Kaden woke with a start and glanced at his clock. Just after four in the morning. One inhalation and he groaned at the pain in his ribs. Not just his ribs. Everywhere.Fucking Harris.Thank God Kaden had never given him a key. Even if one of the other tenants in the house let him through the front door, Kaden would never again allow him into his bedsit.
He turned his head and yelped. A blue hand lay beside him. Human-looking, the right size but it wasn’t attached to anything.
“Joe!” Kaden croaked. “Are you okay?”
The hand moved. A finger brushed over Kaden’s cheek, down the bridge of his nose and traced the line of his mouth. Kaden pressed his lips together. The hand softened, dissolving into a thin, warm liquid that flowed down his neck onto the duvet. There it gathered itself again, reforming into a hand that tugged the covers down to his waist.
Kaden lay very still. Joe shifted shape, sliding up and down his chest, pooling into a small mass before spreading out once more. A strange calm settled over Kaden, but it was unnatural and heavy, as though his muscles had forgotten how they worked.
Had Harris damaged something important last night?
Can I move?
He wriggled his fingers and toes. Relief loosened his chest.
Joe rested over his heart now, pulsing in time with the beat. It looked…weird.
“My heart has to keep beating or I’ll die.” Just in case Joe had any ideas.
Joe drifted upward, gliding along Kaden’s collarbone, then down again, tracing each rib in turn.
“Are you…mapping me?”
A touch against his middle finger—yes. Joe coiled around his arm and tugged.
“Want me to stand up?”
Another single touch.
“Not sure I can.”
Everything ached, but he forced himself upright, gripping the headboard for balance. Joe flowed along his arm and across his back, covering small areas at a time. Wherever he touched, the pain dulled and soothed as if stroked away by something warm and impossibly soft. Kaden felt as if he was half-dreaming.
Joe slid over his face, his chest, his back again, even his hair. No dampness remained behind. Just warmth. He traced Kaden’s jaw, skimmed his eyelashes, curled briefly around his ears, ticklish enough to make Kaden squirm, before drifting lower.
To the waistband of his sleep pants.
Kaden stiffened. “Er… no. That’s not happening.”
A tendril slipped beneath the fabric, brushing his hip. Kaden bit back a sound. Joe twisted, almost as if looking up at him, and tugged. Kaden yanked his trousers back into place. Joe tugged again.
“No.”
Another tug.
Kaden exhaled heavily. “In the interests of science, right?” He muttered under his breath. “This is so strange. Fine. Just get it over with.”
His single item of clothing dropped to his ankles. Kaden shivered slightly as Joe slid down one leg, curling around his toes before gliding back up his calf to his thigh. The pain had faded even more now, still there, but distant. That had to be down to Joe.
Then pressure brushed the seam of his backside and Kaden flinched. “No. Not there. Please.”
Joe withdrew immediately, curling instead around his hip. He paused, then cautiously extended a tendril toward Kaden’s groin.
Kaden’s breath caught. Could he? He forced himself to stay still, to watch. Joe had stopped when asked. He wasn’t hurting him. Just…exploring. Kaden focused on that as Joe moved over him. The sensation was undeniably intimate, though not quite enough to stir anything more.
Thank God.
When Joe finally moved away, Kaden sagged with relief. Joe slipped down his leg, tracing each toe again, then flowed back up onto the bed. Kaden sat down heavily.
