Page 107 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

Rory snorted. “No, of course not. I mean, there will probably be flames, but they won’t harm you.”

He narrowed his eyes further. “Are any of my belongings likely to be lit on fire? Should we be doing this in the bathtub?”

Rory flat-out giggled. “Absolutely not. I mean, not unless you want to have shower sex. Phoenix fire only burns what I want it to burn. That could be the entire building if there’s a reason the entire building needs to be on fire, but otherwise, I could walk through your entire bookshop with flames coming out of the top of my head, and all the books would be fine.”

Max blew out a relieved breath. “It’ll probably take me a bit to get used to that, but good to know. I think we should relocate to the bedroom. I want you to fill me up and bond with me.”

“You’re sure?” Rory asked, expression clear and totally non-judgmental. “Like I said, we don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“I’m sure.”

Rory looked like he wanted a bit more than that, and Max tried to figure out how to put into words what he was feeling. It wasn’t always comfortable for him to share like this, but he wanted to be more open with Rory, and he did actually appreciate that Rory was checking in and not just assuming everything was okay. He’d felt pressured to say yes before, and Rory always made sure every step of the way that Max’s consent was real and ongoing.

Max said, “I mean, I’m still figuring all of this out, and I’m pretty sure I won’t want sex as frequently as most people do, but that frotting we did on the couch was the hottest thing I’ve ever experienced. I’d like to try this, too—and I know if it turns out that I don’t like it or want to stop, you’d be okay with that.”

Rory smiled at him. “Yeah, that was pretty much what I was going to say. You can always change your mind. Consent is the sexiest thing ever, and if you’re not feeling it at any point, we can pivot. We can read a book or watch a movie, or I can turn into a penguin again.”

This surprised a snort out of Max, making Rory grin even brighter.

“Great,” Max said, shaking his head but utterly failing to hide his happiness. “As long as we have a plan that involves spontaneous bird transformations.”

Still smiling at one another, they headed into the bedroom. It wasn’t like Max had never done this before, but a crowd of past memories of various awkward and uncomfortable moments were threatening his mood.

And then Rory said, “Slow strip tease or speedy rip everything off?”

Laughing and relaxing, Max requested, “Maybe not so fast that we lose our balance and trip, but leaning towards that end of the spectrum.”

“You got it,” Rory said cheerfully.

Was it possible Max had never had sex with people who weren’t jerks before? On the other hand, he’d not exactly been emotionally available, especially after his parents died, and he’d been keeping a big secret from most of them. Maybe it had gone both ways—not that pressuring people for sex was ever cool, but there had been a while there where Max had thought maybe it would click and he’d “get it” the way other people automatically seemed to.

Who knew truly caring about someone was important? Well, everyone who’d figured out they were demi faster than him, obviously. But maybe that didn’t matter. Maybe he wouldn’t ever have gotten close to anyone except his mate. Or was Rory his mate because Max had gotten close to him? The idea of fate or something fate-like was still weird, but Rory had mostly reassured him on that front.

Max watched Rory for a moment, admiring the long lines of his body as he tugged his shirt over his head, revealing miles of smooth skin. It was still a little hard to wrap his brain around the fact that all of a week ago, Rory had burned to ash and then been reborn so that he could save Max. He was so glad Rory was unharmed.

And then Rory was shucking his pants and underwear, and Max’s breath caught in his throat. If he were being perfectly honest, he’d always found naked bodies a little bit… silly. Humans didn’t seem to be built on very practical grounds, and the glimpses he’d caught of porn! How could anyone find that attractive or arousing?

But staring at Rory right now, Max’s mouth was dry, his stomach clenched, and his cock had taken notice—and so had Rory’s, bobbing between his legs and pointing at Max. He swallowed thickly, feeling heat pool in his middle. If this was what other people felt all the time, Max understood a little better now why they sometimes behaved like fools.

Rory smiled at him. “Would you rather stay clothed?”

Max looked down at himself. Shit. Right. He’d agreed to undress, and then he’d gaped at Rory instead. Max cleared his throat even as he yanked his shirt up and over his head.

“You’re distracting,” he muttered as the cloth cleared his face.

Rory’s smile deepened. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Popping the button of his jeans and then fumbling with the zipper, Max finally succeeded in undoing them enough that he could tug them down and kick them off. Somehow, Rory had made it look graceful. Max had… not.

He’d left his briefs on, only now that felt awkward, and a bolt of anxiety spiked through him. Only then Rory was there, twining his arms around Max’s neck and gazing at him with those bright golden eyes.

“Hey. Consent is sexy, remember?”

Max huffed out a laugh, hands coming to settle on Rory’s hips instinctively.

He cleared his throat. “It’s been a while, but this was usually the point where my partners realized I wasn’t as excited about this as they were. They were generally not, uh, happy with that.”

Understatement of understatement. Well, some had taken it as a challenge, which was almost worse.