It took everything in me to remind him, “Physical feelings are different from emotions. You can feel two different ways about it.”
His arm tightened around me, and the worried little fear inside me disappeared.
“I enjoyed it. I want to do it again. And other things. Nothing we did crossed a line for me. I know you’re unsure about how we’ll react to your tentacles but I can honestly say they don’t bother me. If ever there’s something I don’t want to do, it’ll be because it’s not a preference, not because I don’t want to touch your tentacles.”
“And you’re okay with the fact it was all three of us here?”
Declan raised his head slightly to look me in the eyes. “I love that you’re both here with me. I want— I want to stay like this forever. The three of us. I can’t let either of you go.”
When I breathed out, I felt like I was breathing out months of anxiety. I lowered my head onto Declan’s shoulder, telling myself I would go and get that wet cloth in a minute.
Declan asked, “How about you, Sonny? How do you feel?”
He didn’t answer. I looked over and smiled to myself at his peaceful face, asleep.
Declan looked too and gave a soft laugh. “He looks like he’s okay with it,” he said. Then he settled down, lying back and pulling his arms tight around us both. “We’ll ask him when he wakes up.”
Chapter 25
Declan
Ihopped over to the dresser, using it to balance. Sonny was sprawled over the bed, naked and smiling the satisfied smile he wore when he was sexually sated, and don’t think I wasn’t thrilled to finally know what that looked like on him.
“You want me to find your crutch?”
“Nah, I’m just grabbing my clothes and then I’ll put my prosthetic on.”
We were going to my parents’ house, and I had a strange feeling inside the pit of my stomach at the fact we were going to leave this safe cocoon of Erik’s cottage.
Grabbing the neat pile of clean clothes which Erik had thoughtfully put through the wash and dried and folded, I hopped back a step and hit the bed, sitting down with a bump. This place really wasn’t that big. It had been useful, though, that it was so small because yesterday I’d left my crutch in the other room when Erik had carried me into the bedroom and, I flushedat the memory, it had felt so good to be manhandled in his arms like that, as though I weighed nothing.
Settling myself securely, I reached for my clothes but Sonny appeared behind me and wound his arms around me, pressing kisses to my cheek. I smiled.
“What are these for?”
“For being amazing, and also being sexy.”
“In that case, keep going.”
He laughed and smothered me in kisses, down my cheek and along my jaw and down my neck to my collarbone.
The floorboard by the door creaked and I looked up at Erik, who was dressed in smart trousers and a polo shirt. He looked good, with his compact body and the swell of his muscles against his shirt. I smiled and held out my hand, asking him over.
He walked up to me and stood between my legs. If I hadn’t just come, I’d be getting hard at the fact he was there.
“Sonny’s offering kisses for anyone sexy,” I said.
Sonny lifted his head and reached straight for Erik, tugging him down and planting a kiss on his lips, sliding his tongue into Erik’s mouth. They kissed for a few moments and then Erik pulled back.
“We should get going.”
Sonny smacked one last, loud kiss on my cheek and said, “I’ll grab a shower.”
He shot out of the bedroom and into the bathroom, where I heard the shower turn on and Sonny’s voice rise up to sing snatches of seemingly random Christmas songs.
Erik said, “Would you like me to help with your prosthetic or to wait outside?”
I had managed to lose my shyness about my prosthetic around Erik. He treated it like it was so… normal. It was difficult to feel embarrassed about something when he was acting like it was very mundane.
