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“Not all of them, and not all the time. You need to up your close-range combat with Vallu when she’s up to coaching. That lady can punch through a brick wall, so learn what you can. Have Salat teach you; Khytten can take you to the range.”
“You are afraid for me.”
She kissed her niece’s head. “Every moment since I met you. I just wanted to bundle you up and keep you safe, but since I can’t, I am going to make you do it.”
“Summer homework?”
“Yup.”
“What do I get if I pass?”
Ylara smiled. “I think I have enough money to buy you a horse on Daycross. That is where I am going to be most of the time now or, at least, until I have the baby. Then, I am not really sure that he needs to keep me full time.”
“The sad is back.”
“Yeah, well, Brit has a man who loves her; Khytten has a man who loves her. Lyric has a gorgeous daughter.”
Baola stopped. “Riithan likes you.”
“Like comes and goes. He doesn’t like what I did for a living but found out after adult private time. So things got started, and we have to wait until they finish before I get put in a box to wait things out.”
“How did that change how he thought about you?”
“Well, you know how you were ordering pizza, and Giana wanted to put shrimp on it, and you thought that was gross?”
“It is gross.” She made a face.
“Well, you stopped having pizza when she came over, so you ordered something else.”
“The company was the shrimp on the pizza?”
“Yup. And he doesn’t like it. So, when he looks at me, he sees the shrimp on the pizza.” She sighed. “And that is what hurts. I will never see the happy and excited look on his face again. Never hear him talking about the future, never dance with him again.”
“He dances?” Baola smiled as if that made everything good.
“He dances really well.”
Baola nodded. “He’s also a really quiet tracker.”
Ylara froze, and a warm arm wrapped around her waist.
“Sorry, Auntie, you were getting heavy. He promises to take care of you.”
Baola turned and scampered back to the patio.
Chapter Six
Ylara slumped. Warm breath in her ear murmured, “Shrimp?”
“She’s good at understanding situations, but drawing parallels between the situation I am describing and her real-life makes things easier and less jarring for her.” She sighed. “We don’t want her to stop being a kid, but she is calmer if she knows what is going on.”
Riithan moved and offered her his arm. “I think we need to have a talk about hurts of the past. And how we can avoid letting them colour our future.”
They talked. They walked slowly for an hour and discussed his feeling dirty after having women who had to be paid to be with him and his occasionally developing feelings for them, only to be rebuffed for a second encounter.
She explained the early activation she had experienced and her desperate attempts to keep the rejections at bay, which drove her foster family further away. And then the babies. They all had babies after being around her, which was the final straw for their patience. They needed her room for their new biological. She was returned like an uncomfortable pair of shoes over and over when something newer and custom-made was on the horizon.
Ylara went quiet before stating, “The BDC offered me a chance for connection without the worry of rejection, but three were enough. I like finding people who will benefit from the process more than I like participating in it, but I guess that is my kink.”
