~ Nicci at dinner with her new family ~<br/><br/><br/>Marcus started talking as soon as Cathy had left and Nicci sipped her soup as she listened.  She thought that the girls would open up to each other easily when they were on their own but it might take longer for her to find out what really made the guys tick.<br/><br/>Marcus certainly seemed to have a very different childhood to her own, but he had none of that brash superiority she disliked in so many men from privileged backgrounds.  There was an endearing  hint of vulnerability which brought out all her nurturing instincts, without in any way diminishing the strength of his persona or taking away from how she reacted to him. It was deeply reassuring to hear him talk of bonding with the men, that was the thing she had been most worried about and most unsure about how it would work.  Marcus seemed to want to make it work as much as she did and that excited her, anything was possible if they all felt the drive to create a family so strongly.<br/><br/>She nodded slightly as he spoke about having lots of partners, she had realised some time ago that she had been so active sexually all her life not only because she had such a high sex drive, but because all the time, subconsciously, she had been trying to bridge the need for a poly life inside her.<br/><br/>As Vince started to speak she couldn't help but reach out and lay her hand over Marcus's a gesture of companionship and care.  He was a special man, and she hoped he too would find what he was looking for.  She turned and smiled at him briefly before removing her smaller fingers and turning her attention to Vince.<br/><br/>When she herself had been speaking, Vince had leaned forward and looked into her eyes and she had felt supported and understood, his gaze helping her continue and feel her words were good enough to be heard.  So now she kept her eyes on his, and yet again they spoke to her even more than his words did.  He had looked at each one of them in turn, sharing his thoughts with each intimately, showing just how much his own nature already shared himself with them all and spoke of an inclusiveness which they would all do well to learn from.  They could learn a lot from him in other ways too she thought; he stepped lightly across the world, and seemed together joy around him, his strength came from inside him and wasn't dependent on anyone else. His lyrical speech hinted at a romantic soul and romance was the tender expression of love that could balance all the mens' needs and make the girls cherished and secure.<br/><br/>Nicci smile at him as he ended – 'tis you, she thought, but not all of you, but it was a good start and just in those few words he had shown glimpses of his inner self.<br/><br/>As Bo began to speak and she concentrated on him, returning his look calmly, she wondered why she had not thought of it before.  He had that same contained power that so many of the lads who had joined up had.  She had watched them come back from first their training and then their combat experience changed and grown in so many ways.  She still volunteered every week she was at home in the Link, the youth project on the notorious Crossways Estate where she gre up.  For many of the young men the services was the only way out of the violent harsh life they had there, and the one most likely to stop them turning to crime and addiction.  There were a couple who had not come back, young men who had left ,never to return from the battle fields of Afghanistan and their lives would never de forgotten.  Often the soldiers on leave would come to the center and help, needing to give back as much as she did, counting themselves the lucky ones and she had got so close to many of them.<br/><br/>And here was Bo an ex-serviceman, his hard shell hiding who knew what pain.  She looked down at her bowl, now nearly empty and laid her spoon to rest, and hearing so much more in his words about wanting to take a camera round the world found herself getting all emotional again.  So when she looked back at him and listened to his experiences of a real poly lifestyle her eyes sparkled in the candle light.