Page 137 of We Are Just Us

Kieran kissed him. Slow. Unhurried.

Then Rory smirked.

“Now...get the fuck out of me.”

Kieran collapsed back into the pillows and they both broke into thunderous laughter.

Kieran rolled them over, letting Rory’s heavy limbs settle into the mattress beside him. Rory lay flat on his back, staring at the ceiling, a slow, completely spent smile lingering on his face.

“Well,” Kieran said, propping his head up on his hand to look down at him. “Mind cleared?”

“Completely blank,” Rory murmured, his eyes half-closed. “But my shoulders feel like lead. If I get knocked out in the first heat tomorrow, I’m blaming you.”

Kieran grinned, tracing a slow line down Rory’s chest. “Pretty sure you told me to do it. I was just following orders, captain.”

FORTY-ONE

Kieran woke slowly, pulled from sleep. Not the alarm. That wasn’t set to go off for another twenty minutes. Not the dogs. They were still asleep somewhere, probably on the floor at the foot of the bed, judging by the soft snoring.

It was awareness. The slow creep of consciousness that meant his brain now decided sleep was over.

He kept his eyes closed. Didn’t move. Just lay there, cataloging sensations.

Rory’s arm was heavy across his waist. His breath was against the back of Kieran’s neck, slow and even. His body was pressed close, chest to Kieran’s back, legs tangled together under the sheets.

Kieran pushed back, settling deeper into Rory’s body.

And there it was…or rather, there it wasn’t.

After yesterday, after everything they’d done, everything they’d said, this was different. Intimate in a way that had nothing to do with sex. Two bodies fitting together.

Kieran smiled into the dim morning light filtering through the blinds.

Behind him, Rory stirred. His arm tightened around Kieran’s waist.

“You awake?” Rory’s voice was rough with sleep.

“Yeah.”

“What time is it?”

Kieran cracked one eye open, squinting at the clock on the nightstand. “Five forty-three.”

“Alarm goes off at six.”

“I know.”

They lay in absolute silence, neither of them moving, as if the slightest shift might break the fragile peace of the morning.

“Nervous?” Kieran asked quietly.

Rory exhaled slowly. “A little.”

“You’re going to do great.”

“Maybe.”

“Definitely.”