Page 142 of Gratification in Gluttony

“I was attacked by a butt plug,” Zef said mournfully, handing the vibrating plug to Tad who turned it off.

“Why are you wielding dildos like nunchucks?” Oliver asked.

Pointing to two dildos tethered together, Jude said, “Those ones are connected, like actual nunchucks.”

“Why would anyone need dildo nunchucks?” Willow asked.

“You’d be surprised,” Liel said coyly, making Oliver flush bright red.

“Yeah, what he said,” Tad agreed. “I mean, normal nunchucks get the job done faster, but those ones work too. And they’re a lot easier to clean. The blood washes right off.”

Everyone gawked at her.

She frowned. “What? You don’t know my life!”

“What are you all doing here?” Gem dropped several dildos so he could gather his robe and fasten it closed. “I thought someone was breaking in. I thought I was about to be murdered. My whole life flashed before my eyes!”

“Did you see Connor again?” Oliver asked gently.

Gem bared his fangs. “How dare you bring up that bitch at a time like this, Ollie!”

“Birthday!” Toni blurted, and Gem leveled all eight eyes on him.

“What?”

“Your birthday. It’s for your birthday.” He lifted unenthusiastic jazz hands. “Surprise.”

“Surprise,” everyone halfheartedly echoed, and Gem finally lowered his remaining hands, sex toys falling to the ground—some of them with disturbingly weightythumps.

“You broke into my house and scared me half to death over a birthday surprise?” Gem nearly snarled.

Well, when he said it like that, he made it sound like a terrible idea. It had seemed like a good idea to Toni, but maybe he was wrong. It was known to happen.

“I guess so?” Toni said.

Several seconds of silence passed as they waited with bated breath to see what Gem would do. Between one blink and the next, Gem’s fury melted into an emotional smile. “You guys!”he whined, pressing several hands to his chest. “That’s, like, the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

A manic laugh burst from Toni’s chest, relief coursing through him as he let Gem yank him into a bone-crushing hug. “Happy birthday, Gemmy.”

Now that Gem was no longer bombing them with sex toys, everyone relaxed. They gathered around Gem wishing him happy birthdays and congratulations. Zef remained several feet away, offering Gem a soft smile and a wave. Rusty stood awkwardly near the wall by the light switch, hands in his jean pockets, watching the group hug.

“Here,” Glyma said, handing Gem the Lupyn dick.

“Sorry about the sex toy missiles,” Gem said as he gathered said toys in his arms. “I didn’t have anything else to defend myself.”

“They got the job done,” Oliver said.

Waggling his gray tongue, Gem winked and said, “They always do.”

Jude grimaced. “Gross.”

Rusty chuckled softly, and several of Gem’s smaller eyes glanced his way. They made brief eye contact, and Gem’s flirtatious smirk curled into something more genuine for a split second before he turned to dump his armfulls of sex toys onto his bed.

Toni narrowed his eyes at Rusty, and the Pyclon scowled at him. “What?”

Instead of responding with words, Toni pointed two fingers at his own eyes, then jabbed his index finger at Rusty. Rusty rolled his eyes like an angsty teenager but appeared otherwise unaffected by Toni’s threat. That was okay, though. Toni’s retribution would come swiftly when he least expected it.

“Seriously, though, it’s not my birthday yet,” Gem was saying as he rounded the room partition, wiping the face mask off his cheeks with several tissues.

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