Misconstrued, p.16
Misconstrued, page 16
That left me and my four standing around looking lost.
“Who won at cards?” I asked, trying to keep it light.
“I did,” Mac announced happily. I just shook my head. At some point, I was going to need to ask him about that cheating habit of his.
I frowned a little, not wanting to get into that right now. “I need some rules,” I said carefully.
They all straightened up and loomed harder. It was like watching some guys at a wedding, the bride’s family sizing up the groom’s cousins, before the bar opened. When men aren’t sure what to think of the opposing team and are worried about looking weak, they tend to puff up like angry cats. I wasn’t even sure they knew they were doing it, but when I worked at weddings, it was a sure sign we were going to be cleaning sick out of the bathroom when they tried to informally drink each other under the table. I considered how to say what needed to be said.
“Have you noticed how Erika and I hug sometimes?”
They all nodded, slowly. “You touch each other a lot,” Tybalt observed.
I blushed. It wasn’t like that. Did he know it wasn’t like that? Was he even implying anything? Time to focus. “We know that it’s okay to touch each other sometimes. I want to know if it’s okay for me to touch you—”
I barely made it to the end of the word before they were all agreeing. Iago was the only one who hesitated.
Romeo elbowed him.
“No,” I protested. “It has to be your choice. Each of you.”
“And you get upset if we twitch or jump,” Iago added.
I nodded again. “Because if you flinch, it doesn’t seem like it’s something you actually want.”
“You want to touch us and not have us react?” Mac asked carefully.
I marvelled at how much better his English had gotten. “Not exactly. I want to know that you will say no if you don’t want it.”
“Why not want it?” Tybalt asked.
Iago growled an explanation, their eyes went wide enough that I briefly saw the whites of their eyes.
Then I really felt embarrassed. “You don’t have to say anything right now,” I explained to the floor. “Just think about it.”
“Do we get to touch you?” Romeo rumbled.
I blinked. Shit. “If I can see it coming and if you’ll stop if I say to, then yeah. As much as Erika does, anyway.”
Romeo awkwardly held his arms out as he gave me a worried look. I smiled softly and leaned in for the hug. It wasn’t a great hug. He was barely touching me. It was more like he was stiffly holding his arms in a hug position and I just happened to be there. I snorted a half laugh and leaned against him.
He didn’t move.
I thought about telling him to relax, but then I realized how that sounded. I straightened up and started to pull away and he instantly dropped his arms.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Are you?” he countered.
I nodded. “It will get easier. If you want it to,” I assured him. He nodded. I briefly registered that he had tears in his eyes before he turned and started towards his room.
“Shit,” I mumbled. “Okay. Well, since I have now broken Romeo, I really want to stress that you don’t have to do anything you don’t—”
“You not broked me,” Romeo sniffled, his back still to me. “No one … female touched me like that ...” He stopped to try to think. “Ever,” he concluded.
That just made me sad.
He might not be meeting my eye, but the others were all watching me intently to see what I did next. I blew out the breath I didn’t know I was holding. “If we’re all touch-starved, this is going to feel awkward for a while. But we’re all in this together. I don’t want anyone —” I paused, because calling Tybalt out on his temper tantrum was not going to be helpful. “I don’t want anyone feeling left out,” I said, trying to be diplomatic. “If we are going to be a family, then family stuff can’t be something you trade winning at cards for.”
“Because Mac always wins,” Iago growled.
I gave Mac a pointed look; he just smirked and shrugged.
“I’m going to need help,” I admitted. “I don’t know how to make this work for everyone.”
“I feel left out,” Tybalt muttered.
I carefully telegraphed my movements as I walked forward to hug him. Tybalt was better at hugging me back.
- - - -
I was laying on my bed, looking at the ceiling. I could hear the guys in the hallway, but none of them had tried to even knock yet. From what I could see, I had Mac the shit-disturber, Iago the insecure, Romeo the sensitive, and Tybalt the immature.
Tybalt needed to grow up, but I didn’t want to have to be his mom. Mac would be no help. Iago would see my asking for help as a rejection of him. That left Romeo. The problem there was, that most of the time it had been me talking to him, and him being unable to respond much or at all.
They kept saying that I could get rid of them, but I was coming to realize I didn’t want to. I wanted to make this work. I just didn’t know how when they just all seemed sort of … emotionally stunted. I could even understand that; the stories of their childhoods were so horrible by human standards.
I could hear sounds of them shutting down the house and getting ready for bed. It had been dark for a while. I didn’t have a watch, but it felt like they had stayed up waiting for me. This was the first night in a while that I didn’t have one of them laying next to me. I lay there with my mind racing for a while longer.
Finally, I got up and crossed the hall to the room Romeo shared with Iago. Two orc-sized beds were pushed against the walls with a little space to walk between them. I just crawled in next to Romeo without even asking. I pulled his arm around me so I could rest my head on his shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding worried.
“I can’t sleep,” I whispered. “I can’t stop thinking about all of this.”
“How can I help?” he rumbled softly.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
He hummed to himself, then started to gently rub my back.
“That’s nice.”
“Used to do for my little brothers,” he explained quietly. I sighed and relaxed against him. “I can help more,” he offered, so tentatively that my breath caught in my throat.
I snuggled a little closer and buried my face in his chest, listening to the sound of Iago’s regular, even breathing. I could see the self-protection in the way Romeo had offered. If I refused, he would just say he meant rubbing my feet or something.
I wouldn’t mind if he rubbed my feet, but I didn’t think that was what he was offering. But I was in the same boat; I didn’t want to have to say it. I thought way back to when I first started living in this house. Mac had given Tybalt a blow job like it didn’t matter. Just helping a friend. Then again, I didn’t want to wake up Iago and have him see.
I just nodded against his chest. I was expecting him to kiss me, but instead, he hiked me up so that my hand was on his shoulder and I could nestle my face against his neck. The way he was running his fingers up and down my back changed. His touch got lighter and he started tracing complex patterns on my skin, up and down my back, but now also over my ass and thighs.
It was more than enough to get me keyed up, but not nearly enough to get me to cum and relax.
“Romeo?” I whispered as quietly as I could. “Can I just …”
He nodded.
I just shifted a little so I could grind my clit against his thigh, then clenched my teeth at how good that felt. I ran my hand over his chest, but tried to keep my movements small and quiet enough not to draw attention if Iago woke up. Romeo traced his fingers down my chest and I bit back a whimper as he slid them slowly between us.
I reached down and moved his fingers to get his calluses where I needed them, then clung to his chest as my hips bucked in spite of my best intentions. I gasped as every nerve ending in my body ignited, and I tensed, straining to both chase his fingers and somehow get away.
I lay panting on his chest. He nuzzled the top of my head, then brought his fingers to his lips to lick clean. I cuddled in tighter to him, then started sliding my hand downwards, only to have him catch it and put it on his chest, over his heart, with a little pat.
“Time later. Sleep now.”
I yawned, and, rather more hugely, so did he. God, they had big scary teeth. As I started to drift off, I wondered how I had come in here to figure out what to do about Tybalt, only to end up using Romeo like this. I was still going to have to talk to him about that.
In the morning.
Once Iago wasn’t sleeping next to us and I could return the favour.
I was just about asleep when Iago got up and closed the door more tightly. I blushed hotly and squirmed, seriously considering going back to my own room. Romeo just patted me, and nuzzled my hair again. “Sleep,” he almost purred.
Somehow, I did.
- - - -
Again, I woke to the sound of the bedroom door closing. I sat up a little and looked around. Romeo was still holding me, but Iago had gone. I winced.
“I’ll have to apologize to him later,” I mumbled.
“Why?” Romeo asked, sounding merely curious.
I shook my head. “It’s kind of trashy getting finger-fucked by one guy while another is in the room.”
“Hmmm,” he murmured.
I wondered how much of that he understood. I didn’t really want to explain, but fate wasn’t going to grant me that luxury.
“Should I be better or should he be gone?”
I sighed. “I shouldn’t have been here,” I tried, but he shook his head immediately.
“Yes. Should be here,” he stopped abruptly, then went back to correct himself. “You should be here. If you are unhappy here, then we are doing something wrong.”
“Easy for you to say,” I mumbled.
He sat up to look at me then. He frowned for a moment, then replaced it with a serene expression. “I can not say what is wrong. I need you to tell me.”
That was not the misunderstanding I was expecting. I covered my face with my hands and tried to figure out what was going on in my brain. I wasn’t feeling up to a discussion of monogamy; I was too much of a cynic to try to tell them humans mate for life. Even if I wasn’t, I wasn’t sure it was something they could or would want to understand. Tybalt had said humans only want one, and everyone else had been really upset by that.
I could understand that. You come all this way, looking for other civilizations, only to have it blow up in your face. Then to top it all off, our social constructs are so completely, well, alien to them.
“Mina?” Romeo whispered, sounding worried.
I peeked at him.
“Am I wrong?” He sounded so afraid and lost. “Did I do wrong?”
My heart just melted. “No, Romeo, you didn’t do anything wrong. I used you. I did wrong.”
“You want. I want. How is that wrong?”
How did I even start? Okay. “Iago didn’t want to be here?” I suggested.
Romeo’s eyes went wide. “Yes. He didn’t want to be in his bed. He wanted to be in this bed.”
“That’s not what I—” I stopped to wonder about that, then tried to get back on track. “That’s not what I meant. I meant that he didn’t want to …” Didn’t want to what, Mina? He didn’t want to watch? How do you know? Maybe he did? He could have left. Did he even watch?
Yes. Of course he watched. He waited until we finished to close the door so he wouldn’t interrupt. Shit. I needed to make sure he was okay. But first, I needed to make sure Romeo was okay.
“How do you feel about Iago being here while we …” I trailed off, not sure how to describe last night. “... cuddled?”
I could see him trying to understand what I was asking. Then I watched him try to figure out what the right answer was.
“Iago will not hurt you because we cuddled,” he tried.
I blinked and realized I hadn’t even considered that was a possibility. Time to try to turn this conversation back around. “But how do you feel about it?”
This time he copied me, and covered his face with his hands. “I’m happy—proud—that you choosed me to go first.” He peeked at me, to see if that was an acceptable answer. I nodded a little, so he continued. “I wanted to see you more. I wanted you to tell me what to do. I am still happy I got to go first.” He stopped to think some more. “I am not sad Iago was here. I am sad you are angry that Iago was here.”
Angry? Was I angry? No, I was embarrassed. Romeo seemed to genuinely have no understanding of that. He just looked concerned for me, like he was trying to solve a weird puzzle and was afraid to hurt me in the process.
Except that was it, wasn’t it? The human is being weird again. He was trying to understand me when he had no frame of reference.
“What do you think I should do?”
He searched my face for a moment. “More … cuddling?” he suggested, hopefully.
I laughed. “Yeah. I owe you one.”
“Owe?”
“Cuddling so you enjoy it,” I tried to explain.
His eyes went wide. “Can I see? I couldn’t see what you liked.”
“Or we could find out what you like,” I suggested.
“I would like to see,” he said, a little more firmly this time.
I blushed and looked away, but I nodded. Erika said just don’t make a big deal of it, but live action sex ed wasn’t on my to do list. Ever. Then suddenly I wondered how much sex ed Romeo had ever even gotten.
I sat right up and looked him dead in the eye. “Have you ever done this before? Like with an orc woman or a human?”
He sagged and shook his head no. “But I can learn fast?” he suggested, hopefully.
I actually chuckled at that. “Ok, first thing—don’t go fast.”
He nodded solemnly.
I was a loss at where to even start. “I liked the way you touched me,” I admitted.
He smiled a little shyly, then curled up on his side, giving my nightshirt a gentle tug so I curled up next to him. “I like this, too,” he admitted. “Your skin is so soft.”
And I’m a lot less boney than I was before you started feeding me, I added in the privacy of my own head.
Then Romeo startled unexpectedly. “No babies! Mac made sure!”
“What?” I asked, picturing a series of vasectomies being done on the dining room table along with the throat surgery.
Romeo nodded happily, then guided my hand to a bump under the skin between his half-hard dick and his heavy-feeling balls.
“What is that?” I asked cautiously.
“Baby stopper!” he said happily. “Can take it out later if you want. But no babies on accident.”
“Huh.” I tried not to get distracted as he continued to trail his fingers up and down my back. “Did you do that for me?”
He grinned and nodded proudly.
I found I was tracing the scarring on his neck, and I pulled my fingers away.
“That was nice,” he whispered, turning his head away from me so I could have better access.
I can take a hint. “Where else is nice?” I asked, running my hand down his chest.
“There,” he smiled. “You too?”
I nodded, then arched as his calluses grazed my nipples.
“Mmm,” he smirked. “More?”
I nodded, letting my hands travel down his chest. I could feel his muscles jump under his skin. I leaned in to lick one of his nipples. He inhaled sharply enough that I hesitated. “Good?” I asked. He nodded frantically, and I laughed softly against his skin.
“Can’t kiss you,” he mumbled. “But I can do that?” It was definitely a question rather than a statement.
“If you like,” I replied, wondering why he couldn’t kiss me. I understood a moment later, when I felt his tusks against my skin. The little licks and the whatever he was doing to nibble at me with his lips was new. I was more aware of his teeth than I would be with a human, but it wasn’t scary. I gasped as he scraped sharp teeth over my breast, and I liked it. He continued like that up my chest, licking a trail of tiny bites up to my neck, where he buried his face for a moment before pulling away.
“I forgot,” he apologized.
“Forgot what?” I wondered.
“Not to cover you,” he told me. “Not allowed. Humans don’t like.”
