I should wake him. I can't imagine he wants me wandering around when Solvi could catch sight of me.
But he's honestly adorable when he's asleep.
“Hey,” I whisper. “Hey…you.”
What am I supposed to call him? Dr. Rhyss doesn't seem right anymore. Or…it seems right, but in a deliciously wrong way. Kaelion is long and clunky. But I also can't say “babe” because that would be incredibly weird.
His eyelids flutter.
“Lyn…?” he drawls.
Then his eyes open wide.
“Lyn,” he hisses.
He sits straight up, frantic. “What time is it?”
I frown as I sit up too, glancing at the clock. “Uh…just after dawn. Sixish? I didn't want to wake you, you looked?—”
He presses a finger to my lips, which makes my pussy clench like the horny bitch she is.
…but then I hear it.
Humming, running water…and footsteps.
Solvi.
He closes his eyes and curses under his breath.
“She's an early riser,” he mutters. “I meant to send you away while it was still dark out…”
That makes my gut so something mean and ugly, twisting and tightening. This is just a hookup born of necessity, nothing else…but I'm still offended for some reason. “Right…sorry,” I say. “I'll get dressed and you can sneak me out?—”
He reaches for my cheek without warning, cupping it softly…then he kisses me hard. His tongue slips past my lips and I can't help but moan, melting into his touch.
“I wanted you to stay,” he breathes as he pulls away. “You are not a thing to be hidden away.”
I blink up at him, stunned stupid for a second.
“Oh,” I say. Brilliant, Lyn. Top marks. Just… oh.
But it short-circuits the defensive script I was already writing in my head—the one where I smirk and make some throwaway line about walk-of-shaming back to my place, where I act likethis didn’t matter because I couldn’t let it matter. Not if he was going to act like I’d snuck into his bed and overstayed my welcome.
But that’s not what he’s doing. At all.
Kaelion brushes his thumb along my jaw, and for a second, he looks like he might say something else—something dangerous.
Something relationship-shaped.
But then we both freeze as Solvi’s voice floats up the hallway: “Baba? Are you awake?”
I launch out of bed.
“Fuck,” I whisper, tripping over my own feet as I stumble toward where I think I threw my stuff.
Kaelion’s already out of bed too, moving way too calmly for a man who’s still half-hard and covered in sex sweat. He grabs his shirt, tosses it to me, and I realize it’s not mine at all—I’m holding his button-down, the one he folded so neatly last night like the dignified professor he pretends to be.
“What do you want me to do with this?” I ask, eyes wide.
