I tiptoed into the master bedroom and glanced at the clock. Five. We’d sat like that, uncomfortable and awkward, for an hour.
Elias heard me come in and sat up. “Riley! You’re awake!” He launched from the bed and scooped me up in a hug.
Anthony joined him. “Why didn’t you wake us up?”
“I was gross. I showered and Axoular made me a salad.” I threw my arms around each of their necks. “We watched TV for a while, then I came up to lay with you guys and read. I’m not sleepy.”
Elias grinned. “I can think of ways to occupy your time.”
His words were a shot to my core, but I shook my head. “No, we need to talk, as soon as possible.”
Anthony took my hand and pulled me to the bed, sitting behind me and playing with my slightly damp hair. “What’s wrong, Coya?”
“Well, for starters, Axoular explained why I passed out and why for so long, so I know how to avoid it in the future.”
Elias sat beside me and grabbed my hands. “That’s great.”
“Also, part of my anger toward you both has been exacerbated by my fire. I’ve figured out how to relieve my anger using my flames without hurting anyone, so any anger from now on should just be me and my hormones.”
I turned to Elias. “I forgive you. I think I would have a long time ago, but I couldn’t because of the fire making me so angry.” Squeezing his hand, I took Anthony’s hand with the other and looked his way. “I think I’ll likely be touchy about the subject. I don’t know for how long, maybe forever. But I recognize that you were doing the best you could, and what you thought was best. And I appreciate that neither of you ever tried to get in my pants before I knew the truth.”
“Believe me, Riley.” Elias laughed and shook his head. “We wanted to.”
“With that being said, something has happened over the last few months that was unintentional, but you need to know about it.”
Elias straightened. “Are you okay? Is the baby okay?”
The baby gave a swift kick as if on cue and I laughed. “He’s kicking away and fine. No, it’s about Axoular.”
Anthony stroked my hand, drawing my gaze. “He’s in love with you.”
I looked back and forth between the two of them, shocked. “How’d you know?”
“It’s obvious with every look he gives you. And I think you care deeply for him, but I didn’t think you’d realized it yet.”
“I’ve smelled you get turned on a couple of times when you looked at him, but it never seemed to go anywhere, so I waited for you to tell me if it was something you wanted to pursue,” Elias said, rubbing slow circles on my back.
“You knew? You could’ve told me, cos I really didn’t know until a couple of hours ago.”At least they aren’t freaking out. But a teensy bit of jealousy would be nice.
“We saw it coming but weren’t positive. What would you like to do about it, Coya?”
“Well, I don’t really know. Polyamorous relationships are a new beast to me. What should we do?”
Elias looked at Anthony over my head. Anthony shrugged. “Coya, if it’s something you want to pursue, then pursue it. We like Axoular. He’s already used to living with us. We might find we don’t like sharing a bed, and we might find we do. But we can work through that with him and you. If you grow to care for him and are sexually interested in him, see where it goes.”
“Date him,” Elias supplied.
“Date? Like…real dates? Go to the movies and eat popcorn dates?” I couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of their mouths. They loved me enough to let me pursue a serious relationship with another man. It was beyond comprehension to me, who had been raised with monogamy as the only option.
“Will you be coming home to us at the end of the night?” Elias asked. Anthony nodded his head.
“Well, yeah!”
“Will we be able to worship that body pretty much whenever we want to?” Anthony asked. Elias nodded.
“Please do.”
“Then date him, Riles. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn’t, we’ll give him the starter pack every other Sárkány gets and send him on his way.”
