Tristan picked up the silk blanket that had fallen to the floor and draped it carefully around Austin. “Try to remember what it felt like to change so you can do so easily next time.”
Austin hummed.
“I’m going to have a look at your leg, okay?” Tristan knelt and carefully lifted Austin’s feet onto his thighs. He uncapped a bottle of oil and warmed it in his hands before rubbing it into Austin’s feet and calf muscles. “My joints usually ache a little when I switch back to legs, and my muscles—my calves more than my thighs—are very tight.”
Austin’s calves were quite sore, an acid ache throbbing through them. “My calves are more sore too.” But his shin bone—the one heknewhad snapped clean in two—was painless. He reached out from within the silk blanket and began taking crackers and cheese slices from the plate. He listened as Liam’s heartbeat steadied, losing its racing rhythm. “There’s toast. Have some.”
Liam didn’t reach for it.
Austin dug his elbow into Liam’s ribs. “I can hear your stomach growling. Eat, or else I won’t.”
The massage stopped. Tristan’s eyes snapped up, fixing on Liam.
With a sigh, Liam picked up the nearest slice of toast. “I don’t appreciate those kinds of threats.”
Austin settled more comfortably against Liam.
“Don’t get crumbs in my hair, or else I won’t eat.”
Liam released a long-suffering sigh. He twisted his head away as he chewed.
Austin, to his own surprise, ate almost the entirety of the platter. When Tristan rose to get more, Austin made an objecting noise and pushed his heels into the merman’s legs. “My thighs are sore too.”
Tristan uncapped the oil, warmed more in his hands, and began to massage away the lingering acid ache in those muscles. Austin drifted off, exhausted, and woke to a soft argument.
“He explicitly expressed that he wished me to spend the night with him,” Tristan was saying, calm giving way to annoyance.
“I didn’t hear him say that.”
“It was before we entered this room.”
“Convenient,” Liam replied. His arms around Austin tightened slightly. “He’ll stay with me until he wakes up and says he wants otherwise.”
A low growl rose from Tristan. Based on the direction, the merman was still on his knees at Austin’s feet. “He is not spending the night like this to wake up sore. He isalreadysore. He’ll be spending the night lying down in his bed.”
“With you to do whatever you like to him while he’s passed out? Absolutely not.”
The growl rose louder. “I take no such liberties,” Tristan hissed. “I spend the night with him because I have been explicitly invited to do so.”
Austin felt drunk with exhaustion as he tried to rouse himself. He leaned forward, sliding out of Liam’s arms and into Tristan’s. “Bed,” he grumbled. He caught Tristan’s neck in a tired nip. “Don’t growl at Liam.”
Tristan’s growl had already stopped. He carefully gathered Austin in his arms and stood. “Eli will show you your room,” he said to Liam with fat-cat pleasure.
“Happy?” Austin murmured tiredly.
“Smug,” Tristan admitted in a whisper. “Forgive me this once.”
???
Austin woke in the middle of the night to Tristan happily purring, nuzzling the top of Austin’s head. His ear was pressed to Tristan’s chest, listening to his heartbeat as he had listened to Liam’s hours earlier. It was beating far more rapidly. Austin’s own breaths came in rapid bursts. He blinked, slowly becoming aware of his body.
Tristan was on his back. Austin lay mostly on his chest, his leg thrown over Tristan’s hips. His knee hooked around Tristan’s far leg, his heel digging into thigh. They were both naked, and Austin’s erection pressed against the crest of Tristan’s hip bone. Tristan’s skin beneath his cock was slick and warm.
As he took stock of himself, his body settled, retreating from an edge he’d been rapidly approaching. While asleep? No, while half asleep. Austin rolled his hips forward, continuing his half-conscious pursuit. Warmth and need flowed through his body, focusing into a pulse of heat in his lower abdomen. He panted into Tristan’s chest, humping until he was breathless and tired, struggling to keep up a fast enough pace to push himself over.
Tristan rubbed his buttock. His voice had a husk in it, as if he’d only just woken. “Would you like me to help? I’d like to help, very much. Please?”
The plea came before Austin had a chance to reply to anything.
