Page 236 of Phoenix's Fire

"She. Was. Drunk," I reminded him, doing my best to keep from growling at him. "She can't consent like that!"

"She didn't," he said. "I did. She asked if she could, I said it was allowed - and then I put my hands on the rocks. Zasen, she kissed me because she wanted to make sure she did it right with you two!"

I jerked back to look at him again. "What? You said Kanik."

"And it came up because she'd thought about how nice it would be if you kissed her after the whole bear thing."

"That's when I told her she'd have to do the kissing," I admitted. "I was trying to make sure I didn't take advantage of her."

"Well, it worked." He sighed and leaned back, clearly feeling every drink he'd had last night. "I made damned sure she understands consent."

"So you tried to kiss her in there?" Kanik snapped as he came around the corner of the house. "Seriously, Ry?"

"He's okay!" I hurried to tell Kanik. "There's a bit more to the story."

"I caught the part where he backed her into a wall and was all but forcing himself on her."

Rymar patted the air. "She was already in her no cycle."

"No cycle?" Kanik asked.

Which made Rymar sigh. "It's improper. She shouldn't. Women don't. You know, her no cycle." he explained. "Guys, that's what Ayla does when she's out of her depth. Shit, Zasen, you're the one who pointed it out! You said that's why you kissed her, because she digs in her heels about some things. Usually anything that has to do with men."

"Yeah. She's scared of the unknown, so she pushes it away," I agreed.

"Holly, lie down," Kanik said as he made his way up the stairs to claim the footstool Tamin often used as a chair. "How far did this kissing go?" he asked.

"She kissed me," Rymar said yet again. "Once. Okay, and in full disclosure, she was drunk, was pawing on me a bit, and started grinding."

"Ayla?" Kanik asked.

"Drunk," Rymar said again. "So ,yeah. Seems our roommate has never tasted alcohol before, and you two keep refusing to offer her any. Well, she chugged." He rocked his head a bit. "I wasn't much better, but I can hold my drinks."

"True," Kanik said.

"So when she started pressing in and writhing, I stopped that. I'm pretty sure she doesn't remember that part, or doesn't realize what she did." He looked between us. "And neither of you will embarrass her about it."

"So what does this mean?" Kanik asked.

"It means," Rymar said, "that Ayla's finally feeling comfortable enough to experiment. It means she has been thinking about kissing both of you. I'm nice and safe, and since she didn't want to mess it up with one of the guys she seems rather interested in..." He grinned. "She wanted to practice on the safe guy." He pointed at himself.

"So, nothing," I said, paraphrasing that.

"No, it's something," Rymar promised. "Kanik, that woman thinks you are hot. She not only giggled about you, but also gushed."

"Me?" he asked.

Rymar nodded. "And Zasen, you are not out of the running, so don't even go there. Both of you are doing things she likes, but more importantly, you're doingthings that make her feel safe enough to want to explore these new feelings she's having. And yes, it seems she's very straight."

I found myself staring at the decking. My mouth was doing some stupid half-smile thing, because I'd actually heard what he'd said. "She hasn't picked yet?"

"Yeah, um..." Kanik said. "So, you two should probably know she told me she doesn't want kids."

"We knew that," I said.

Kanik just shook his head. "No. She gets that it's safe. She still doesn't want to be a mother. She also doesn't want to get married. I mean, when we went fishing, we talked about it."

"Marriage and babies are still too much for her to handle," Rymar said.