“I need time to process.” Sam knew he had to take the time to think. “What you’re saying, what you’re offering, is everything I’ve written about because it’s what I wanted too. But I always believed those stories were fiction, but now I know you’re real. It makes it all a bit overwhelming.”
“Take all the time you need,” Mabon said immediately.
“But keep talking to us,” Rux added. “Please. Ask questions, spend time with us, and let us show you what this could be.”
“And if you decide it’s too much,” Urien said quietly, “if you choose the life you have now - we’ll respect that. We’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want. We’ll find a way to live with it.”
“Even though it would destroy you,” Sam said, remembering Rux’s earlier words.
“We’re not going to deny that, but yes, even then.”
Looking down at his empty plate, Sam thought about the food made with such care. He remembered allthe gifts he’d been given with no expectation of anything at all, and how three dragons had fumbled their way through human courtship with no idea what they were doing, but they did it because they believed Sam was worth it. The parallels with his novel – a novel he was writing because he didn’t believe the fantasy was real but wanted it to be – seemed almost laughable now.
“Okay,” Sam said finally. “I’m not promising anything. But I want to understand this, and I want to get to know you all better. The dragons, the men, and everything in between.”
Three faces lit up with identical expressions of hope.
“And maybe,” Sam added, his voice barely above a whisper, “maybe I want to see if this could work and if I can be what you think I am.”
“You already are,” three voices said in perfect unison.
That’s going to take some getting used to.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Rux
They’d been talking for hours. The food had long since gone cold on the table, and the candles burned down to stumps.
Sam rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses, leaving them slightly crooked. Rux’s fingers itched to reach over and straighten them.
“I should probably...” Sam started, then stopped. He looked down at his hands, twisting them together in his lap. His cheeks had gone pink. “There is something I need to tell you, before this goes any further.”
Rux’s dragon stirred anxiously, and Mabon and Urien both leaned forward slightly.
“I’ve never even been on a proper date,” Sam said in a rush. The words came fast, like he needed to get them out before he lost his nerve. “Let alone considered a relationship with three people. I’m not... experienced… at anything. Is that...” He swallowed hard, still not looking up. “Is that okay?”
The vulnerability in his voice made Rux’s chest ache. His dragon crooned, demanding he go to their mate immediately, wrap around him, and show him he was wonderful exactly as he was.
Rux stood, his chair scraping against the floor. Sam’s head jerked up, eyes wide behind his glasses, and Rux realized he’d probably moved too fast. He forced himself to slow, to cross the space between them with a lot more care, kneeling beside Sam’s chair.
“Look at us,” Rux said gently. “We’re inexperienced too.”
“You’ve been together for a hundred years, and I’m sure you did a lot of living before you found each other,” Sam said, his voice low.
“Some, not a lot – it’s always more difficult to hide our secrets if we get close to others who didn’t know. And with each other, yes, it was easy, and we found our way over time. But withhumans? With courting? With anything that isn’t dragon tradition?” Rux shook his head. “You already know all the mistakes we’ve made...”
Behind him, Mabon snorted.
“We’re all figuring this out together,” Rux continued. “We’ve already proven we’re terrible at it.”
A laugh bubbled out of Sam’s mouth. “You weren’t that bad,” Sam said, and there was a smile tugging at his lips now, tentative but real. “The six coffees were kind of endearing. In a concerning, please-stop-consuming-caffeine-before-your-heart-explodes sort of way.”
“I was nervous,” Rux admitted. “My dragon was screaming at me to tell you everything immediately, and I was trying to act human and normal, and you were right there looking at me with those eyes and that smile, and I completely forgot how conversation worked.”
“You talked about the flooring,” Sam said.
“It was nice flooring.”
