Then she sighed, sat back. “Just proving I could have sex if I opted for the one-nighter. So.” She gestured at Annika. “The doctors are in. Proceed.”
“Are you a doctor, too?”
“She means we’re here to listen,” Sasha explained.
“Oh. It’s so nice to have friends who are female.”
“Truer words,” Sasha agreed.
“Sawyer says there are complicated rules about sex. If it’s so hard and strict, how do people have sex?”
“Good question. I used to think there were so many complications it was better to just forget about sex. I really believed that was the right thing for me, until Bran.”
“Because you’re mates.”
“Yes.” And wasn’t that a wonder? “I didn’t know that he felt that way, the way I did. But the other part is, he accepted me, what I am, what I have. No one had before Bran. Before all of you.”
“And I didn’t want to have sex with her.” Riley beamed at the waiter when he brought the Bellinis.
“But she’s very beautiful, and kind and wise. You’d have pretty sex together.”
Intrigued, Riley angled her head. “Are there gay merpeople?”
“Oh, yes. We’re very happy.”
“No, I mean— Are you, or some of you, attracted to the same sex? Can you mate with someone of the same sex?”
“Of course—differently because of the body, and there will be no young created, but you want who you want, yes? Love who you love?”
“Cheers to that.” Riley picked up her Bellini.
“Is one of the rules you cannot?”
“We’re eliminating that rule. Slower in some places, but we’re working on it.”
Annika huffed out a breath, frowned at her drink. “Are all the rules stupid?”
“Maybe some are, and the rules depend.”
Now Annika lifted a hand in frustration. “How can rules depend if they are rules?”
“We’re going to need more Bellinis,” Riley decided. “And pastries.”
“I can get behind that. But the rules, Anni, depend on the people involved, the situation. For instance, if Bran had been married or promised to someone else.”
“That’s the availability rule,” Riley added.
“I understand, and agree. I understand the willing. There must never be force. Clean—I’m not sure why this is important, at every sex.”
“It’s not that kind of clean. It’s more . . . letting your partner know if you’re healthy—sexually, that is.” Sasha shook her head. “I don’t see that as an issue for you or Sawyer, so we can table that complicated explanation for now. Other rules, the ones that depend? Some would come from the code or beliefs of who’s involved.”
“I know code. Sawyer’s honorable. Maybe too much honor. I tried to explain to him that when the painting happens, I can get away. He can take all of you—because he’s wounded, and leave me so—”
“Bullshit. That’s never happening.”
Frustrated, Annika turned to Riley. “But I can—”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass what you can. And if Sawyer had said different, I’d think less of him—and that’s after I’d flattened him.”