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After he reached for his clothes with pink cheeks and that shy little crease between his brows, I told him he looked beautiful like this and asked him to stay.

Naturally, that lasted about three seconds.

Not that I’m complaining. He’s naked now, exactly where I want him, and I’m not about to start questioning my victories.

One thing I’ve learned about Rowan is that he likes praise far more than he lets on. He softens beneath it, practically aching for it, especially when I’ve got my hand wrapped around his throat, controlling his breathing while I tell him how good he’s being for me.

Now I can feel the warm press of his half-hard cock against mine, slowly dragging my body awake with it.

It should probably concern me that Rowan Ashford can get me hard this easily now. That all he has to do is cling to me sleepily and mumble against my throat for my brain to stop functioning entirely.

But lying here with him wrapped around me like this, I honestly can’t bring myself to care. My body has apparently decided one very important thing already: it wants Rowan.

Constantly.

In my arms. Beneath my weight. Giving me every vulnerable part of him.

A rush of heat trickles down my spine at the memory of my cock plunging into his tight hole as I held him against the bathroom wall, his legs locking around my waist. I was rough, and he reveled in it, demanding more and kissing me senseless, urging me to go harder.

I never imagined Rowan would want me like this. It’s his first time, so I tried to take it slow, but somewhere in the middle of it, we just... fit. Every time I touched him harder, he only pulled me closer, and by the end of it, I stopped thinking entirely.

I couldn’t seem to get enough of him after that. He kept opening for me more, pulling sounds out of me I usually keep buried.

At one point, I bent him over the edge of the tub and fucked him hard enough that Rafe started banging on the wall, yelling for us to shut the hell up before we brought the house down.

Not even Rowan seemed to care.

I spent the night learning Rowan’s body, and he met every touch with this overwhelming hunger that kept driving me back to him.

After I’d completely wrecked him, he dragged his tongue over my skin with this dazed little look on his face that nearly killed me.

We kept going until the noise downstairs finally died out, and he was barely awake when I carried him back to bed from the tub.

“Why are you looking at the water like it’s magic?” I asked him, my voice thick with the aftermath of us.

He stiffened, his head resting against the porcelain. “Back home, only the extremely wealthy have the luxury of a bath. The rest of us use communal showers. They’re quick. Functional. Cold.”

I tightened my grip around him then, pulling him closer against my chest.

And maybe that moment affected me more than it should.

Because Rowan looked at that stupid bathtub like it was a miracle instead of plumbing, and somehow I was the one he chose to share it with.

Then later, somewhere between sleep and consciousness, I remember pressing a kiss against his mouth before wrapping myself around him completely, wanting him held close enough that he wouldn’t even think about slipping away from me.

His sleepy little sound against my throat nearly destroyed me.

“You can never escape me now, mouse,” I whispered into his skin, and fuck me, I meant every word of it.

At some point during the night, I climbed over him again, and now I’ve practically got him pinned beneath me, all warm skin and tangled limbs while his heartbeat taps steadily against my chest.

The best part? Rowan doesn’t fight it. If anything, he seems calmer when I hold him down, like some exhausted hidden part of him enjoys being kept exactly where I want him.

I can’t move now without waking him, and despite everything, I don’t want to.

A few hours ago, his body went tight beneath my hands, his brows drawing together like something ugly had followed him into sleep. I smoothed my hand slowly down his spine until the tension finally eased, feeling him melt back into me.

Some irrational part of me wanted to crawl inside his head and rip apart whatever was haunting him before it ever gets close to him again.