Page 38 of Guiding Desire

“If all of you have clothing here for when you stay over, why don’t you keep bathing suits as well?” Orrey asked, and Senlas wanted to kiss him all over again.

Taros looked taken aback, blinked at Orrey in confusion. “You got over that bomb fast, beautiful. Swoon a little more, why don’t you.”

Senlas felt Vin reach for his power, making Karmine tap a serving spoon against Orrey’s used water glass which still sat on the kitchen island. “Everyone can shut up now. We’re watching the second season ofMy Secret Guardian,“ Vin declared.

“Stop puppeteering me, asshole,” Karmine said.

Vin ignored him.

“Well, I could eat,” Taros said, helped Karmine carry over the plates, and settled on Senlas’s other side.

“I’ll catch you up on the plot,” Senlas said, leaning over to Orrey and using that opening to also drape his arm across the backrest behind Orrey.

“I thought you said there wasn’t any,” Orrey said and smiled, just a toned down, subtle affair that made certain needs in Senlas stir.

“It’s a masterpiece of plotlessness,” Vin said. “The important thing is to keep track of who’s been sleeping with who.”

Taros giggled, bent forward to meet Orrey’s eyes. “Vin kept track.”

“I did.”

“I’ll leave it to you to catch me up on that then,” Orrey said, still more polite than comfortable. “Are we not waiting for Conduit Coldis?”

Senlas took Orrey’s mug to get him a refill, but also so he could put a full plate in front of him instead. “He had work to do. He’ll be back.”

Orrey nodded before occupying himself with savoring Karmine’s cooking. The opening credits ofMy Secret Guardiancut off all discussion that wasn’t the rundown of who’d been with who.

Orreybarelymanagedtohold on for two episodes, but Senlas was glad his Conduit had at least eaten.

“He’s fully asleep,” Vin said, reading Senlas perfectly.

“I’ll stay with him,” Senlas said. He took his screen from his pocket and wordlessly handed it over to Karmine, then carefully disentangled the empty mug from Orrey’s fingers and lifted him in his arms.

The other three wouldn’t disturb them unless they had to, and having them here made Senlas feel more at ease, safer.

HeOpenedthe door to Orrey’s room and looked around. It was his first time seeing what the others had done with the space. The art prints someone had hung gave his plain walls a different kind of charm. A set of three round carpets, all just the right size for two people to sit on them cross-legged, had been placed in front of the window wall. A low black stool, one of the ones Senlas used for his telekinesis exercises, now had three plants in colorful glass containers sitting on them, one with light green foliage, one plain green, one green and red.

Senlas put Orrey down on the bed, eliciting an excited response from an alarm bot.

“Turn off,” Senlas told it.

The bot did not react, its animated eyes blinking excitedly.

“Off.”

Nothing.

SenlasFloatedthe bot into his hand. The thing didn’t even have an off switch, but Senlas wasn’t going to risk breaking it. He opened the closet and put it between two stacks of neatly folded clothes. There was even, Senlas realized, a bit of Orrey’s scent here, now that his things were here. Satisfaction coiled through Senlas, and a smile spread over his lips.

“You can put plants and art all over the apartment, kitten,” Senlas said when he closed the closet again, but Orrey was truly out to the world.

Senlas lay down next to him, pulled the comforter over Orrey.

“Darken sixty percent,” Senlas said, the command needed during daytime.

In the soft light, Senlas began memorizing what his Conduit looked like when he slept and dreamed, when things were peaceful. He never wanted to see that face illuminated by fire or blood ever again.

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