One of my hands went up to my warm neck, still tingling from having had his mouth on me. "Yes," I said.

His head snapped back to me, his ears coming forward and a desperate hope on his face.

"It felt amazing, Dain. You were amazing. Are amazing," I said. I took a deep breath. "No regrets. I'm just not ready to... you know." I made a face and did a little shrug, wrapping my arms over my breasts so my nipples wouldn't show anymore.

"I understand," he said. "We wanted to try friendship, and this is... not that."

I nodded, not quite meeting his eyes.

"I have no interest in pushing you towards anything," Dain said softly. "If you decide you want... this... I would appreciate it if you told me. Unless you do, I will strive for friendship."

"That sounds good," I said in a small voice.

"Then goodnight, Leah."

I looked up at him, to see him giving me a quiet smile, his expression otherwise unreadable. "Goodnight, Dain," I answered, and watched him go.

23. Arrowed

Chapter 23

Arrowed

I'd expected some awkwardness the next time I saw Dain. After all, we'd spent an afternoon swapping embarrassing tales, practically climbed into each other's laps while sharing sex stories with his two best friends, and then almost had extremely hot sex against my sitting room wall, and (if I was being honest) on most other surfaces in my rooms. I suspected Dain could be... vigorous. And he had seemed very motivated to make me scream his name and forget my own.

But it was as if a switch had been flipped when I said no. My experience with being "just friends" with guys tended to involve them testing the edges of friendship on a regular basis, with little touches or actions that could pass as accidental or casual, but which definitely weren't. Most of those endeavors had ended with the guy in question blowing up one day out of the blue, sometimes in anger and with liberal use of the word "bitch," and sometimes in emotional proclamations about how their love could never be silenced and we could never speak again.

I kept expecting it from Dain—for him to brush against me, or say something on the edge of sexual, or even just smile silently at me with an expression that said he was considering how much he wanted me. But he... didn't. Not ever. It drove me crazy at first, that he was so resolutely friendly, keeping up our usual "will they kiss or kill each other" presentation in front of the court, and being platonic elsewhere. Even Zhiolas and Alluin seemed to have gotten the message: neither of them teased us or tried to get us into sexual or romantic situations. On the times we hung out with them, they treated me as if Dain and I really were best friends, and nothing else.