around her waist, and picked her up off the floor, and she began to scream," Sholto said. "Dogmaela is too hysterical to make much sense. Saraid is being physically restrained from attacking Ivi, and the man seems honestly puzzled by the turn of events."
"Why would just being picked up make her scream?" I asked.
"Hafwyn says that it was something their old master, the prince, would do, but he would then fling them on the bed or hold them for someone else to do very bad things to them."
"Oh," I said, "it's a trigger event."
"A trigger what?" Sholto asked.
Galen said, "It's something usually innocuous that reminds you of abuse or violence, and suddenly it brings it all back up."
We both looked at him, both of us surprised, and unable to hide it. Galen gave me a sour look. "What, I couldn't know that?"
"No, it's just that" - I hugged him - "it was just unexpected."
"That I was that insightful is that big a surprise?" he asked.
There was nothing polite I could say to that question, so I hugged him a little more tightly. He hugged me back, and kissed me on top of my head.
Sholto was standing beside us now, and his eyes were all for me. There was that look that men get when they see a woman who is their lover and more. It was partly possessive, partly excited, and partly puzzled, as if something out in the other room was still on his mind. He held his hand out to me, and I left Galen's hand to go to him. Galen let me do it; we shared well most of the time, and even if we didn't, Goddess had decreed that Sholto was one of the fathers of the babies I carried. The fathers all got privileges. I just think that none of us had expected the genetic miracle of six fathers for two babies.
Sholto drew me into his arms, and I went willingly. He was the newest to my bed of all the fathers. We'd actually only had sex once I got pregnant, but as the old saying goes, once is enough. The newness meant that I wasn't in love with him. I didn't actually love him at all. I was attracted to him, I cared for him, but we hadn't had enough conversations to let me know if I loved him, or could love him. We liked each other, though; we liked each other a lot.
"I've seen the traditional King of the Sluagh's greeting to his queen," Galen said, "so I'll leave you to it. Maybe I can be insightful for Dogmaela." He sounded a little disgusted, but I let him go, because he had surprised me by being smarter than I'd given him credit for and that was my lack of insight.
Sholto didn't wait for Galen to close the door behind him before he showed me just how much he liked me with his kiss, his hands, and his body held as tightly to me as it could be with clothes still on. I let myself sink into the strength of his arms, the satin of his tunic, and the glint of the embroidery and the small jewels sewn into it, so that I ran my hands over his clothes as much as the body underneath them. I thought about him making love to me the way Ivi had done last night with most of his clothes still on so that the satin caressed my skin as we made love. The thought made me respond even more to his kisses, and sent my hands lower to trace his ass underneath the tunic, though I couldn't get as good a grip with one hand as the other because I had to reach around the sword at his waist.
Sholto responded to my eagerness, sliding his hands under my ass and picking me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he walked us back the few feet to the bed. He lowered me to the bed, with my arms and legs still wrapped around him. He kept one hand on my back and the other caught our weight against the bed.
He drew out of the kisses enough to say in a breathless voice, "If I'd known this was the greeting I'd get, I'd have come sooner."
I smiled up at him. "I've missed you."
He grinned. He had one of the most handsome faces in either court, and the grin ruined that beyond-model-perfect perfection, but I loved that