Page 83 of The Spellreader and the Phoenix

Rory laughed. “No, not at all. However you react is okay. Society often seems to be hyper-sexualized, but you don’t owe anybody attraction or arousal.”

Max smiled softly at him. “Thanks. That’s true. It’s, uh, all a bit new for me.”

“That’s totally alright,” Rory assured him. “Like I said, however you react or feel is okay. And just because you’re feeling some attraction doesn’t mean you have to do anything about it. Or you can want to do something about it until you don’t want to do something about it. All of that is totally fine.”

Tension that Rory hadn’t even realized Max had been holding visibly left his frame.

Rory leaned closer and wrapped his arms around Max’s waist in a hug.

“It’s all fine,” Rory reiterated. “Wanting, not wanting, thinking you want until you figure out you don’t. I care about you independent of all of that.”

Max’s arms encircled him, holding him in a firm embrace. “Thank you. I’m sure I’ll get all muddled up about it again at some point, but it means a lot to me that you’re clarifying all of this now.”

Rory tucked his head into the juncture of Max’s neck and shoulder, rubbing the side of his head there, which made Max laugh.

“Is that what Red’s been doing all this time?” he asked.

Rory grinned against his skin. “Obviously.”

Max twisted a little and pressed a kiss to Rory’s hair.

“You want to get in bed and read books?” Rory asked.

Max’s shoulders shook with laughter. “I really do. Thank you.”

Yeah, Rory had been pretty sure that jumping into bed for anything more would be moving way too fast. Rory didn’t ever want Max to feel uncomfortable.

So they headed into the bedroom together and climbed into bed, getting their books out.

“I think I need to reread The Princess Bride,” Rory told him.

This made Max laugh. “It’s on your mind for some reason? Did you want to watch the movie together?”

Rory grinned. “Yes, I’d love to!”

“Tomorrow night?”

“Sounds perfect,” Rory agreed.

They settled in to read. He’d just started a series of fall romances. He had one more spooky romance after this one, and then he’d be switching to the Thanksgiving-themed ones. Max didn’t read seasonally, apparently.

Max started yawning pretty early on, and it wasn’t long before he set his book aside on the bedside table. Rory immediately moved to set his down, too.

“You can keep reading if you want,” Max offered immediately.

“Nah,” Rory demurred. “I’m good. It was a long day.”

Rory was pretty sure that, unlike Max, he could do this practically every day, but it could still be tiring.

Rory flicked out the light, and they both settled under the covers.

“Thanks,” Max said quietly, the words soft in the darkness. “I’m glad to be here with you.”

Smiling, Rory told him, “I’m glad to be here with you, too.”

Sunday was normally a quiet day, and it was extra quiet in comparison to Saturday’s extravagance. Max and Rory worked out in the morning—Max completing his rather boring run on the treadmill and Rory having found a weird and awesome workout called Jazzercise!—and then Max spent about an hour working on spell requests before eleven rolled around.

Although Rory insisted he could handle it, Max was up front for opening, and they roamed the aisles and made sure they hadn’t missed anything last night. Although most of the activities had been in the basement, there had been a lot of kids running amok, and they found candy here and there and a few shelves that were disarranged, but nothing too terrible.