Page 21 of Steve's Barmaid
“Joey!” I gasped, in mock horror. She did have a point. I was more worried about the noise of the bar, not the noiseIwould make. That was a new consideration.
“Is anything I said a lie?” she asked innocently.
I rolled it around in my head. Nope. She was pretty dead on.
“I don’t know how to be friends first,” I whined, giving up any attempt at saving face about my feelings for Steve.
“Well. You be friends first by sharing about yourself—open up. And by learning more about him. You never stop talking, so I can’t see how you’d have difficulty establishing a friendship.”
“Um, I’m a good listener too, thank you very much,” I huffed.
“Maybe work on things together where your hands are busy so you don’t accidentally grope him?” she suggested.
“Oh my God. You are the absolute worst.”
“Am I? Or am I practical?” she said knowingly, tapping her temple before we both busted out in a fit of giggles. We laughed until tears were leaking out of our eyes.
I leaned against her and said, “I don’t know what I’d do without you”
“Probably fuck Steve.”
She was probably right.
I sighed dramatically. “Okay, I shall be friends first. It doesn’t seem that hard. Just talking to him while we emptied the attic was nice. It was good to find out more about him.”
“You’re welcome,” Joey said, flipping her hair.
“I knew you engineered that!”
“Um, duh. What kind of wing woman do you think I am?” She looked offended.
We started laughing again but were getting close to the hestr stalls and had to pull it together.
“Straight face, soldier, we have some hestrs to obtain,” I said as we strode toward the stables.
STEVE
I watched as Billie and Joey walked away from the bar arm in arm, and wondered where they were headed. As much as I had wanted to follow Billie down the stairs to greet everyone, I had to sit down on the sagging bed and think of shoveling hestr shit in order to get my raging boner to subside. I couldn’t help but admire the curve of Billie’s backside when she leaned out the window to talk to Joey, and my cock stood up at attention almost immediately.
I took some deep breaths as I sat on the bed. I couldn’t deny that I was drawn to Billie. She was so easy to talk to. I felt as if I had spent my whole life keeping secrets, and they just started pouring out of me the minute I met her. And it wasn’t just because she was human. Joey and Piper were nice and fun to talk to, but they didn’t make me feel like I felt about Billie. Also, Piper was mated to Agnarr so thinking of her in that way never entered my mind. Joey was funny and good-natured, but I didn’tfeel like there was somethingtherelike I did with Billie. She felt like a kindred spirit in trying to figure out what she wanted out of life, not just what she was handed. It didn’t hurt that I was also clearly physically attracted to her.
I put my head in my hands and tried to piece together all of my fragmented thoughts. I had taken this trip in hopes of better understanding who I was and what my future held, but so far, the only person I had opened up to about it was Billie. She had extensive experience with sexual partners. I had zero. Surely she’d want someone more like Reykr, who’d fucked his fair share of the females back home. At least he’d know what he was doing and not be a fumbling virgin stuck in an attic trying to hide his erection.
I exhaled and sat up, dusting off my pants. The bed was pretty ancient and wouldn’t be a great loss, that was for sure. Who knows how many generations of dust bunnies had called that thing home? Billie asked me if I would like to stay and help build the bar and find my place. We had time.
I moved toward the landing to head down but was surprised by Reykr on the stairs.
“Lost in thought again?” he asked.
“Er…” I wasn’t about to tell Reykr that I’d been sitting in an empty room waiting for my cock to behave. I tried to stop the blush creeping up my cheeks.
“Would a certain mouthy female have something to do with it?”
“Hey! Don’t call her mouthy,” I snapped. “That’s rude. She’s talkative.”
“Oh, oh, I see. I’ve hit the nail on the head there. Someone has developed a crush on little Billie.”
“I just like talking to her, okay?” I huffed.
