Sawyer then realised, far too late, that he was naked.
Again.
“My clothes,” he said, voice thick.
“Technically they were my clothes,” Ciaran said. “My self-control should be studied, by the way. Being in your bed, with you, when you are naked and wanting...”
Sawyer narrowed his eyes at him. “Wanting?” He swallowed hard. He’d dreamed of Ciaran again, like he had every night. Vivid and erotic....
Dear god. What had he done in his sleep?
Ciaran’s smirk faded. “You needed to be stripped. Body heat is best skin to skin.”
Sawyer had flashbacks of going back into the water. Flashbacks of...
He shot Ciaran a wild look.
This very human-looking Ciaran who wasn’t so human back then.
“You remember,” Ciaran said, his expression neutral, as if he was expecting bad news.
Or rejection.
Sawyer remembered... everything.
The cephamorphic octo-thing, the mate-bond thing. Being underwater, seeing Ciaran’s freeform, seeing how utterly majestic he was. How beautiful. Feeling his strong arms around his limbs, his waist, realising the being in the sex dreams he’dbeen having was Ciaran, like that... with double the limbs he had right now.
How gloriously fucking hot it was.
How absurdly weird and otherworldly it was.
He scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s real, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Then Ciaran shrugged. “Well, if you’re referring to the fact that we’re cephamorphic. Or the fact that you saw me like that in the water. Or the fact that you tried to drown yourself twice yesterday?—”
“I didn’ttryto drown myself.”
“—and how I saved you using body heat, twice. Then yes, it’s real.”
Sawyer glowered at him.
At how sexy he was, propped up in his bed like that, at how smug and fucking gorgeous he was.
Sawyer’s cock was already awake now, so he pulled the blankets up around his waist, even though he was certain Ciaran already knew.
“You have some fucking audacity,” Sawyer grumbled.
“I beg your pardon?”
Sawyer huffed out a sigh, giving him another quick glance over his shoulder. “Looking like that. So smug and fucking sexy.”
Ciaran’s smile was slow to spread, as was the heat in Sawyer’s belly.
“Christ,” Sawyer mumbled. “So... so this, uh... this...” He sighed again and rolled his shoulders, trying to fight the urge to launch himself at Ciaran. “This bond thing. What is it? How long does it last? Because fuck.”
Ciaran’s face flickered with a dozen emotions, his eyes doing that thing... that octo-thing before he quickly blinked it away. “If you don’t want it?—”
“I never said that.” Those words were out of Sawyer’s mouth before he had time to think. “I mean... I don’t even know what it is. Or why I want...” He cringed.
