34. Chapter Thirty-Four
~Leo~
The adrenaline that had carried me through the confrontation with the reaper began to ebb as we reached my bedroom door, leaving behind a quieter, more complicated tension.
Although I’d faced down threats, negotiated disputes, and handled crises for the pack without hesitation, the simple act of letting my mate into my most personal space felt unexpectedly daunting.
“Is this alright?” Kalo asked, perceptive enough to catch the way my hand briefly paused on the door handle. “I don’t have to stay here.”
“I want you to,” I assured him, because it was true, and I pushed the door open before I could overthink it any further.
My room was exactly as I had left it, every item in its proper place, the bed neatly made and the desk cleared except for a small stack of documents aligned with careful precision.
My boots sat side by side near the wall, my clothes folded or hung without a wrinkle out of place, and the scent of fresh linen lingered in the air.
It had always felt normal to me, but as Kalo stepped inside and took it all in, I was more aware of every decorating decision and organizational choice I’d made than ever before.
He turned in a small circle as he surveyed the room, a small smile playing on his lips. “Well, this is very you.”
I shut the door behind us, folding my arms loosely as I leaned back against it. “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.”
“It is,” he promised, though the smile that followed held a hint of teasing. “Everything is exactly where it should be. It’s efficient.”
“You mean predictable.”
“Maybe, but that’s not a bad thing.” He reached out to lightly tap the stack of papers on my desk. “You’re prepared, so when something needs your attention, you’re ready.”
The tension in my shoulders eased a little. “That’s exactly it, actually. It helps me feel in control, at least as much as anyone ever can be.”
“I understand that. Control is… a luxury.”
For someone who’d had so little control over his own life, it made sense that he’d feel that way.
Kalo continued to move through the room at an unhurried pace, picking up the book on my bedside table. “Is this the book you’re reading now?”
A few minutes earlier, I might have cringed at him finding the book outlining ways to declutter storage, but after what he’d just said, I felt like I could own it. “Yeah. A little light reading before bed.”
Kalo chuckled as he placed it back down. “Do you ever read for fun?”
“Not often,” I had to admit. “Do you?”
His amber eyes got that far-away look they often did when he spoke about the restrictions of his life as a genie. “I’ve never had a chance to read much at all, but I know about a lot of books. It would be nice to read them for myself one day.”
He pointed down to the drawer in the table.
“May I?”
“Go ahead.” Though I couldn’t guess what he was looking for, I had nothing to hide. The drawer held some extra batteries, some pens, and a hunting knife.
Kalo picked up the sheathed knife with interest. “Is this needed often in your bedroom?”
“It’s for protection,” I mumbled. “Just in case.”
“Ah, of course.”
Mischief lurked in his smile, but I didn’t mind the teasing. It felt kind of nice to have someone take an interest in the more mundane aspects of my life. No one else ever had before.
After poking around on a few more shelves, he settled on the edge of the bed, his attention returning fully to me as the lighter tone of the moment shifted into something more serious. “Did you find anything useful in the library?”
I crossed the room to take a seat next to him. “Yes. There’s a time limit on an unfinished bond like ours. It can’t stay like this indefinitely.”
Though he outwardly remained calm, I could sense the tension as he asked, “How long?”
“Until the next full moon. Which is in two days.”
Sitting there beside him, it felt like even less time than it had when I read the lines in the book.
“What happens after that?”
He probably already suspected, but I laid it out for him anyway. “The mark disappears, the bond collapses, and when it does… the reaper’s choice will be made for us.”
Kalo’s gaze dropped for a second before returning to mine. “So, if we want it to be our call, we need to decide before then.”
“Or we need to find another way around it,” I reminded him. “As long as the reaper’s trapped, she can’t take either of us.”
His head shook before I even finished speaking. “That can’t go on for long. No one deserves to be held against their will like that.”
Did he mean being held in the reaper trap, or being held beneath whatever magic made her a reaper in the first place? I had a feeling it might be both.
“I’m sorry.”
Kalo’s eyebrows raised. “For what?”
“For marking you without asking. Without giving you the chance to decide.”
“You’ve already apologized for that,” he reminded me gently. “And I understand it. You were trying to save my life, which you did.”
“That doesn’t mean I had the right to do it.”
“Perhaps not, but without that choice, I wouldn’t have had this time with you, and no matter what happens next, I’m glad that I did.
” He leaned back, bracing himself on his hands as his gaze drifted around the room again before returning to me.
“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t meet under different circumstances, without all of this hanging over us. ”
“You wouldn’t have looked twice at me,” I said, almost without thinking. Even without the genie’s magic, Kalo was special and I was just… me.
“Maybe not right away,” he conceded, shooting me a grin that softened any sharp edges those words might have contained. “But eventually, I would have seen you as I do now, and that would be impossible to ignore.”
It almost hurt how badly I wanted to ask exactly what he saw, but that brought us a little too close to the edge of asking if he would accept the bond for good, which led to a decision that neither of us was ready to make.
Kalo also seemed to want to change the subject, his attention shifting to the bed beneath him. “So, this is where you sleep?”
“Yes. I mean, obviously.”
He chuckled. “And it’s where you… take care of yourself, when the need arises?”
Heat immediately rose to my face, impossible to hide. “Sometimes, yes. Not often.”
“Not often?” he echoed.
I forced the words out despite the discomfort creeping up my spine. “I never felt the urge as much as other people seem to. I thought I just had a lower sex drive than most.”
“Has that thought changed?”
His tone had turned teasing again, and I had to fight a smile. “Well, now I think perhaps my mother was always right, and I just hadn’t met the right person yet. Around you, I’ve been hard more times today than I usually am in a month.”
His bright, genuine laugh filled the room, sending another burst of arousal through me, and Kalo leaned in closer, as if he could sense it.
“Show me.”
My brain refused to comprehend what he was saying. “Show you what?”
“What you would do if you were alone and turned on.”
Immediately, my heart began to pound, sending blood pumping to my groin in anticipation. But I couldn’t really do that, could I? It was one thing to be intimate with him, but to touch myself that way, in front of him? I couldn’t think of anything more exposing.
But I also had no power to refuse him. Anything he asked of me, I’d do, and if he didn’t already know that, he’d see it soon enough.
Before I could second-guess the decision, I pulled off my shirt, followed quickly by my pants. Focusing on undressing helped me avoid thinking about what came next, but it didn’t last long. Soon enough, I was completely naked in front of him, my cock heavy between my legs.
I gestured towards the bedside drawer he’d opened earlier. “There’s some lube in there. You have to press down on the bottom and there’s a hidden compartment.”
Kalo laughed again as he reached into the drawer and found the item I’d stashed away, out of sight. “So, you do have a kinky side.”
“I don’t know how kinky it is. It just feels better.”
He grinned as he handed the lube over. Only a few drops helped my hand to glide smoothly along my swelling cock, and Kalo’s smile faded into something more heated as he watched me begin to stroke myself.
“What do you think about?” he asked a moment later, his voice huskier than it had been before.
“I don’t usually think too much. I just feel.”
Even as I said the words, I became acutely aware of myself in a way I never had before, not just what I was doing but how it must look from the outside.
It made every movement feel heavier and more deliberate, and far more vulnerable.
But when I glanced up at him again, there was only desire in his expression. “Can I help?”
“Be my guest.”
I kept up my pace while Kalo wrapped his hand around mine, still letting me do the work, but with the sparks of our bond mingling with the motion.
“Lie down,” he instructed, and I immediately obeyed, dropping onto my back without letting go of my dick. He kept holding onto my hand, but his other hand also dropped between my legs, drifting lower as my movements grew more hurried. “Have you ever had anything here?”
The tip of his finger circled my asshole, and I clenched out of instinct. “N-no.”
“Are you curious?”
He wouldn’t push it if I said no, I could tell, but I was curious, at least when it came to him. “A little.”
Letting go of my hand, he grabbed the bottle of lube from where I’d dropped it and covered his own fingers with it. “Keep going. Just focus on what you’re doing.”
I tried, but as soon as his cool lube-covered finger found my hole again, I let out a deep groan that surprised us both.
“Deep breath,” he whispered before pushing the tip of his finger inside me.
It wasn’t much, and not far, but the feeling was still entirely new, especially with the mate bond sparks continuing to work their magic, and my vision started to blacken at the edges.
“I’m going to… fuck, Kalo, I can’t…”
I didn’t even finish my sentence before I came, my cum spurting over my stomach as ecstasy flooded my body.
Holy shit.
If just a fingertip affected me that much, I could barely imagine what it might feel like with more.
When I opened my eyes again, Kalo was smiling down at me. “That was incredibly hot.”
“Is it normal to like it both ways? I mean, I really liked fucking you, but…”
“But you wouldn’t mind if I fucked you too?” His eyes were twinkling once again. “It depends on the couple, but in my experience, yes, it went both ways. However, your first time would require some preparation, and I don’t think that’s what we’re supposed to be spending tonight doing.”
He had a point. As much as I wanted to stay in this moment, exploring with him all night long, there were still too many things waiting for us outside this room.
For the time being, we simply got ready for bed and climbed into my bed together. With Kalo in my arms, nothing else seemed to matter, and my mind soon settled enough to drift off into sleep.