Demon Discord by M.J. Haag

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.”

“So nudity doesn’t bother you?” I asked.

“We all wish there was more of it on the surface,” Groth said.

I choked out a laugh, keeping my arms firmly in place. “Humans tend to be more modest.”

“We know,” Azio said with a sad expression as he glanced at my arm-shield. “Does that mean you don’t like the shirt?”

“No. It means wearing this shirt will take a little more courage than I’m used to. And it probably won’t ever be something I can wear in public.”

“Our brothers will be disappointed, but they will understand,” Azio said.

“You seriously wouldn’t mind if every fey here saw me naked?” I asked.

He gazed at me thoughtfully and slowly shook his head.

“I would not rob them of what so few females will ever give. A chance to see how different a woman is made from us is too special.”

“A gift,” Groth said in agreement.

It was a lot to wrap my head around. Oh, I wasn’t about to get up and run around outside in my shirt. And I still wanted a bra. But maybe the glimpse I’d given Groth didn’t need to be as big of a deal as my brain was trying to make it out to be.

“Okay. A gift. But no more sitting me in front of other people when I’m exposed in any way,” I said to Azio. “Who sees me needs to be my choice.”

He grunted in agreement.

“Thank you for letting me see you,” Groth said. “Are all female’s nipples the same size as yours? I know breast sizes are different. Angel told me. But what about nipples?”

He slid a plate in front of me and waited for an answer with an openly curious expression.

Despite beheading infected without a second thought, the fey were nothing but kind, slightly naïve grown men. It wasn’t easy to wrap my head around that.

“They’re like breasts,” I forced myself to say. “They come in all sizes and colors, neither of which play into how they function.”

Azio frowned. “Function?”

“Yes. Once a baby is born, breasts fill with milk, and the baby suckles on the nipple to draw the milk out. It’s the delivery system. We call it nursing when we feed babies with our bodies.” I felt like I was completely botching the explanation, but I desperately wanted the conversation to be over.

“No one told us that. Ghua said Eden likes when he sucks her nipples, and her pussy clenches around his cock when he pinches them. But not too hard. If he’s too rough, Eden gets angry, and then he can’t lick her pussy after she comes.”

My mouth dropped open, and my gaze darted from Groth, who’d delivered that doozy of a fact, to Azio, who watched me with concern.

“I will not pinch your nipple,” Azio promised. “But could I still try sucking on them even if they are meant for a baby?”

I lifted both hands to cut off this topic. However, accidentally re-exposing my boobs had the opposite effect. Their gazes dipped. Groth looked confused. Azio looked wistful.

“Is that why females like their nipples sucked?” Groth asked. “Because they want babies?”

I quickly crossed my arms again. “This conversation is making me really uncomfortable. I kind of want to skip eating and go hide in my room for a while.”

“Why?” Azio asked. “I would gladly talk to you about my cock. It has two functions. Urination and—”

“I really don’t want to talk about that either.”

Azio sighed but didn’t look away from me.

“I can hear your pulse racing. What do you fear?”

I looked down at the countertop, not to hide but to seriously consider the question because he was right. My heart was hammering away like I was one more awkward topic away from a panic attack. Why?

“I don’t know,” I said finally and looked up at him. “When I stopped to think about it, there’s not really anything to fear. The topics are a little embarrassing, but we’re just talking. I know your questions aren’t meant to push me in any way. That you’re only curious about our biology. Yet, I’m still struggling to be open about information that’s common knowledge to us.”

“You are no different from many of the other females,” Groth said. “They do not like answering our questions either. Mom will if Dad is done. Angel will always answer questions, but Shax gets impatient to touch her and sends us away too soon. The rest turn pretty shades of pink like you. Mya scolds us.”

Well, that just made me feel bad for them and helped kill some of my fear.

“Okay. You win. What do you want to talk about?” And to prove I was willing, I uncrossed my arms and reached for my spoon.

It was the weirdest, most awkward meal in the history of meals. And the conversation remained firmly stuck on female breasts. The differences in how a baby suckles versus a man. When a mother’s milk comes in. How breasts change. How to make them feel better when they hurt.

By the time I begged for a break, I felt like they’d learned enough to award them with some kind of boob expert certificate. But they were both so grateful for my willingness to share what I knew that I couldn’t let myself dwell on how uncomfortable I’d been.

“Thank you, Terri. This will help me when I have a female of my own.”

“No problem, Groth.”

I moved to grab my dishes, but he insisted on cleaning up.

“I think I’m going to turn in,” I said. “Thank you for today.”

Azio followed me to the stairs.

“Terri, will you consider changing rooms?”

“Do you want my room?”

“No. I want you to try sleeping next to me tonight.”

“Why?”

“If you choose me, you would sleep next to me every night. This will be a good test to see if you like it.”

What he said made complete sense, especially given the timeline I’d set for myself. Yet, I wasn’t stupid. He wanted me in the same bed with him for a reason.

“Just sleep? No touching or anything else, right?” I asked.

“No touching or anything else. I swear.”

“Okay. We can try it.”

“Good night, Groth,” I called, heading up the stairs.

“Sleep well, Terri.”

I went to my room and quickly changed into a pair of shorts before joining Azio in his room. He paused his restless pacing when I entered. The tight sweat pants didn’t hide an inch of how much he was anticipating sleeping with me.

His gaze swept over my legs and lingered on my breasts. His length twitched.

“Will you tell me when I may touch you?” he asked, meeting my gaze.

“You’ll be the first one to know when I’m ready.”

He grunted and pulled back the covers for me.

After so much shock and awe today, crawling into Azio’s bed while he ogled my butt didn’t seem so out of place. He turned out the lights then I felt him get in on the other side.

“You can touch me whenever you want,” he said in the dark. “You have my consent to do anything.”

I laughed. “Thanks.”

“Females never ask about our bodies. Why aren’t you curious?”

“I’ve been married before, Azio. You don’t have anything that’s so different from Wayne. I mean, your ears and eyes are a little different, but other than that, you’re the same.”

He was quiet for a long moment.

“We are not the same. He told you he didn’t want you. I will never be so stupid.”

“That’s really sweet of you, Azio. Thank you.”

“Can I ask you more questions?”

“Of course.”

“You said you wanted a family since you were little but had a husband. Why don’t you have a baby already?”

“Wayne didn’t want babies. He had a surgery to prevent it.”

“Stupid,” Azio said softly. “I really want to touch you, Terri. I won’t, but I think about it all the time.”

His honesty pierced my heart.