Page 48 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

Only she rolled her eyes.

“I’m twelve, not two. You mean if I think they’re going to take something I don’t want to give.”

Perian nodded, since that was close enough. He tried to remember how old he’d been when his father had explained about sex, but he couldn’t quite recall. His father had also been quite open, and Renny’s parents might not be.

But Renny was looking at him eagerly, and he was committed to this endeavor now.

Perian got them both standing up.

“Now, if possible, the best thing to do is always to simply get away from a dangerous situation. But if you can’t run or you’re being restrained, you can try to incapacitate the man who’s got you.”

And Perian showed Renny how to stomp on someone’s instep and either knee them in the groin or punch them, because he hadn’t really thought a lot about the height difference between a twelve-year-old and a fully-grown man.

“However you do it, you hit as hard as you possibly can, and that should slow any man down so you can run away.”

She offered him an innocent look that he didn’t trust for a second.

“Shouldn’t I practice to make sure I know where to hit?”

“Whoa!” he protested.

She chased after him, and they briefly ran in circles around the blanket until he could see that she was breathing too fast, and he immediately flopped down.

After a moment, she flopped down beside him, chest heaving.

“You don’treallyneed to practice, do you?” he asked, wincing at the very idea.

She laughed. “I’m twelve,” she reminded him. “I can figure that out. I understand what grown-ups do. I mean, I don’t really understandwhythey do it, but they’re not actually very subtle.” She shot him a look. “Like everythingyougot up to yesterday.”

Perian had to laugh. “I thought I managed to clean up that story a lot.”

“I saw Brannal yesterday evening.” Her voice was very dry as she added, “He was in a very good mood.”

Perian could feel his cheeks heat, but he said, “Glad to hear it.”

Renny smiled at him. “He makes you happy?”

And sometimes very confused, but—

“Yes, he makes me happy.”

She nodded decisively, as though that concluded everything in her mind. He wished he had her certainty.

He sat up so he could eat a little more food.

“Good,” she said. “What did you do this morning?”

Perian had actually doneplentythis morning, but given what they’d just been discussing, it was probably no surprise where his mind first went, and he found himself flushing again.

Renny made a disgusted face. “Not that!”

He had to laugh. “No, no. Well, not only that. You’re the one who brought it up; I wasn’t going to say anything!”

“Did you do anythingelsewith your morning?” she asked with thinly-veiled impatience.

“Nothing that probably doesn’t sound stupid in retrospect,” he admitted, before retelling it anyway, letting her know about the music room and dancing, first by himself and then with Arvus.

She smiled, looking amused, but what she said was a more serious, “You just… do what you want, don’t you?”

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