“What's oral sex?” Rian asked.
I groaned as Arach laughed boisterously.
When he finished his chuckle-fest, Arach said, “It's glorious, son, and you can experience it whether you prefer women or men. But be sure to give—”
“Arach!” I glared at him.
“Fine, then you explain it to them.”
“My point is that they're too young to have that explained to them.” I took Samara back and settled her in my arms before launching into a speech that I'd been working on in the back of my mind for a while. Oh, yes, I knew this day was coming. “Sex, all types of sex, is the most intimate thing you can do with another person. It's an act of pleasure that can lead to the conception of children, but it can also be an expression of love.”
“You're boring them, Vervain,” Arach said. “They know the basics already.”
“Can you let me do this without interrupting?”
“You interrupted me.”
“Because you were doing it wrong.”
“Mom,” Brevyn said crisply. Then he looked at Arach to say, “Dad.” That was all, but it got his point across.
Arach and I grimaced at each other. The last thing a parent wants is to be scolded by their child. Especially when the kid was right.
Arach waved a hand at me in a please-proceed gesture.
I started again, “All right, here's the important bit—don't let other people sway you into a certain type of sexuality. Listen to yourself and trust your instincts. Your body will tell you who you're attracted to when you're old enough to feel those things. It will come naturally and it's not something to ever feel ashamed of, no matter who you desire. If you have questions about how to explore that desire, you can ask your father or me. But that will belater, when you start getting those urges. What you need to know now is that it's easy to confuse desire with love, but they are different. Desire is physical. It's the needs of the body, and those feelings can be very exciting. They can make you think you're in love when you're not.”
“How do we know the difference?” Rian asked.
I glanced at Arach, who was staring at me tenderly.
Before I could answer, Arach said, “Love is something so wondrous and great that your body can't contain it. It feels as if it's constantly billowing out of you, trying to reach the person who has inspired it. Sexual desire can make your heart race and the fire burn hotter inside you. It can make you feel as if you need to consume your partner. Chase them until you have them beneath your claws and—”
I cleared my throat before he got carried away.
“But love . . .” He looked at me and smiled. “Love makes you want tobeconsumed. It drives you to protect and cherish. To not only hunt the one you love, but also any who might harm them. It creates a need in you to build a life with your lover and grow your love together.” His gaze went to Samara, then he looked back at the boys. “To see pieces of your lover in your children and know that they are the manifestation and continuation of your love. Desire is fleeting, but love is eternal.Thatis how you know the difference.”
I smiled besottedly at my husband. Arach wasn't one of those romantic types who spouted poetry, but he wasn't afraid of telling anyone exactly how he felt, whether it be his opinion of their intellect or his love for me. So when he did say something romantic, it was usually of the mind-blowing variety and, even better, it was always utterly honest.
I leaned toward Arach and kissed him, just a peck before looking back at our sons to add, “The important thing to remember is that at first, it can be hard to tell the difference. You'll learn to tell the two apart eventually, and that's part of the fun—the journey to real love. It's okay to make mistakes. It's okay to think you're in love and find out later it was only desire. And it's okay to get your heart broken. It will heal. Never be afraid to love; your heart's the one thing that gets bigger every time you give it away.”
“Maybe don't give it away as much as your mother,” Arach said dryly.
Then all three of my boys, one of them a grown man, laughed their butts off at my annoyed expression.
Chapter Two
A week later, Brevyn and I made our goodbyes.
I nuzzled Samara's velvety cheek and breathed in the scent of sugared violets, her unique, Dragon-Sidhe smell. “I wish I could take her with me.”
I had never liked the baby smell that humans rave about, and there was a time when I thought that maybe I wasn't meant to be a mother. But then I had Rian and Brevyn and realized that I wasn't meant to be a mother ofhumanchildren. My god and faerie babies smelled amazing to me.
“You're already taking one of my children with you. You can't take two,” Arach grumbled as he looked at Brevyn.
Brevyn had a leather bag slung over one shoulder and Arach's Ring of Remembrance on his thumb, his hand clenched into a fist to hold it there. Despite the too-large ring, he looked very mature, standing nearly as tall as me with a somber expression.
The boys were going through another growth spurt. Granted, I was only five-foot-three, so it wasn't surprising that they were approaching my height already, but still, it felt as if they were shooting into manhood, and a part of me wished they hadn't matured so fast. That sex talk we'd had was probably perfectly timed; they'd be getting those urges soon. Seven-year-olds feeling sexual urges! Ugh, that was hard to wrap my mind around. And Brevyn had my Love magic too. I hadn't considered raging hormones when I'd given that magic to him. I was just glad it was Brev and not Rian. Who knows what kind of mischief Rian would have gotten into with the power to make people fall in love with him?
