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“Um… do you have anything to sleep in?” He keeps his attention fixed on the buttons.

Leaning back against the wardrobe with a smug smile, I shrug. “Why? I sleep naked.”

His head snaps up. “Well, I don’t.”

“Relax, baby. I’m capable of restraint. But if you insist…”

I cross the room, pull a black shirt from the wardrobe, and toss it toward him. Rowan catches it against his chest before glaring at me like the shirt personally offended him.

“Turn around,” he mutters.

“Nah.”

His cheeks flush. “Ciaran.”

“You came into my bedroom, little mouse. You’re gonna survive me seeing your knees.”

Rowan glares at me for another second before giving up with an irritated sound under his breath and undoing his shirt anyway.

And fuck, that shouldn’t do this much to me. But watching him undress in my room while trying to pretend he isn’t nervous might actually be worse than if he’d simply obeyed.

His hands move to the button of his trousers next, clearly intending to shove them down and toss them somewhere onto the floor without acknowledging me again.

I close my hand around his wrist before he can and tug the fabric the rest of the way down myself while his breathing turns uneven all over again. “There. Better.”

His gaze lifts to mine before sliding away, and fuck, that’s cute.

The trousers drop somewhere beside the bed, and I step in close enough that Rowan instinctively leans back against the mattress behind him.

I brace one hand beside his hip, then the other, caging him in completely.

“Ciaran—”

I lean in anyway, brushing my mouth against his just long enough to leave his lips a little swollen and unsteady when I pull back.

“We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Doing what?”

His glare would be more convincing if he wasn’t still breathing too fast.

“This.” He gestures vaguely between us. “Whatever this is.”

A laugh slips out of me. “Baby, after the date we just had? I think this is exactly what we’re supposed to be doing.”

“That’s not how dates work.”

“Maybe not where you’re from.”

I lean in and crush my mouth against his, snaking my tongue inside before he can argue, swallowing the startled sound he makes while his hands push against my chest, hesitate there, then finally clutch at my shirt instead, fingers tightening in the fabric as they betray him before his mouth ever could.

Rowan makes a frustrated sound against my mouth and twists in my hold, one hand shoving at my shoulder while the other stays fisted in my shirt like he can’t decide whether he wants to push me away or pull me closer.

I keep kissing him anyway, swallowing every protest until the fight starts losing strength beneath my hands. Rowan breaks the kiss first with a rough breath, his face flushed dark red now, his mouth swollen and wet when I look down at him.

Yeah, I may not have fully grasped him until now, but not tonight. No, tonight, I’ll take what I want.

I hover over him and lower my voice near his jaw. “You know what I heard when you played the Noctis for me and for me alone? A boy trying very hard not to get hurt. Yet you came to the party. You came because I ordered you to.”