Page 41 of Five to Love Him
“Yeah. It’s good cake, isn’t it? In a moment. This feels nice.”
With the third, we adjusted Leo’s office chair, pulling it back so there was enough room. We picked up the plate while we continued to work the tightness out of his shoulders.
“Open wide.”
Leo looked at us with wide eyes. “This is…such a harem situation. Are you seriously going to feed me?”
“We want you to be comfortable. But if you don’t like this, then—”
He shook his head, tensed against our hands before relaxing again.
“No. I mean, I never expected…it’s me applying human thinking and expectations to you all over again, that’s all. You’re being very…considerate? No. Caring to the extreme. I don’t want to be taking advantage of you, like how some people are just emotional vampires who don’t care about their friends or those around them. I don’t want to be like that.”
We gasped, overfilling a beer glass while the even movements of our hands over Leo’s shoulders stalled for a second. He was concerned for us! The gleaming had given us this person who cared for us, cared that we were not taken advantage of. In this moment, we were the luckiest hive in existence.
“You’re blushing,” Coral said as we handed him an order.
“Thank you,” we told him, then repeated the same to Leo.
“What for?” our gleaming one asked, looking confused.
“You care for us. You’re concerned for us. You don’t have to be though. We want to do this.”
“Are you sure?” He looked at us. We had a piece of cake on our fork, hovering close to his lips. “I’m not the kind of person who needs to be fed.”
“We’re sure. And this way, you can relax, and we can help you relax. We want that.” We moved the fork closer, and Leo opened his mouth. We smiled when he ate the piece of cake we’d offered him. “You are a singular. We may be a small hive, but we are still bigger than you are. That means we should be taking care of you, should be doing more for you than you do for us.
“We can’t even imagine how difficult it must be for you, having to sleep and work and clean, do laundry, then cook, all with one. Oh, and shopping as well as taking care of your garden. You are one, and you have been doing all of that. We are impressed, but we don’t expect you to do any of it for us, especially since we are a hive, however small. We wouldn’t want to use you like that.”
Leo took a second piece of cake while looking from one of us to the other. We liked when he tilted his head back all the way to look at us where we were giving him the massage.
“You know, people—humans—don’t know anything else. A lot of other supernaturals are singulars too, right? Like Ezra.” He cackled. “I can see why Tate would be so oblivious, but those two really need to have an honest conversation. Anyway, I’ve always been like this. With one, as you say. I’ve always just been me. I know I’m not supposed to resist your mating instinct, but I’d like to do nice things for you too.”
Our heart swooped. We longed to run out of the Dazzle, run all the way here so we could give Leo a proper hive hug, but work was important. Especially now.
“Leo,” we said, then failed saying anything else, anything other than our gleaming one’s name. Perhaps it was enough.
“You look like you’re about to cry or something. I just mean, I can give you a backrub too. At least some of you. And I can cook for you sometimes. Or we could cook together. That could be fun, right?”
“Tonight? We picked those vegetables from the garden earlier.” We fidgeted with our apron while managing to keep the next piece of cake steady. “Maybe…we could spend the night?”
Leo’s eyes widened. “Uhm. You mean like have sex?”
“No. We mean, yes, we do want that with you. But not when you don’t feel ready. We just want to be close, like earlier during the movie.”
He snorted. “I don’t normally fall asleep during movies, you know.” He ate the piece of cake we offered. “I only have one bed, and it’s tiny.” He gestured at the gift basket. “That’s the reason for those socks. Head-princi-master Farrow just called so early—it’s a silly story. But there is just one bed.”
“We don’t mind the floor.” We considered but decided to be open with Leo. “We would feel a lot better if we could be close to you. We understand that you have to get used to us but after spending the day with you…”
Our voice broke. Leo reached up, placing a hand over ours. We had stopped massaging him, we realized.
“Okay. I get it. No, I don’t get it, not really. But we talked about this in class, at length.” He took a deep breath. “And according to the principal, Instructor Arick has expectations. Anyway, if you don’t mind the cushions and the floor, then fine. You can stay.”
We twirled behind the bar, drawing a curious look from a kludde who had affected an interesting shift, the left side of them human, the right black-furred and winged, their red eyes shimmering.
“We don’t mind at all.”
nineteen
