you. I will not lie: it is quite terrifying. I can see myself getting lost, again."