Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 57876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57876 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 289(@200wpm)___ 232(@250wpm)___ 193(@300wpm)
“I must agree with your assessment.” Shrugging, Larry frowned thoughtfully. “Some of our younger people have been slower to build appropriate social bonds.”
Oh yeah.
But I clamped my lips together and just nodded instead of letting anything escape.
Nicholas gave me a side-eye that said he knew what I was doing but Larry didn’t seem to notice I was being weird and just kept us moving as he scanned the space.
I had to admit to it taking entirely too long to realize we weren’t just randomly wandering the room, but I had no idea what he was looking for so I turned to Nicholas and did my best to actually whisper that time. “What are we doing?”
We were starting our second lap around the room and I was starting to wonder if it was some kind of alien OCD thing.
Larry was very particular about how I cleaned the lab and I was the only one of the janitorial staff that he’d let near his equipment… Was that more than me just being the only one who could follow directions?
Or who hadn’t come on to him?
As I thought about how important that part might’ve been, Nicholas chuckled. “He’s watching their reactions to you. I’m not as good at reading strangers as I am Larry, but I think at least two have indicated that you smell really good.”
Oh wow.
Two?
How many guys would I need to meet before I found one who didn’t think I was annoying?
I knew the human Dom to me ratio, but I wasn’t sure those numbers would translate to this situation.
I was trying to do the math when Nicholas sighed and I realized he’d been expecting some kind of reaction. “Um, I don’t know what to say to that.”
Rolling his eyes, Nicholas let out a huff. “I’m not even going to ask you where your mind was.”
Good.
“I would like that information, please.” Larry was serious judging by the look on his face. “Mental wandering in humans has not been highly researched.”
Oh, good grief.
Smart people.
“Um, well.” He wouldn’t ask unless he really didn’t understand it, so I kind of thought I should answer even though Nicholas was snickering. “I was trying to do the math on how many Doms like you that I’d have to meet before one liked me. I know the ratio with human guys, but I’m not sure how the math looks in an…in an intraspecies relationship.”
Was that even the right way to phrase it?
No one laughed so it couldn’t have been too wrong, but as Nicholas sighed, Larry gave me a curious look. “Every single male of my species in the room would enjoy giving you human sexual pleasures. However, fleeting pleasure is not our goal, so I will be narrowing down those who I will introduce you to. We will primarily focus on those with the strongest hormonal reactions. Although, there are other factors to consider.”
What?
“Then we can select for submissive compatibility.” Larry went on talking like finding me a mate was a new scientific endeavor and I told myself I needed to remember that he was a legit genius scientist.
It somehow seemed like a bad move to have forgotten that part.
“Humans sometime require significant amounts of personal space to be happy.” Larry gave Nicholas a look that said he didn’t appreciate such a ridiculous human idea.
Nicholas just ignored it and kept his gaze on me. “Just remember that they like submission so don’t hide what you want. That’ll just fuck things up.”
Nodding, I slowly let out a breath and tried to tell myself to stop worrying. “I read up on the information you showed me.”
Not that I’d understood most of it.
“Submission good. Lots of submission better. Don’t let them take over my life unless that’s what I want.” That was what I wanted, so I wasn’t going to push back on that too much unless it was utterly impractical. “Oh, and verbalize boundaries clearly or they’ll pretend not to notice them.”
Evidently boundaries were just vague ideas unless you specifically spelled them out.
Larry’s very human-sounding huff said he was the one who’d inspired the boundaries need to be verbalized clearly rule. “Humans do not always recognize what will provide them with contentment and security.”
Well, he wasn’t exactly wrong, but I was saved from having to hear what would be a stressful debate between those two by several tentacled gentlemen moving closer. I was pretty sure they didn’t want to hear the argument either, but they might’ve been hungry.
It looked like we weren’t going to sit down for dinner until the mingling had gotten a bit more productive, so maybe they just wanted to hurry things up. But the way Larry had stopped us after our second round of the room might’ve been a sign they were waiting on too.
In some ways it was so much easier than hanging out with human Doms, but in others it was so much more confusing.