Cringing, I ducked my head and power-walked out of the coffee shop. Now everyone in there probably thought I referred to myself as ‘Just Greid!’ Fucking fantastic.

Realising I hadn’t responded to Beryl, I stopped by an empty table outside and put down our drinks to fish out my phone. My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I stared at her last message.

Come on, Greid. You can flirt back. Or maybe she wasn’t flirting. She might have just been messing around.

Groaning in despair and causing two demiurgus seated at the next table to look over at me, I fired off a message without letting myself think about it.

I AM greedy.

There. That was flirting, right? That counted. Or, I mean, it was kind of just a statement of fact. God, how did people do this? I hadn’t had to flirt with Agma. She’d just sort of decided that we would be a couple, which I’d initially liked. Mainly because it took the decision out of my hands, and I was in my element when I wasn’t having to make decisions.

My phone vibrated in my pocket as I walked down the street, so I carefully cradled the two cups in one arm to pull it out.

I know you are, Beryl had sent back. I stared at the words, almost tripping on the sidewalk as I stopped paying attention to where I was walking.

That told me nothing. Was she flirting, or not? Did we even have to flirt if we’d already orgasmed together? Surely we’d sailed right past the flirting stage. We were already in the sharing-mutual-orgasms stage, which was so much better.

Couldn’t I just keep sending her dumb GIFs and embarrassing selfies when I had my magnifying goggles on? I started sweating at the notion of having to text her things like, wat u wearing with a row of winky faces. Or the dreaded, u up? Beryl wouldn’t like that anyway.

Or maybe she would. I had no idea. I’d never done this with a human before. Shit, were there specific things humans did in, like, new relationship-type situations? I frantically tried to think of all the human romcoms I’d watched. They seemed to like almost splitting up and then for one of them to make a grand, heartfelt declaration of love in the rain, or somewhere in public or in the middle of a big, important meeting. But that usually came at the end of the movie. I had time, right? God, please tell me I had time before Beryl expected me to do something like that. I’d probably spontaneously combust from embarrassment if and when it got to that point.

This was why I needed Beryl to tell me what to do. This was also why I liked getting high. My own brain could not be trusted.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Beryl

I was still in the bath when Greid texted me again telling me he was home with our breakfast. For a moment, I considered asking him to bring it up to me in the bath, but decided against it. Didn’t want to freak him out with too much at once, and he seemed… a little skittish.

I mulled over everything that had happened as I lay back in the tub, the hot water soothing my lower back and period-bloated belly. Greid had got flustered when I’d told him I wanted to touch his cock, his gaze warring between desire and nerves. At the time, I’d thought I was maybe moving too fast, but now I was remembering what he’d told me back at the compound: “Trust me—a human would not want a demiurgus cock inside them.”

Well, I didn’t want any cock inside me, so that wouldn’t be a problem, but Greid didn’t know that, and he hadn’t opened my medical record, so he didn’t know about my vaginismus. Then I remembered something else he’d said—something about how if any of the cult members ever actually saw a demiurgus cock, they wouldn’t be so eager to become a demiurgus mate.

What had he meant? Was that what had made him get anxious? Was he worried I wouldn’t like his dick?

I might not have enjoyed being penetrated, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love dicks. I did. I loved playing with them, sucking them, grinding my pussy against them until I came. Teasing them for as long as I could until the person attached was begging and pleading with me to let them come.

I didn’t care what Greid’s dick looked like. I already knew it was ridiculously huge, having seen the outline under his onesie. Maybe he was worried that if I actually saw it for real, I wouldn’t let him anywhere near me.

I sighed, swishing my hands through the bubbles. I was going to have to explain some things to him, and see if he was still interested in pursuing anything with me once he knew that penetrative sex was off the table. My experience to date had been a mixed bag, though I’d had only a handful of sexual partners. Some of them hadn’t overly cared, especially when faced with the prospect of a blowjob instead. Some of them had whined and tried to convince me that their dick would be the magical healing dick that would somehow feel amazing inside me and cure my vaginismus.

One guy had actually got up and left the room, saying there wasn’t any point if he couldn’t fuck me. That one had hurt until I’d let the rejection turn into defiant anger.

I already knew Greid wouldn’t be like that. I actually wasn’t all that worried about telling him. He was the gentlest, most understanding person I’d ever met. And maybe him knowing that I couldn’t and didn’t actually want to be penetrated by his enormous demiurgus cock would alleviate some of his nerves.

In the meantime, I wanted to do some research. For the first time in my life, I had a handy little device that would let me look up whatever I wanted. We weren’t allowed the internet at the compound. As far as I knew, Violet was the only one with online access to manage the Orderly Winemakers website, but she hadn’t ever let me use the internet on her computer. She’d been worried that they’d track her history and get suspicious.

After climbing out of the bath, I got dressed in clean pyjamas seeing as I didn’t have work today and planned on going absolutely nowhere. By the time I got downstairs and into the living room, Greid had already eaten half of his burrito.

He gave me a sheepish look. “Sorry. I waited as long as I could.”

Chuckling, I flopped down beside him on the couch. “I don’t care.”

He nodded at the hot water bottle beside me. “I filled that up for you.”

Chest squeezing tight, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thanks, Greid.”

His shoulders hunched up as he mumbled something, then I heard him let out a sharp breath before he hesitantly turned his head toward me. I went still, waiting to see what he would do.

His yellow eyes flicked between mine and my mouth, gaze nervous. Then he leaned in slowly and kissed me, soft and almost timid.

I immediately kissed him back, lifting a hand to cup his jaw. Some of the shyness fled from him then, a long arm snaking around my back as he tilted his head and kissed me again, deeper this time. Butterflies exploded in my belly, especially when our lips opened enough for his tongue to slip inside and glide against mine.

God, he was such a good kisser. Slow and unhurried and thorough, making my limbs get all trembly. I gripped his thigh to steady myself and chased after his mouth when he eventually pulled back, clearing his throat self-consciously.

“Sorry, I probably, um, taste like burrito.”

I slowly opened my eyes to see him gazing at my mouth. Before I could say anything, he lunged forward and kissed me again, groaning and wrapping his arms around me tight to haul me onto his lap.

I moaned in delight, immediately pushing him back onto the couch, which made him shudder and melt beneath me. His kiss was more desperate now, tongue plunging inside to tangle with mine. As if something inside him had snapped and he could no longer help himself.