Chapter Fourteen
Nibbling at my lip,I finished cleaning Azio’s shoulder.
“Are you sure Groth will be okay?” I asked, putting away the peroxide.
“Yes.” Azio glanced at me quickly. “Do you want him to find another house?”
“What? No. I like having both of you here, honestly.”
Being alone with Azio so soon after telling him what I wanted would feel like more pressure to do the deed. Besides, they’d opened their home to me. There was no way I would be okay with kicking either of them out. But what did Azio want?
“There’s plenty of room here for all three of us. Right?” I asked hesitantly.
“Yes. He would like to stay. Even if you choose to be my female, he would still like to talk to you and learn.”
“Learn?”
Azio stood and offered me his hand. Guilt poked at my conscience when he kept his gaze on his hand instead of making eye contact.
“You can look at me, Azio,” I said, placing my hand in his. “Even when I’m afraid, you can look at me. If I can’t manage that much, how will we ever be able to get to the point where we can make a baby?” I flushed at the words, but that didn’t make them any less true.
His gaze swept over my face, and my face grew hotter.
“My fears won’t magically disappear. I’ll need to work on them. But if you can be a little patient with me, I think we can make this work.”
“We will. Come, we will tell Groth and assure him he may stay.”
He led me into the dark hallway, giving me little time to think about anything, including my shirt until we were downstairs and Groth’s gaze locked on my chest. Under the bright kitchen light, the heat exploded in my face anew.
Oblivious, Azio continued to pull me forward. “Terri will choose me when she is ready. But, she wants you to stay here, too, brother.”
Azio steered me to a stool, seating me like I weighed nothing, but boy did my chest bounce enough in the process. Azio noticed, based on the way he stared and trailed his fingers down my ribs before releasing me. Groth studied my chest just as raptly as Azio had, his ears darkening to black before he lifted his gaze to mine.
“Thank you for letting me stay.”
Azio’s fingers returned to my ribs, gently caressing me. He probably meant it as comfort since my heart was hammering away. But it felt more sensual than anything, especially with two sets of eyes hungrily watching me. Heat speared between my legs, and I struggled to draw a decent breath.
“It was your house first,” I managed before slowly crossing my arms. “I’m sorry about the shirt.”
He tilted his head at me. “Why? It is very pretty. Thank you for letting me see it on you.”
Azio’s fingers paused their play over the thin material.
“I scared you again,” he said. “You were not ready to tell Groth.”
Groth’s expression fell a little.
“It’s not that,” I said, forcing myself to speak the truth plainly like Brooke had said. “It’s a little awkward for me to let Groth see my chest after saying I wanted to make a baby with Azio. I’m struggling with how to deal with it.”
Both fey blinked at me.
“We don’t understand,” Azio said finally. “What are you dealing with?”
His question broke through my embarrassment enough that I wondered just how different our cultures were. Then I remembered Brooke’s comments about how they wore clothes they found uncomfortable solely to blend in better.
“Nudity?” I said, no longer sure. “Did you pick out this shirt for me for comfort or because it was see-through?”
“Both,” Azio answered. “Neither of us has seen a female before. Mya says we can’t ask to look. I thought the shirt would make us all happy.”