17. Chapter Seventeen
~Leo~
As I helped Kalo out of the tub and into some fresh linen pants, I expected to feel awkward, or maybe for him to feel awkward around me.
After what we’d just done, it seemed inevitable.
But his gaze met mine steadily, showing no hint of embarrassment or regret, and I couldn’t bring myself to regret it either.
Things felt different, certainly. The air was charged, my senses buzzing and off-balance, as if the world had tilted off its axis.
Every nerve in my body still hummed with awareness of Kalo’s closeness, the echo of his warmth lingering in my palm long after I’d withdrawn my hand.
But none of it could be described as awkward.
In my head, Silo was practically purring.
Don’t stop now. He’s been vulnerable with you, so you need to let your guard down with him.
I’m not taking advantage of him, I retorted even as I rotated my body to avoid direct contact between my groin and Kalo’s ass.
You wouldn’t be, Silo scoffed. He’s our mate. He wants us close.
Those two things didn’t necessarily go together in Kalo’s case, and besides, he still hadn’t slept properly. He needs rest more than anything else right now.
Silo’s disgruntled snuffle told me that while he didn’t like it, he couldn’t argue with me either. As I helped Kalo back to the bed, his eyelids drooped lower, his shoulders slumping.
“I’ll let you sleep,” I told him, my voice coming out rougher than I intended. “But if you don’t mind, I’ll take a nap too. The mate bond is healing in many ways, and I’ve heard it can even help with nightmares. Maybe having me nearby will help keep them at bay.”
Kalo glanced up at me, studying my face with that uncanny attentiveness of his. “You don’t look tired.”
How could I be when my body was still pulsing with an unsatisfied need for more of him?
“Let me worry about that,” I said, my voice still far huskier than usual. “You focus on resting.”
I helped him get under the covers, adjusting the pillows until he was comfortably settled on his side. His movements were slow, almost boneless with fatigue, and when he fully relaxed, I tucked the covers around him and moved around to the other side of the bed.
Staying on top of the blankets, I lay down behind him, leaving a careful inch of space between us.
Come on, Silo grumbled, but before I could defend myself, Kalo shifted back, his spine fitting perfectly against my chest. I immediately froze, unsure what to do with my arm.
Once again, Kalo took the lead. “You can lean in,” he murmured. “Relax. It feels… nice.”
Nice might be the understatement of the century.
Slowly, I wrapped my arm around him, giving him plenty of time to pull away or change his mind. Kalo didn’t move away, though. His back rose and fell against me with each slow breath, his hair brushed my chin, and the scent of cedar and something spicier, more uniquely him, filled my lungs.
Once again, my body reacted in a way I’d never experienced before, and I clenched my jaw tight, silently begging it to behave.
Physical control had never been a problem for me. It seemed like every young werewolf got hard when naked around his friends at least once, leading to plenty of good-natured ribbing and teasing. It was a rite of passage in any pack.
It had just never happened to me… until now.
Around Kalo, nothing was simple. My body seemed to have skipped several steps ahead of my brain, responding to his closeness, his warmth, and the quiet trust implicit in the way he leaned into me.
My whole body stayed tense, terrified he would notice just how hard I’d gotten, but gradually, Kalo’s breathing evened out, his weight settling even more fully against me. The tension in his body eased, and my shoulders sagged in relief.
I hadn’t scared him off, and Silo sighed contentedly.
This feels right.
I couldn’t disagree.
For several long, wonderful minutes, I lay there, basking in the simple miracle of holding my mate, until exhaustion crept up on me too.
A minute later, I jerked awake as something brushed against my face. My eyes flew open, finding the previously-light room now completely dark.
Apparently, it hadn’t only been a minute. I must have been asleep for hours, though it felt like no time at all.
The same feather-light touch whispered across my cheek, and I snatched at the air next to me, my hand colliding with warm flesh that sent sparks tingling up my arm.
“Sorry,” Kalo whispered with a light chuckle, and as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see it was his wrist I’d grabbed. His position had shifted so that he no longer lay spooned against me but facing me instead.
“What… what’s going on?” I mumbled, my voice still heavy with sleep as I let go of him. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he assured me. “I just woke up a couple of minutes ago. The moonlight was coming in the window and shining right across the freckles on your face. They looked so beautiful, I just had to touch them.”
My heart stuttered, and I quickly pinched myself to see if I was still asleep. Nothing happened, except that my arm hurt.
No one had ever called me beautiful before, and hearing it from Kalo’s mesmerizing lips set off a hunger inside me deeper than anything I’d previously known.
What the fuck? How did people live this way, getting turned on by something as simple as a word from another person? It was impossible to think straight.
In the dim light, my mate’s expression shifted from tender and relaxed to something more playful. “Can I touch them again?”
Utterly incapable of forming even a single word in response, I nodded mutely. Kalo’s fingertips once again grazed across my cheek, and my eyes drifted closed as sparks tingled in his wake.
And yet again, my cock reacted, as if my face and my dick were somehow connected.
They literally are, Silo smirked in my head. By the rest of your big, dumb body.
Rather than take offense, I laughed, and Kalo joined in with a soft chuckle. “Are you ticklish?”
My eyes popped open again. “No, I was just…”
Realizing too late I didn’t want to share my conversation with my wolf, I trailed off with a shrug.
“It feels nice.”
The playful smile on Kalo’s face turned a little more sensual. “Would you like me to make you feel nice in other ways? It would only be fair after you were so generous with me.”
Instantly, my mind flashed back to his naked body in the bathtub, the feel of him in my hand, and the unbelievably beautiful sight of him giving into his pleasure when he came.
Did he mean…?
He couldn’t mean…
That’s what he means, Silo declared impatiently. Say yes, for fuck’s sake.
Kalo’s smile faltered just a little at my silence. “It would just be like before. To feel good, nothing more.”
He still had no interest in accepting the mate bond, he meant, but although that disappointed me, it didn’t change one fundamental fact: I wanted him to touch me more than I wanted my next breath. Deep down, I knew there was no way I could let this opportunity pass.
“Yes,” I managed to say. “You can do whatever you want.”