Page 72 of Bloom in Darkness

I don’t laugh, and he reaches both hands around the back of my neck. “I’m not calm.”

"You look calm."

"I'm terrified Astra's going to decide the easiest way to protect us is to leave. I'm terrified he'll use too much Bloom again because he doesn't want to call. I'm terrified Sabine's going to find the one sentence close enough to the truth to get inside his head." Caelan's thumbs move against my skin. "I want to pay it. I want to put him in our bed, take his phone, cancel every shift he has, and tell Sabine to go fuck herself."

“Then do it.”

Caelan shakes his head while I pull him closer. “No. Because if I do that, he’ll spend the next year wondering when I’m going to charge him for it. He asked for one day."

“I hate it.”

“So do I.” His forehead stays against mine.

"What if he doesn't come back?"

Caelan goes quiet under my hands for a second. “Then I’ll be fucking devastated,” he says. “But I still won’t make the choice for him.”

I catch both of his wrists when they start trembling and hold them against the back of my neck.

"Tomorrow we show up," he continues. "We give him our roses. He gives them back."

"You sound sure."

"I'm trying very hard to be."

I kiss him. His fingers lock behind my neck, and the first kiss becomes a second before either of us pulls away. Caelan shifts against my lap, already hard enough that I feel him through our clothes. I'm not much better after spending the last hour wanting to put my fist through something.

He breaks the kiss only far enough to breathe. “Focus on me, big guy.”

I slide one hand beneath his shirt, pulling him closer until he can feel exactly how hard I’m trying. “Working on it.”

“Work harder.”

A laugh catches low in my chest. I stand with him still wrapped around my waist and carry him toward the couch, where I put him down long enough to strip his shirt over his head.

Caelan is still scared. I can see it in the way he keeps checking my face between kisses and in how hard his hands are shaking when he gets my belt open. I catch one of them and kiss his palm.

“Bryn.” Caelan grips my shoulder when my hand slips under his waistband. “I need you.”

"I know."

"No." He catches my jaw and makes me look at him. "Bond me."

I stop. Caelan's pulse jumps beneath the skin at the junction of his neck and shoulder.

"We said we would wait."

"We found him."

"He's not here."

"He doesn't have to be here for me to choose you." Caelan cups my face. "Our Omega's coming home. Our Valla's sitting here acting like he has to keep one foot out the door until everybody else is safe. I'm done with that."

“I love you,” he says. "Bond me, big guy. Make me yours before we go stand in that room tomorrow and ask him to choose us too."

I catch the back of his neck and kiss him hard enough that his next breath breaks against my mouth.

Caelan gets my shirt off while I work his trousers down. He's already hard, cock flushed and wet at the tip, but when I turn him and press him forward over the arm of the couch, the muscles in his back tighten under my hands.