Page 63 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

“You mean joint communication?” Brannal proposed, his expression turning droll. “That probably shouldn’t sound like a radical concept, should it?”

Perian laughed. “No, it really shouldn’t. Are we terrible at this, and we didn’t realize?”

Brannal’s lips tipped up. “Perhaps we are. But at least we’ve noticed now.”

“So, we can improve from here?”

“That’s the dream.”

Perian was quiet for a moment.

“What?” Brannal asked.

“What what?”

“That was a very noisy silence.”

Perian could only laugh. “Oh, I’m sorry, was my thinking too loud for you again?”

Brannal nodded, smiling. “Entirely.”

More soberly, Perian admitted, “I’d like not to mess this up. I thought maybe we could discuss boundaries.”

Brannal looked immediately uncomfortable.

“I’d rather know them than stumble into them,” Perian explained quietly. “I promise I won’t mind whatever they are.”

“That is an entirely absurd promise to make,” Brannal protested. “What if I wanted to…”

“Yes?” Perian prompted.

“Not have sex ever again.”

“All right,” Perian agreed immediately.

Brannal squinted at him. “What do you mean, ‘all right’?”

“If you don’t want to have sex, then we don’t have sex.”

Brannal sounded suspicious. “Then what would we do?”

“Everything else?” Perian said, thrown by the question. “Eat food together, talk together, cuddle together, read together, sleep together, go to the library together, probably do lots of other things together that we haven’t done yet but are still going to discover.”

Brannal was staring at him like he wasn’t making any sense. Perian frowned, a sinking sensation filling his stomach as it suddenly occurred to him—

“I mean, not if you don’t want to do any of those things, of course. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. I can get another room or leave or—”

“Perian!” Brannal grabbed his hand. “You’re not making me uncomfortable, and I don’t want you to leave. I would very much enjoy doing everything you just listed.”

“Yeah?” Perian asked, flipping his hand so that he could twine his fingers with Brannal’s.

“Very much so.” Brannal gently squeezed Perian’s fingers, the touch warm and reassuring. He didn’t quite meet Perian’s eyes as he said, “I guess I wasn’t sure you’d still be interested if I need to, uh, reduce the sex while I figure things out.”

“I am entirely interested,” Perian assured him firmly.

He supposed the uncertainty was fair. Their relationship had been very physical, very fast. But Perian wanted so much more.

He suggested, “I will assume you’re not comfortable with physical intimacy right now. If that changes, let me know. I’m not going to start anything. Is that all right?”

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