"Yeah." Since he still seemed distressed, I added, "I can guess if you want."
"What?"
"You don’t have to confirm anything, but if you’re worried I don’t know what I’m agreeing to being in the dark about, don’t worry. I’ve got the general idea."
"No,” he laughed. “You don’t have a clue."
“One of your ‘Especially Doomed’ friends has a criminal record.” I turned away to shut the blinds as I began guessing, giving me something to do so I wasn’t gauging his reactions since it wasn’t about me getting it right. “No, they’recurrentlydoing something illegal and you’re torn between your loyalty to me and them. Or you hate my brother.” That one would suck but was manageable. After all I hated my brother’s mate at first. Now he was one of my closest friends. “Or you don’t think you’re a dragon.”
Max made a wheezing noise, inadvertently cluing me in that I’d gotten warm. "What? How do you know—I mean, why, why would you think…?"
"You’ve been desperate to discover who and what you are, even before you told us what was going on. Now you have an answer and you’ve barely said two words about it. You don’t seem invested in manifesting your dragon side at all."
"See, the thing is—"
"No, if you aren’t ready to tell me, I don’t need to know.” I walked towards him until we were close enough to touch. “I trust you."
All the tension in him seemed to snap and drain away in an instant. "Oh." Cautiously, he reached out, resting a palm against my chest. “I’m starting to remember my past, I think.” He whispered his confession. “But it’s not too clear, so I can’t share much, but at least I can tell yousomething.Whatever it is that happened before the Broker’s caught me, it’s not pleasant.”
I nodded to show I heard, wrapping my arms around him. The cooking metaphor we used earlier was still applicable. Some things just came down to timing. I hardly expected him to reveal a truth he hadn’t fully grasped or adjusted to yet.
I had my own revelation I held back until the right time too. Well, ‘revelation’ might be too strong. Just like my attraction to Max, it wasn’t really something that could be changed or denied. The affection and depth of emotion was just there and all I had to do was realize and own the feelings. So I did, quietly. I didn’t want to presume or pressure him, so it seemed wise not to speak too soon.
Right now it was my little secret thrill. To think about how I was in love with him when he read a comic book with such intense focus his forehead crinkled or how beautiful he looked with color from the sun slowly soaking into his skin.
We stayed there in the same space breathing the same air, until the heaviness of the moment passed. Max realized how closed we were and cleared his throat.
“So seeing as we’re alone in your apartment at night, I should probably mention something else.” He took a breath and dove in. “I want to sex with you… did I say that wrong?”
"You’re fascinating." I brushed my thumb under his chin. “How your brain works is fascinating.”
“So I said it totally wrong?” he asked, translating my answer.
"Not at all.” I smiled. “I want to sex with you too."
~
Max
Lysander and I found ourselves in his bedroom. It sorta reminded me of my room at the rehab center, clean and with few embellishments, except his linens were dark-colored and a bookcase bursting with various titles covered one wall.
We’d fallen onto his bed with me on top of him as we kissed and our hands roamed under shirts. His tongue swept over every inch of my mouth, intent on mapping me out as I did with him. I lost myself in the kiss and in the silky strands of hair my hands had found, but eventually, I needed more and tugged the hair between my fingers. Lysander grunted and rocked into me, so I did it again and again.
"Let’s keep going," I said.
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely."
Every time our hips moved against each other my brain went offline, and my fingers weren’t working, they were slow and clumsy while trying to undo all the buttons on Lysander’s shirt. He helped removed both our shirts and when he placed a hand on my bare shoulder I shivered.
My hands mapped every inch of his chest, loving the feel of his skin under my fingers. The hard planes of his stomach were surprising, the muscles there not visible under his clothes. My mouth followed behind my hands, tracing down his shoulders and over his pecs.
Lysander removed his belt, popping open the button on his pants. "Is this alright?”
"You don’t need to keep asking.” I’d tell him if something changed. “I’m enthusiastically and completely on board. What about you?" I licked around his nipple after I spoke.
"Oh, fuck." Lysander sounded so hot when he cursed.
