"Exactly!"
"Which means," he continued, "that she trusts you. That she wants to touch those pretty yellow scales of yours some more."
"And that she has no clue what a relationship even is," I reminded him. "Look, Ayla likes friends with benefits. Maybe her version is a lot less intimate than we're used to, but it's all she has to judge by. So what happens if I do this, she realizes she's in too deep, and she doesn't have anyone she can talk to about it?"
"Across the street," he said, "is her sister. A short walk. In her bed is a weapon neither of us can stop: her dog. She has a bow, and blades, and plenty of forks in this house. Trust me, if she wants you to stop, she'll find a way."
I chuckled at the mention of forks, but it actually made me feel better. Ayla had managed to save herself with little more than a utensil, so this? Well, I would never take advantage of her. Then again, that wasn't my fear.
"What if dating her screws up our friendship?" I asked.
And my best friend leaned back with a pleased look on his face. "That question? Ry, it means you really like her. I've only heard you worry about someone like that once before." And he flicked a finger at his own bedroom where Kanik was resting. "He managed to make it work. I think Ayla will too."
"Maybe you two should date her. I can stay the friend."
His tail flicked again, the bright blue end impossible to miss. "So, what I'm hearing is you like this girl enough you're worried about it not working out. You have already convinced yourself you're not good enough for her? I'm guessing at that part. You're also looking for every excuse possible to not even try. Rymar, why? And before you answer, think hard about it."
"I just told you!" I snapped.
"No, you told me what you think you should say. What I'm hearing is you care enough about this woman to want to get it right. Qavan was just a fuck, right? Lessa was scratching an itch. I can't count how many others you've been willing to take a chance with, but was it always because you didn't care about whether it worked or not? Because youdocare about this. You care about that woman, and I think it scares the shit out of you - which means this just might work."
"Oh, fuck off," I grumbled. "Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe Kanik's part of the problem? If she's with him, and with me, and any lines are crossed..."
"Like her kissing him in front of us?" Zasen asked a little too smugly. "Like the little chat you had with her after taking her naked-swimming?"
"Fuck off," I said again.
Which made him grin. "Yeah. And you know there's an easy way to deal with this, right?"
I wasn't sure what he meant this time. "Okay?"
Standing, he gestured for me to follow. I pushed out a heavy sigh, wondering what the hell he was going to show me this time. Zasen had a way of hammering his point home, so when he turned up the hall, I didn't think anything of it. In truth, I expected him to head upstairs.
Instead, he opened the door to his own room. The one Kanik was in.
"Hey, you awake?" he asked.
"Yep," Kanik said, turning up the wick to make the room brighter as we headed in.
"Sit," Zasen told me, pointing to the side. He moved to the wall with the closet, then leaned against it. "Kanik, Rymar has a question."
"I do?" I asked.
"Mhm," he said. "He wants to know if you'd have a problem with both him and you being in a relationship with the same woman. Yes, I mean Ayla."
Kanik scoffed. "No. Why?"
Zasen simply looked at me and lifted a brow. "Now's when you explain this to him."
"Asshole," I grumbled before turning to Kanik. "So, Ayla asked me how to start dating. I've talked to her about the concept, but it seems to be so different from what she knows that a few of the basic things trip her up. Mainly, how to ask."
"Ask what?" Kanik wanted to know.
"Ask someone," Zasen guessed.
"Or that she even can," I explained. "Mole women wait tobeasked." And he ducked his head, telling the floor, "She may have also mentioned that she wants to date the three of us, and that she feels safe enough to do it, and I'm pretty sure she's serious."
"Wow," Kanik said. "Okay, does she realize what dating entails?"
