Page 56 of Legends and Longing

Zorin did not seem to be what English called a morning person because he frowned and looked further down my body. “Are you aroused?”

How was that a question I needed to answer?

My first thoughts were what English would call snarky, but I held them back because I knew there was a reason for the odd question. “Yes. Part of it is just the physical reaction a penis does on its own. However, I am enjoying Shiloh’s arousal and I am enjoying being in bed with my mates.”

It had been nicer than I was expecting, but pointing that out seemed rude.

“Shiloh is a strong submissive. If I decide to refuse underwear while he is sleeping so that we can enjoy his body in the morning, I do not think that is something he will safeword over.” We both watched his hands, causing him to shove them under his legs. “See?”

Our shy mate squeaked but made sure he did nothing that we could interpret as a safeword or stop signal.

“Oh.” Studying the long lump under the bedding, Zorin frowned again. “When do you think he would tolerate or appreciate my touch?”

His question had my slow brain finally coming fully awake and a flood of questions pushed through to fill my mind. How submissive was Zorin feeling? Did he know he was feeling submissive? Those seemed to be the most important questions, but neither of them were ones I could ask.

“Now.” Hoping that taking charge would help the situation and their strangely similar emotions, I sat up and rose from the bed. “Move closer to him. I am going to lie behind you.”

That had Zorin going oddly still but he knew his only options were to ask questions or obey, so he obeyed. Questioning me was harder than whatever he thought I was going to do, but I hadn’t really figured out what he thought that was by the time I had lain down behind him.

More thought should have gone into this plan.

The only place for my free arm was to be draped over Zorin but it seemed like I fit behind him perfectly as our bodies lined up well. I wasn’t sure what my frustrating mate was thinking because his bond was clamped down very tight, but Shiloh wasn’t as careful with his.

Probably because he wanted to see what I would do next.

All I could do was appear confident to both of them, so I did my best to make sure neither of them heard stress in my tone or mental feelings. “His erection is still tenting the bedding, so he would like your touch.”

That much should have been obvious to the overly intelligent worrier.

“But he hid.” Zorin was doing his best to hide his own confusion behind ridiculous logic. “That needs to be respected.”

“No, that needs to be acknowledged as a stress signal. In this case, he is nervous about something we don’t understand.” There were too many possibilities to start to guess. “If he was little, he would have been giggling by now or trying to find his pacifier, so this is probably adult worries.”

Which were probably sexual in nature considering he was from Earth, but guessing would be inefficient and probably make the situation worse.

“How do you know?” Zorin was desperately searching for something to worry about, so I used what I knew of Shiloh’s reactions and subtly tightened my hold on Zorin. “How…how do you know?”

Had that actually worked?

Agent Murphy’s words about grounding Shiloh came back to me as I pressed my body closer to Zorin’s. “I think this is a Dom instinct combined with what I am feeling from my mates.”

Zorin performed the human pout. “Shiloh is hiding his emotions from me.”

How had I ended up with such dramatic mates?

“Because he is worried just as you are.” I was starting to understand why the fates had put me with my two mates.

They would have never worked without me.

“I don’t like being worried.” Zorin was sounding remarkably Earth-like, but I did my best to ignore it. “Now what?”

A strong part of me wanted to declare spankings for both of them, but I was not positive that was the correct response to their behavior.

“Now you tell me what you want from our nervous mate.” We needed somewhere to start. “What were you thinking when you looked at him? Before he hid.”

After would not be helpful.

“I wanted attention.” Zorin had settled on pouting but I was glad to hear his honesty.