It was kind of funny how I even still remembered the inflection of the guy's voice, as thrown as I'd been. The whole memory had a bit of an unreal flavor to it, and Marina had teased me mercilessly about the dick-soap for months.

"I looked at the soap, and then at this guy with his hand on his dick, and made the connection. So I walked over to him with some sort of 'um' noise, totally dazed, put the soap on his dick, stared at it for a minute, and walked out." I shook my head. "The guy had the gall to call me the next day, ask if I'd had a good time and if I wanted to maybe try it without the soap next time, now that he was nice and clean."

"I suppose I could give him credit for creativity," Zhiolas said. He, too, didn't sound amused.

Dain only growled, low and dangerous.

I looked over at him and frowned, my eyebrows coming together. "It's fine, Dain. It wasn't a big deal. Everyone who likes men has to see one naked for the first time eventually."

"Not like that," he said, with an edge of rage. "Never like that."

"Okay," I said gently. "Bad story choice, I guess." I reached over and slid my fingers underneath his, easing his claws out of the table where it was splintering from the force of his anger. "Stuff like that happens all the time in my world, you know. Kind of the background radiation of my life to have horny guys trying to get me to touch their dicks."

Dain let me take his hand. He wrapped his warm fingers around mine, then took a deep breath and let it out, some of the tension leaving his body as he did. Those golden eyes of his caught mine. "Not here," he said. "Not like that. We're open with our invitations, and nudity and sex are a natural part of life, but we don't allow people to entrap others in that way."

"If you walked into an orgy, having someone try to seduce you by making eye contact while he pleasured himself wouldn't be unusual," Zhiolas offered. "By coming to an orgy, you've given tacit consent to be approached in such a way, but not in the situation you described."

"Well," I said softly, not taking my eyes off of Dain's, "Now I know."

"Now you know," Zhiolas said after a moment, when Dain didn't do anything but look at me. "Would the two of you like a change of venue? Alluin must be off-duty by now, and the garrison isn't a far ride."

"How do you feel about being surrounded by loud, boorish soldiers?" Dain asked, a slight smile touching his mouth, allowing himself to be drawn away from anger.

"Depends," I said, starting to smile back. "Do y'all know any good drinking games?"

21. Drinking Games

Chapter 21

Drinking Games