Words could never explain something like that. No matter how much you tried to make another person see the horrors you’d lived through, they would never know. Qylar understood him on a level no other person would. Even as little time as they’d spent together, they knew one another in a deeper, more meaningful way than years could share.
Kenji wondered if that was also why he’d fought seeking Qylar out for too long. Qylar saw his pain and heartache. There was no way Kenji could hide it, no matter how hard he tried. He’d gotten so accustomed to fading into the background and no one evertruly knowing him that there had been safety in that. With Qylar, he felt raw and vulnerable, and that was a scary place to be.
It was also an intensely beautiful place to be.
Ifhe could learn to trust Qylar with that vulnerability.
“I sense your mind churning,” Qylar whispered, removing his hand from Kenji’s stomach.
“As if I could sleep with yours so loud.”
Qylar cupped Kenji’s cheek and tilted his head, lowering for a gentle kiss. He pressed his forehead to Kenji’s, the tips of their noses coming together for a tender nuzzle. Kenji wanted to stay like that, in Qylar’s arms, for an eternity. Without the outside world or their problems in the way. Just the two of them, skin-to-skin, their hearts in synch.
“What’s happened here?” Qylar asked.
“Do I have to have the birds and bees talk with you now?”
Qylar chuckled, the rumbling sound of it inside his chest warm under Kenji’s ear.
“I think you know what I mean,” Qylar said.
“The fact I told you I wouldn’t sleep with you and then jumped your bones?”
“I don’t know if you can claim credit for that. It was a mutual jumping of bones,” Qylar said.
Kenji could hear the smile on Qylar’s lips and wished it wasn’t so dark in the bedroom so he could see more than a hint of an outline. He reached up and traced them with two fingers. Qylar kissed them before opening his mouth and swiping his tongueover the tender tips. Kenji lifted his head and pressed forward, replacing his fingers with his own lips, hungry for more of the kisses he’d denied himself too long.
Before he knew it, he was astride Qylar, riding his cock again, storming towards the abyss. They had a lot of catching up to do. Kenji intended to make sure they did. His body had ached for Qylar—literallyached. During his weeks of denial, he’d awakened in the night, needy and trembling so many times, struggling not to walk up to Qylar’s door and pound until he was allowed entry.
Qylar’s large hands encircled his waist, sliding down to his hips to set a firmer pace. Once the tempo quickened, he grasped one asscheek in each hand, squeezing them after every downward thrust of Kenji’s bottom. After a few minutes, Qylar rolled them, pinning Kenji to the mattress. He gripped both wrists in one, large hand and whipped them over Kenji’s head.
Their human bodies came together, over and over, until they’d both screamed with release and fell into one another’s arms again to sleep off their exertions. When Kenji awoke again, he was alone in Qylar’s big bed. He scented food—and perhaps something burning.
After stealing another of Qylar’s t-shirts, he padded upstairs barefoot just before the smoke detector went off.
“Fuck!” Qylar roared.
Kenji turned the corner into the kitchen and stopped at the door, looking at the chaos going on. Qylar waved an oven mitt at the smoke detector with one tentacle, grabbed juice from the refrigerator with another, flipped what looked like it was supposed to be French toast with a third, and scrambled eggswith another. Two more cleaned the mess they’d left the night before, tossing the remnants of their dinner into the trash, after having left it out all night.
“And they say men can’t multitask.”
Qylar’s head whipped to the side, and he looked over his shoulder. “Damn it… I didn’t want to wake you up.” He turned back to the stove. “Damned smoke detector.”
“I was already awake when it went off,” Kenji said, walking deeper into the kitchen. “You know, you don’t have to do twenty things at once.”
“Cryss does and makes it look simple. He flies around a kitchen like it’s a waltz.” Qylar lowered everything in his tentacles and returned them to human arms. He flipped off both burners, frustrated. “I wanted to make you breakfast in bed, but I’ve burnt the French toast and the eggs look disgusting. Sorry. I’m clearly not the cook in the family.”
Kenji tossed out the last couple of containers from dinner before walking closer to Qylar. He wrapped his arms around his waist and hugged tight. “The attempt and feeling behind it is as special as the breakfast. You tried, and that counts.”
“A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Cryss wooed Alex with food, so I thought I should give it a go.”
“You took on too much at once,” Kenji said. “Why don’t we clean up and go out for breakfast?”
Qylar grinned, wrapping his arms over Kenji’s shoulders. “Iama pretty good hunter-gatherer.”
Kenji hesitated. “What exactly are you hunting and gathering?”
Qylar frowned. “Food.”
