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“How do I say this?” Leo exhaled before tightening his hold around me, both of his arms trapping my naked body with his, “You know what I love most about you and me?” My heart skipped a beat when he threw out the word love, and I immediately told my chest to calm down, “It’s not just how great you and I are together. Obviously, the chemistry we have is a huge aspect of it.”

Without thinking, I immediately lifted a finger and tapped the tip of his nose once.

Leo was about to say something, but he gave me a quizzical expression after I booped him.

God, I was so weird.

“My therapist is also a sex therapist,” I tried to explain, still tightly wrapped in his arms with my own partially trapped between us, “A while back she explained to me that pheromones are detected in the nose, which sends a signal to the brain. I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, but I always picture how people’s noses are kind of what helps us figure out who we have sexual chemistry with.”

“Huh,” Leo’s eyes glanced down to what I assumed was my nose, “Maybe that’s why I always want to kiss yours.”

I gave him a small grin in return, “Sorry, you were saying?”

“Right,” Leo met my gaze again before, “Regardless of our heated nose chemistry, I also appreciate every time you ask something new of me, because it’s a huge boost for my ego.”

I thought about his words for a moment, which must have meant that I was frowning, because I suddenly felt his fingertip press against the corner of my mouth. I thought he was going to try tugging it up into a smile, but no. Leo pressed his finger in the corner and simply traced the shape of my lips while I thought.

“How does it boost your ego?” I whispered against his touch.

I locked in on the way his mouth twitched with another smile before his teeth sunk into his bottom lip. His two front ones weren’t straight, as if he had been punched before. Maybe he had, based on how he dealt with my ex. One tooth stuck out farther than the other, almost at an angle, to make room. Standing far away, I never would have noticed this specific detail about how Leo’s teeth lined up. But this close I did, and I was distracted once again by these additional facts I could store away about my coworker.

“Do you have any idea how hot it is,” Leo’s voice was lower, his mouth my entire focus as he leaned in to press his forehead against mine, “To have your explicit permission to touch you like that? To have your consent to ravish you just the way you want? How sexy your trust in me is?”

My heart skipped a beat, and my eyes fluttered as he rolled us again so that I was more on my back, “I guess that is a nice ego boost.”

Leo snorted, “You trusted me to chase you in your flat. You trusted me to pretend to pin you underneath me. You trusted me to explore the most intimate parts of yourself, andthatturns me on more than anything.”

I tucked my lips between my teeth as I absorbed his words, and while I took a moment to process, Leo filled the time by teasing my neck with his warm lips. Feeling his exhale skate over my skin sent a shiver through my body, and his hands gripped me tighter.

“I need to clean up,” Leo pressed one last kiss under my jaw, and I whined behind my hidden lips, “Don’t move, I’ll be back.” I nodded. It wasn’t until he pulled away from me and padded to the bathroom that I thought some more.

I didn’t want our sexual relationship to be so one-sided.

Leo was special, he was willing to explore my sexuality with me. To help me discover what I liked and what I didn’t, but what exactly washegetting out of this?

I heard the water turn on and off, before he entered my bedroom again completely naked, sans a used condom, with a washcloth in his hand.

I was confused for half a second until he crawled onto the bed and gently nudged my legs apart. A protest got caught in my throat, but I remembered how he did this for me at his hotel all those months ago as well. Leo cleaned me carefully, his blue eyes flicking up to meet mine while he delicately brushed the warm, wet cloth over my most sensitive areas.

This relationship was definitely feeling one-sided.

“What do you want, though?” I ended up asking on a rasp.

Leo blinked before sitting up, finished with cleaning me, and gave me a look, “What do you mean?”

“I mean,” I tucked my legs close as I sat up on the bed, leaning against my headboard. I was still completely naked, and I kind of wished I wasn’t so exposed while having this intimate of a conversation with him, “What do you want out of, um, this?” I pointed a finger in between the two of us, “Is there anything you need that I can provide? Like, I don’t know, roleplaying? Or spanking?” Heat bloomed across my cheeks and chest, but I was determined to be a confident woman for this.

Leo’s brows rose into his forehead, and I thought I saw a flicker of amusement tug at his lips, but thankfully he stayed composed as he replied, “All I ask is that, while you and I are doing this,” he repeated my gesture, using his index finger to point between the two of us, “That you let me know before exploring things with someone else. As far as I am concerned, we are currently monogamous until we have communicated otherwise.”

I tilted my head, contemplative. Part of me wanted to ask why he thought that was something that would come up for me.

Clearly, I wasn’t putting myself out there like that. I didn’t even have additional sexual partners on my radar, so the possibility hadn’t even crossed my mind.

He doesn’t want a relationship, he wants to keep things casual, my inner voice told me. A pang of something cold settled in my gut, but I was determined to move past it. We weren’t in a relationship. We never talked about a relationship. So far, we talked about work and sex.

That would be enough for now.

I didn’t even want to jump into another relationship. I didn’t think I was emotionally available enough for one. I didn’t want to be responsible for the well-being of another person, yet. I had already become a numb shell of myself trying and failing to be a good partner for Vincent. Sure, maybe he designed things so I would never be a good enough partner for him. That still didn’t take away the memories my body had, the stress and anxiety that would sour my stomach from failing him for years.