Page 6 of His Theo

“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.

“Interesting.” Larry jumped off the argument train and studied the guys who’d moved closer like we were back in his lab. “I am not familiar with everyone who is interested in you. However, I do recognize several potential suitors.”

Was that a good thing or not?

Suitors?

What had they been watching lately?

Wait. Did knowing them mean he’d worked with them?

I wasn’t sure I could handle any more scientists or professors in my life…they were all insane just in different ways.

Before I could decide how I was going to figure out any of those questions without actually asking any of them, Larry had us moving again…that time toward the guys who were getting closer.

My suitors.

They were mostly different shades of blues and greens, with one who had grays in his coloring as well, but that was all I could tell at first glance. No one looked happier than another and no one was giving off flirty Dom vibes, so it was hard to tell that they were interested in me.

Especially with how many other subs there seemed to be.

But as I tried to see how many humans were in the group, I realized there were more alien Doms than human subs. Did that make me look better? Usually when I’d gone out, there were always more subs than Doms.

This had to improve my odds, right?

The way Larry was weaving us through my suitors didn’t give me confidence in it.

“Human privacy customs vary, but would it be acceptable to explain that you are a submissive that could tolerate higher levels of caretaking than average?” Larry said that with such a straight face, I had to look around him and focus on his giggling partner.

“He realizes he just said that out loud, right? He’s fucking with me?” The question got giggles from several humans around us but a few of the tentacled cuties seemed to realize how funny it was too, so I knew they’d been around humans more than some of the others.

“Yep. He realized he said that but he’s exploring the different ways humans use language to get what they want without actually saying what they want.” Nicholas looked like he was thoroughly enjoying the situation. “It’s really cute as long as it’s not aimed at me.”

Great. He was proud of his mate for learning to fuck with people.

Sighing, I shook my head and reminded myself that I knew he’d overshare. It was just what he did. Sometimes it was accidental and sometimes it was because he was really curious. Now it seemed like it was because he was being pushy at the very least. “It would not be oversharing in this social situation.”

Just this once because it made sense.

He’d finally learned to stop asking me questions about his research when he saw me in the hallways, so I couldn’t complain about it now. This was at least a reasonable space to be talking about my submission and my submissive reactions.

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