they’d called me cute or adorable over the years.
“I am sorry that I do not please you, King Rafael.” She said it eyes down so she couldn’t see the emotions that flew across his face.
He smiled. “You are beautiful, and I am sure delightful in many ways; please do not think that it is lack of charm that makes me hesitate.”
She looked at him then, and I knew the look, because it worked on me. She was trying to be cute for him, interesting. “Then I do not understand, Your Majesty.”
He frowned, I think at the title, but he didn’t correct her, or maybe he, like me, wasn’t sure if it needed correcting, or if it was accurate. “Anita, are you saying that if I said yes, this would be happening now?”
“You mean the three of us sharing the shower and maybe more?” I asked.
“Yes, that is what I mean.”
I sort of shrugged. “Like I said, I was going to talk to you about it.”
“So that’s a yes,” he said.
I nodded. “Yes, I hadn’t planned on it happening this soon, but yes.”
He shook his head. “It’s a trap.”
I frowned at him. “What’s a trap?”
“The offer of a three-way.”
“Um, a trap for what?” I asked.
“I’ve had this offer before from other women that I’ve dated, and it’s always a trap.”
“How is it a trap?” I asked.
“Either the girlfriend uses it as a test to see if I’ll cheat . . .”
“It’s not cheating if she tries to get you to have a three-way with her and another woman,” I said.
“That’s not how she saw it,” he said.
“That’s so not fair,” I said.
He smiled. “Thank you, I agree with you.”
“That would be a trap,” Pierette said.
I looked at her and then we nodded together.
“Or the three-way happens, the sex is good, everything’s good that night, but in the morning one or both of the women decide that it was an awful idea and it’s my fault somehow,” Rafael said.
“Your fault how?” I asked.
“Being a man, I think, somehow being lusty enough to want and satisfy two women. I don’t know, Anita, Pierette, it didn’t make sense to me at the time.”
“So, every time any woman has offered you a chance to sleep with her and another woman, it’s been a trap?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Well, Pierette is my girlfriend, so . . .”
He shook his head. “Tried that, ended up with them being jealous of the time I had with each of them and it broke us all up.”
“Were they polyamorous?” I asked.
He thought about that. “No, bisexual, but not poly.”
“Then there was your problem,” I said.
“I believe that you mean what you say, Anita, you usually do, and I do appreciate the offer, but no matter how well it begins, it has always ended in drama, breaking up, and sometimes violence.”
“What kind of violence?” I asked.
“One of them stabbed me.”
I stared at him. “Shit, that’s . . . tell me you pressed charges. I hate the double standard that if a woman hurts a man, she gets a pass just because she’s a girl. Equality means just that; you do something awful, you get the same punishment.”
He shook his head. “It was a steak knife, no silver in the steel. There wouldn’t even be a wound by the time police could arrive; besides, I am a king and a wererat, it would have made me look weak.”
“Did you feel she was justified? I mean not stabbing you, but did you cheat on her or something?”
“The morning after the three-way that was her idea, with the woman of her choice, she woke up third in the bed. Her friend and I were kissing.”
“You thought you had her permission,” I said.
“We both did, but she got out of bed obviously upset, so I went after her, trying to understand what I’d done wrong.”
“Which was what?” I asked.
He smiled. “I think when it was all over, her complaint was that I hadn’t kissed her awake first. She wanted to share me with her friend, but she didn’t want me to like her friend better.”
“Wow, I understand why you’re leery of being with two women at once now. I’m like totally sorry that Pierette sprang it on you like this, and we can skip it, or talk later, or whatever makes you the most comfortable.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Wait a second, what did you do to the woman who stabbed you if the police weren’t involved?”
“I broke up with her; why, what did you think I