Maybe I should’ve showered? I was so excited about winning the game that?—
“Lambert.”
I walk straight into her without warning. She must’ve just appeared or something, because I barely have time to reach out and steady her as she stumbles back. She’s still wearing my jacket, and the sight of it makes my chest all glowy.
The only thing better would be having her at the game with it on.
“Sorry.” I offer her my best smile, and then grimace as I realise I’m still holding that damned book, and now Kyrith is looking at it. “I don’t have performance anxiety!” I blurt. “Notthat there’s any shame in struggling with erectile dysfunction. I’m actually one of the founding members of the UAA Men-Tal Health Coffee Mornings. We do loads of work to decrease shame and stigma surrounding men’s mental, physical, and sexual health on campus, but my erections arenotdysfunctional.”
Kyrith, who has gone stock-still during my little word-vomit, is still blinking at me in shock, so I hastily add, “I swear, I only have this because the Arcanaeum was teasing me.”
“Really?” The dry disbelief in her voice is cutting, and I look around at the shelves.
“Come on, dude,” I beg the Arcanaeum. “Help me out?”
In answer, the cheeky building remains silent. I suppose I should be grateful it didn’t dump more books on me.
Kyrith’s hands—which landed on my chest when I crashed into her—run over my pecs, petting me with a kind of absent-minded appreciation that derails my panicked thoughts.
“Lambert?”
“Yes, boss?”
“Get in the shower.”
Fuck. Does she know what that tone does to me? I’m pretty sure my cock just saluted and said, ‘yes, ma’am.’
“Are you planning on joining me?” I ask hopefully.
“Maybe.” She draws the word out, and I grin, then throw her over my shoulder. “Lambert Winthrop! Manhandling the Librarian is?—”
“Not against the rules!”
Hopefully she doesn’t make it one, because I love how she melts in my arms. Watching her lose just a hint of the reserve she wraps around herself like a shield is a tiny intimacy I won’t ever take for granted.
She huffs out an amused breath as I jog down the corridor to the bathroom. “I didn’t realise it would be an issue.”
Because no one has manhandled her in five-hundred years. I grin, enjoying the knowledge that I’m probably the first.
“Hey, were showers invented when you were alive?”
“If this is a prod at my age…”
“No! I mean. I just wanted to know if you’d ever… I dunno, I just thought it might be ourthing.”
I really, really want us to have a thing. Kyrith’s on her way to building six relationships, and it’s my job to make sure that ours always feels special. I’ll always provide whatever she needs from me. Smiles. Hugs. Laughter.
I’m good at those things, and no stranger to playing to my strengths.
Hopefully, one of the others is good at time management and writing professional emails without emojis in them.
Kyrith hums under her breath, and I open my mouth to reassure her it’s okay if she wants to pick a different thing, but she cuts me off.
“No. Showers weren’t common in my time. Given your propensity for sweating?—”
“Hey! Sweating is manly!”
“I believe showers may very well become ‘our thing.’”
