Page 16

A fog rolled through the confines of my morning brain as I woke the next morning. My body was riddled in sparse areas of soreness, like a patchwork of overworked muscles embedded underneath my tender skin.

The realization came crashing over me.

Kroven and me. Me and Kroven.

We’d had sex. Earth shattering, life altering sex. I already felt like there was no way I could go back to not having it on a regular basis after the journey of jubilation I’d weathered with Kroven last night.

Eyes fluttering awake, my bedroom came into view through my feeble and too-sensitive-this-early-in-the-morning eyelids. A smile welcomed itself on my face as I rolled over to greet Kroven, but my eyes were met with an empty side of the bed.

My gut instantly rolled. Had he gone home in the middle of the night? If he’d left like that…

I didn’t even want to think about it. We’d only just started dating, so it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if he did head back to his house for the night…right? No , my mind yelled back at me. The sound of the resounding negative was threatening to unravel my psyche until I looked down at my clothes littered floor, noticing Kroven’s white shirt and pants still lying helpless where he’d left them.

The sound of the shower in my attached bathroom started then, and a rumble of relief settled over me. Kroven hadn’t left. He’d spent the night with me.

I rolled over to his side of the bed and inhaled my sheets like a fucking weirdo, desperate to smell him on them, delighted when his usual scent of rain and faint copper rolled off the cotton. I threw off the blue quilt I kept on my bed, sneaking out of my bedroom now that I knew that Kroven was occupying my bathroom.

Sneaking down the hallway, I slowly opened Thayer’s door to make sure he’d come home in the middle of the night from work. When I opened it, he was snoring loudly on his bed, mouth agape in deep sleep. Glad that he was home, I made my way back to my room.

As I stepped back inside and closed the door, Kroven opened the door, the sound of the shower running filling the room. Confusion swept him as he looked from the empty bed back to me at the door.

“Bas?”

I noticed that his eyes had gone from their visual red to the cloudy grey that meant he needed to feed in order to see again. A light smile met me as I walked over and wrapped my arms around his neck.

“Good morning,” Kroven nodded.

“Good morning.” I cooed back, pulling him in for a kiss. The brush of his fingers against the small of my back made me shiver, my dick coming back to life even though it’d been through new and wild ventures last night. It felt good to feel so confident in being close to him, especially since I was still naked and he had, unfortunately for me, thrown on his underwear when he’d woken up before me .

I felt something cool on my back, his fingers too warm to be the culprit. Coming out of the embrace, I noticed his phone was wrapped around his grip.

“Early calls this morning?”

Kroven sighed, nodding. “It woke me up this morning, and I ran into the bathroom to keep from waking you.” He tossed his phone on the bed. “That was Wallace Watson. He wants me to come to D.C.”

Certainly wasn’t expecting that.

“What?” I ran a hand through my already disheveled post-sex hair. “Why?”

“To report on the state of the protestors outside the blood centers.” He huffed, crossing his arms. “You remember me mentioning a sangamar named Exo?”

“I do.”

“Well, Exo apparently is partnering with Watson to make some sort of official board comprising of the largest Orb species to bring forth to Congress so we can have more of a voice on our rights. Exo wants me to meet with Watson for a potential spot on the board.”

“And…is that something you want?”

“Fuck no,” Kroven blew out hastily. “But I can’t not go. Exo and I…have a complicated history.” I added ‘ask Kroven about said history with Exo’ to my growing mental list of questions and let him continue. “I don’t have to join this Orb council, but I do have to hear Watson out. It’ll be good for me to update him on the status in person. I can swing by a few of the blood centers on the way to the airport to canvas the size of the crowds and if they’ve increased.” He paused to reach for me and I stepped forward so that he could pull me the rest of the way into his arms. “And I was wondering…if you’d want come with me.”

My eyes flared in surprise, but not because I hated the idea. Work was slow for me, with the protestors still affecting the amount of sangamar that felt safe coming to the blood centers, which was still at a resounding zero.

“Wow.” I said nonchalantly. “You really want me to go?”

“Only if you want to,” he stated, rubbing my back. “I certainly wouldn’t mind having you with me. I thought it might be good for Exo and Watson as well, since you know first hand what the protestors have been screaming into the void.”

That was true. I could see how my insight might be valuable to both of them, especially if they were trying to assemble this board in favor of Orb rights. But the fact that Kroven had even asked me to come simply because he liked having me around enthralled me most.

“I’ll have to check and see what my schedule is at the blood center, but yeah, I’d love to go.” Genuine happiness formed in the crescent shape of a smile on my face. “When are you supposed to leave?”

“As soon as possible.” He nodded. “But I can delay it so you can get everything in order with work.”

“Why don’t we stop there on the way? You mentioned scoping out the protestors anyway, so we can hit two birds with one stone.”

Kroven laughed, pulling me against his chest for a quick kiss. “You humans and your sayings.”

Laughing with him, I stroked a path across his pecs. “What do you say to a shower together before we get going?”

“Exactly what I was hoping you’d say.”

Thankfully, this apartment had been renovated before Thayer and I had moved in, something he’d said he was willing to pay extra for, which meant that our bathrooms were not only a decent size but the showers had been upgraded to walk-ins. Kroven and I were able to fit inside the glass doored sanctuary without having any difficulty.

Warm water soothed our post-sex muscles, an innocent kiss turning into one that seemed eager to take my breath away. My hands were wrapped around his neck again, holding onto him while his hands kneaded into the flesh on my hips and back. Kroven seemed to be moaning more than usual at my touch, and I briefly wondered if it was because he didn’t have his eyesight to rely on at the moment.

A thought raced through my brain, one I naively hadn’t thought about while hooking up with a non-human that needed to feast on blood in order to keep living. Breaking our kiss, I decided to take the plunge and run it by Kroven.

“If you want,” I said, clearing my throat of my invisible nerves. “You could…bite me, since you’re not home to—”

“No.” The stern way Kroven yelped his response made me step back in the shower. There was this ashen look on his face, like the fact that I had suggested such a thing made him absolutely disgusted. “I’m sorry. I mean, no, but I appreciate the offer.” Kroven nodded, reaching for me. I reluctantly let him pull me in, and I was very glad he couldn’t see the hurt on my face. He must have felt the tension in my body though, because he stroked my cheek with his palm. “That’s not something you ever need to worry about, blomsjett .”

There was more to tell, that was obvious. And the newly acquired nickname did nothing to soothe the steel forming in my mind. What puzzled me was that Kroven wasn’t sharing whatever he was trying to bury within himself. After what we’d done last night, I thought there’d be no remaining barriers between us. We’ve only just started dating, I reminded myself. Just because we’d fucked didn’t mean our insecurities or trauma disappeared. I gave Kroven a smile, even though it was lost on his foggy eyes, and enjoyed the tactile exploration of our bodies as we cleaned each other with copious amounts of bubbles and affection.

After showering to completion, Kroven said he was going to get dressed, mentioning that we needed to stop by his house so he could pack for D.C. I nodded along, trying to let go of his earlier qualm. I didn’t want Kroven to feel like he couldn’t share anything with me, but I also didn’t want him to feel like he had to tell me. If it was important enough, or maybe if I would outright ask, he’d tell me. I trusted him, more that I had ever trusted anyone. Which scared the shit out of me, considering how little time we’d shared together.

I was occupied by brushing my teeth and attempting to shed my thoughts of confusing rejection when I heard a shriek from outside the bathroom. Concerned, I spit out the toothpaste from my mouth and wiped it on a nearby hand towel and ushered out of the bathroom with my towel still wrapped around my damp waist.

What I saw made me inwardly giggle but outwardly gasp. Thayer had opened up my door, seeing Kroven waiting for him in nothing but his underwear as he was cradled over his phone, not having a chance to get dressed yet so that Thayer wouldn’t see him sans clothes.

Kroven was covering his crotch, smiling awkwardly as Thayer continued to gape at me, looking from Kroven to me and back again in a dizzying somersault of head tilts.

I stepped forward, giving Kroven a nod as I passed him, his hands roaming the floor for his clothes. I lightly guided Thayer out of my room and shut the door behind me until we were both a little ways down the hallway. Thayer was wearing an astonished look on his face, clad in a worn Cher t-shirt and boxers.

“Dude, did you bone your Orb last night?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know his name, Thayer, so use it.”

“Sorry,” He shook his head, a smile curving his lips in a twisted smirk. “Did you have sex with Kroven?”

“Yes,” I said with a forced breath, wondering why Thayer was making this a big deal. I’d brought guys home before, albeit not in quite a while. “I knew you wouldn’t be home until late, I’m sorry if— ”

“Bas, you have nothing to be sorry for.” Thayer assured me, clapping a hand on my still-drying shoulder. “I’m happy for you. I just didn’t expect to open up your door and see that impressive piece he’s hiding between his legs is all.”

That got a laugh out of me and I nodded. “You have no idea how impressive.”

“Just text me next time so I know what I’m coming home to.” Thayer chuckled.

“Deal.” I nodded back with a grin.

“I was gonna see if you were up before I headed back to bed, but I see you’ve got other things to attend to.” His eyebrows wiggled up and down his forehead.

“Actually, I’m headed out of town with him. It might be for a few days.”

“Oh really?” Thayer leaned in. “Dick that good?”

I playfully shoved him forward, grasping at my towel to stay on as Thayer laughed. “He wants me to come help with the blood center situation. We’re meeting a representative in D.C.”

“ Nice ,” Thayer gestured to the rest of the apartment that was visible, namely the living room and kitchen. “I guess this is all me for the next couple of days.”

“I’ll text you when I know how long we’re staying. I’m sure you’ll find some way to amuse yourself.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that. I will.” His wink let me know that he would be just fine in my absence and it made me feel a lot less guilty about having Kroven over without having given Thayer a proper heads up.

Kroven emerged from my bedroom, clad in his clothes from the day prior and full of evidence that they’d spent the night scattered on the floor. He gave Thayer a gesture with his hand, an informal greeting that made me light up like fireworks inside as Thayer smiled.

“Nice to officially meet you, Thayer.” He said with a head tilt. “ I apologize for the way you were introduced to me this morning.”

“It’s all good.” Thankfully, Thayer didn’t decide to give him any shit in that moment. “It’s great to meet the Orb-I mean, the guy that’s been spending time with Bas.”

A laugh barreled out of Kroven then, a gesture of indifference forming as his hands waved him off. “You can call me an Orb. I don’t take offense. There’s much worse things I could be called by humans.”

Thayer stabbed a look in my direction. “See? He doesn’t care if I call him an Orb.”

While I rolled my eyes, Kroven let a hand stroke my stomach, tightening my faux anger and replacing it with liquid heat. I willed my dick not to do too much reacting since I still had my baby blue towel attached to my waist by sheer drive to not be naked in front of Thayer.

“Have you been defending my honor against the moniker, Sebastian?”

“Hey, he gets to call you Sebastian!?” Thayer interjected. “That’s not fair, you told me—”

“Sorry, Thayer, that’s the beauty of boyfriend privilege.”

The words slipped past my tongue before they had time to register in my self-made mental filter. Kroven and I had gone on an official date, one that ended in explosive intimacy, but we hadn’t defined things to the tee that we’d refer to each other openly as boyfriends , despite me mentioning the word before to him.

I worried that I’d spoke to soon, gauging Thayer’s incredulous reaction and Kroven’s unshakable one. “Is that…okay for me to say?”

“Of course it is.” Kroven wrapped his arms around me, bending down to kiss the top of my shoulder. “And I quite like the sound of boyfriend privilege.”

“Alright, I’m gonna go back to bed before you guys go at it in communal spaces.” Thayer chuckled, bidding both of us farewell as he retreated back to his room.

I gazed up into Kroven’s foggy eyes, wishing I could fully shake the conversation he’d blocked us from having in the shower. But I didn’t want to come off like a total brat, so I buried it for the time being. Plus, there was the super real possibility that I was about to travel with Kroven out of the city for the first time.

“Let me get dressed and I’ll pack. Are we going to be gone long?”

“We may spend the night, but probably nothing longer than that, I’m afraid.”

“That’s fine.” I kissed him quickly and stepped back. “I’ll finish getting ready and then we can go.”

Kroven affirmed with a wink, and the sight of his casual affection for me kept the burn in my belly going the whole time I packed.