Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 51003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
“And a lot of guys don’t realize they’re bi until later in life.” I shrugged when his brows pulled together and didn’t bother trying to explain that they saw mates as being important, not genders. “It’s a thing. They get distracted by women in high school and college.”
Evidently boobs were really distracting if someone found women attractive.
“He dated a lot in college.” Jim’s tone was flat and I had a feeling he was talking to himself more than he was me. “He hadn’t dated seriously in a few years before he met…before he met his husband.”
Mate.
They were definitely mates.
And ones who’d explained the whole thing very badly to his relatives.
Maybe Saint should write a how-to manual on explaining the new relationship to the human’s family?
They were doing badass at the whole seduce your human and take care of them parts, but the rest seemed rushed and needed more research.
“Talk to him.” Normally. But I didn’t give him a goal I knew he couldn’t reach. “And make sure he knows you don’t mind the whole bi thing.”
There was no way that wasn’t going to be a strange conversation at the very least. “I’ve never heard of any of them mistreating their human partners. I looked it up online last year after reading an article about the mixed species relationships.”
I wasn’t going to feel bad about lying. He didn’t need to know I’d been reading a gossip-site story about the mixed couples doing porn. That’d just make him more nuts and would not be a safe-for-work conversation.
“Never?” Jim’s surprised tone made me think he’d seen something he hadn’t understood.
Had anyone ever explained that sometimes bees spanked other bees?
“Never.” I was confident enough that it must’ve come through in my tone because he let out another deep breath. “It’s some kind of biological instinct for their partners.”
Keeping the explanation surface level was making Jim less nuts, so I didn’t push any deeper into how their relationships worked. “They’re hardwired to be good partners. Talk to your brother.”
And a therapist wouldn’t be a bad idea, but I decided to put that part off until later too.
“I…I will. Thanks.” Giving me a nod, he turned toward the other side of the plaza before looking back at me. “Oh, and um, have fun on your date.”
It was definitely out of manners rather than a sincere hope that I’d met the man of my dreams, but I smiled and faked it better than he could. “Thanks. Merry Christmas and I hope you have fun with your family.”
We were close enough to our time off that I was really hoping I wouldn’t see him again before he got a break.
I had a feeling he was thinking something along the same lines because he looked relieved to be walking away from me. I’d given him way too much to think about, and unfortunately, he’d done the same to me.
But luckily for me, I had a Dom to distract me, and what made it even better was that he was walking across the plaza.
Probably because I was five minutes late, but he started with draping a tentacle around my waist and leading me back home. “Humans have curious responses to mates.”
I was pretty sure we’d reached the point where they didn’t expect anything logical from us and were just pleasantly surprised at the chaos we brought into everything.
“Yeah, that was unexpected.” Clearly I’d misread the situation but there was no way I could’ve predicted what he’d been panicking over. “You know, I was thinking that you need to write some kind of manual for humans on how to explain bonding to their families. Something that skirts around the Dom and sub part of it. Most families don’t think about relatives that way and it’d just confuse them.”
I wasn’t sure if he’d find leaving out the submission stuff offensive, but after a moment, he nodded slowly. “Human social customs dictate a thorough separation of private when dealing with immediate family.”
Yep, we kept shit to ourselves when it came to our parents and people like that.
“When something is a little private we might share, but submission falls into that bigger private category. There are a lot of people who don’t understand it still, but we’re getting better about explaining things like that.” It was just hard to teach people about the whole it can be sexual but it doesn’t have to be sexual thing.
I was starting to see why Jim’s brother had just ignored all of it.
That hadn’t been the best way to handle the situation, but it was still an educational adventure when it came to teaching people about mates.
And I was very grateful my family were all isolationists who only thought about calling a few times a year.
“We shall endeavor to describe the concept of mates in a way that will not freak out other humans.” Saint didn’t seem like he thought that was a reasonable goal, but he was going to try for his mate.