Page 19 of Essa

"Essa," Alik says my name in that stupid, stern captain way that he only pulls out when he's trying to get in Sloane's pants or to get one of us is in trouble. I force my eyes off Adam's sweet features and look at Alik. "Have you bitten one of them before?"

"Just Adam," I say, keeping my voice level and my shoulders squared.

I don't expect this to be an issue once they understand I don't take this lightly, but I want to make it clear to Alik that I don't regret what I did. I won't be made to feel bad about it.

I don't need to do those things because Seth steps up next to me, offering his own explanation.

"Adam enjoys this," he says, giving the others a tight smile. "I don't know why, and he's never going to tell any of us. But this wasn't Essa's fault, and we just want to watch a movie and be part of the crew while we're still onboard."

"Is it a weird sex thing?" Phial asks, his feathered brows wiggling about. He asks because he thinks it will upset me.

"No," I say easily enough because it isn't a lie. I don't know if this could become a weird sex thing, but right now, it's nothing more than me caring for someone who wishes to be vulnerable and cared for.

"Well," Seth says right as I answer, which has me questioning my reasoning behind saying no. I shoot him a confused look, and he snorts. "No, I guess it's not. We'll see how long it stays that way."

"Strange," Phial murmurs before curling back around Avery in their nest as though their arrangement isn't also strange. "Well, are we going to watch the movie or not? It's my turn to choose, which means Avery chose."

Everyone in the room returns to their seats where they were before I came in: Jovi, Alik, and Sloane on one of the couches, Phial and Avery in their beanbag nest. Seth watches me, waiting for me to tell him what to do. I tilt my head to the couch, and he sits, grabbing one of my blankets and tossing it over his legs.

"Sit," I murmur in Adam's ear, keeping my tail wrapped around his ankle when he leaves my touch.

He sits down next to Seth and surprises both of us by wrapping his fingers in Seth's and gently squeezing them. Seth smiles at it and then looks up at me. I don't make a big deal about it because I'm not entirely sure how their relationship works. I position myself on the far end and grab the second blanket.

"Lean on me, sweet boy."

I settle my hand on Adam's shoulder and pull him toward me. His eyes drift from Seth's back over to me. He doesn't start to come closer until Seth gives him a soft nudge, his way of telling Adam he likes this, too. We like having him soft and complacent between the two of us.

I release his ankle and shift how I'm sitting so one of my legs goes down the long end of the couch, and Adam can settle in between my legs on his side. His cheek rests against my chest, one of his arms wraps behind me, and the other rests on my thigh. I run my nails over his head, and he moans softly.

"Such a good boy," I whisper so quietly that I'm not even sure he hears.

The screen lights up, playing some romantic movie Avery said she enjoyed from Earth. All movies should have at least one murder, but my friends don't always see things like I do. I don't mind too much this time since I have a handsome male in my arms who wants to feel my fingers carve tiny lines through his cropped hair and trail over the hard plane of his back.

Seth scoots closer once Adam's comfortable. He's close enough to where, if I wanted, I could stroke his arm with the tips of myfingers. I don't know how he feels about touching, though, and I'm not about to have that conversation with him when everyone else in the entertainment room can hear us.

We can discuss it tonight when we take Adam to bed. I might even ask if he would mind me watching them sleep again like I did the first night I bit Adam. If they allow it, I'll watch over both of them.

When Seth's fingers brush through Adam's hair in tandem with mine, Adam's whole body shivers a little, and another sweet whimper escapes his lips. As much as I love the sound, there are others here, and we don't need them thinking we are doing more than taking care of our angry male.

"Shh, let us touch you, but no sounds unless it hurts."

Adam's eyes move up to mine with a slow blink, and he nods, earning a soft press of my lips to his temple. He closes his eyes. A sharp inhale is the only sound he makes. Seth keeps moving his fingers through his hair, down his back. I do the same, tugging on the tiny strands when I get to the ends, running my finger over the bridge of his nose, over the swell of his lips.

Toward the middle of the movie, Seth pushes Adam's shirt up around his pecs so he has access to the muscled abdomen and his bare back. Scars appear. Deep healed wounds that mark his body where unspeakable things were done to him. I have to swallow down the rage I feel at seeing how my male was hurt. But I have a plan for those who did this to him. That's what keeps me from snapping and snarling like I wish to.

Seth's pale fingers dance over tanned skin marred with discolored, healed scar tissue. He doesn't linger on the wounds as though he's used to touching Adam in this way, and I wish to learn it as well.

I mimic the touches Seth places on Adam's body. He'll run his hands over Adam's abdominals, and I'll do the same. Hemassages the lower flanks of his back, and I reach as close as I can from my position.

Seth notices at some point that I'm trying to learn all of the touches Adam might like and gives me a challenging smirk. His fingers move up over Adam's abs, pushing him until he's lying on his back against me. Adam bites down on his lip, his eyes hazy and heavy as he looks down his body. Seth messes with his top, bringing it higher and higher, but my attention snags on something lower.

My fangs have been steadily dripping the entire time I've been touching Adam, wanting to feed him more of my venom to keep him feeling good, wanting to offer it to Seth if he wants me to care for him, too. I've been sucking it down, but I feel a trail of it sliding down my lower lip and chin as I stare at where Adam's been leaking as well. His cock is hard and tenting in his sweatpants, eager and willing and dripping with precum.

Seth crawls over Adam's body, keeping himself low so the others behind us don't see him crawling toward me. He places his lips up against my ear and, in a low growl of a whisper, tells me. "He's been hard this whole time. We've been teasing our male."

Seth pulls away from me, his eyes still so mischievous even as the red in his cheeks deepens in color. I lick at my fangs, dragging the venom back into my mouth as I dart my eyes back down to Adam's cock and then trying to see if Seth feels the same. His sweats are black, so there's no dark spot to see if he's been leaking, and he's doing a good job of concealing his cock if it's hard.

I stop trying to see if he's aroused when he returns his hands to Adam's abdomen and drags his fingers higher, his pointer fingers only stopping when he reaches the dark nipples on Adam's chest. He traces the outline over the coarse chest hairthat surrounds them and then looks up at me. My eyes widen as I look from his eyes to Adam's chest and back again.

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