“Oh, no,” Trill said, as they finally made it back to the floor where Molun and Arvus’s rooms were and began to walk down the hall. “He didn’t keep me. He’s not really the parental sort. But he found someone for me to stay with.”
“So you do have a home?”
“Yes, of course,” Trill told him. “I’m just visiting the city, like I told you. I’ve never been to the capital before. I’ve never seen a Mage Warrior up close.”
He leered, and thankfully, Molun laughed.
“Yes, well, good job on that, you can most definitely say that you’ve seen several Mage Warriorsveryclose indeed.”
Trill crowded Molun closer to the wall, but then paused as he felt a leap of desire and something that wasnotdesire. He pulled back.
“Oh, of course. You like to do things together.”
Molun looked uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, we, uh—”
Trill held out his hand and pulled the other man back into gentle motion down the hall.
“Not at all. I greatly admire your attachment to one another; I should have thought of that. I would never pursue one of you without the other, but I was thinking—or not thinking—in a short-term moment of arousal. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, and I apologize.”
Trill had known better, but he’d apparently already gotten used to being able to touch when he wanted, and that was definitely a problem. It had been one night—all right, and one really nice breakfast—and he shouldn’t be used to anything. None of it was his to keep.
They made it back to Molun and Arvus’s room, and Trill wondered if it might not be better for him to go after all, but Molun moved towards the comfy chairs and carefully settled himself in the one that already had a book on the table next to it.
“Come on,” Molun told him. “I need to get reading, so you should, too.”
Trill sat down in the other chair, and he set the books aside on the little side table after picking one at random. He was pretty sure he didn’t read a single sentence, and if he’d been smart, hewould at least have decided to flip the pages now and again so Molun wouldn’tknowhe wasn’t reading.
After a few minutes, Molun said, “Come here.”
Trill looked up from where he’d been staring sightlessly at the book. “What?”
“Come here,” Molun repeated, holding out his hand.
Confused and a bit wary, Trill went. Molun captured his hand and then patted his right leg.
When Trill just stood there, he gave a little tug.
“Come, sit.”
Trill just looked at him, so Molun tugged a bit harder. “Come on.”
“But—” Trill protested.
Molun patted his leg again and pouted. “Are you going to make mebeg?”
He really was good with the pouting. Trill wasn’t sure he’d met anyone who pouted as well as Molun did. Trill sat down gingerly, making sure to put as much of his weight as possible on Molun’s right leg. He wasn’t as big as Molun was, but he also wasn’t achild, so some of his body was balanced on Molun’s left leg.
“Are you sure this is all right?” Trill asked.
“Well, not when you sit there like you’re about to hop off,” Molun complained, and Trill couldhearthe pout.
Trill leaned back, and then Molun was squirming, and a moment later, they were suddenly comfortably arranged. Molun had widened his legs a little, so then Trill could actually straddle his right leg and wasn’t stressed about putting too much weight on his left. Trill was leaning back against the right side of his chest, too, so that he wasn’t in the other man’s face.
“There we go.” Molun hummed a happy noise. “Much better.”
It certainly gave him the chance to push those small tendrils of energy into the man’s leg.
“What are we doing like this?” Trill wanted to know.
