There was no other word for it. Her bones dissolved. Her carefully constructed walls crumbled. Everything she had been holding onto since she signed that contract and walked into this apartnt vanished under the simple pressure of his mouth on hers.
The drain opened between them again. Slower than before. Warr.
Their Essentia cycled back and forth in a rhythm that felt less like draining and more like breathing.
Ro’s hands slid from her face to her shoulders to her waist, pulling her closer under the water.
She went willingly.
His tongue traced the seam of her lips and she opened for him, tasting mint toothpaste and sothing else that was just Ro. His hands moved lower, cupping her ass, lifting her slightly.
She made a sound into his mouth that might have been a moan.
He swallowed it, kissing her deeper, his body pressing hers back against the cool tile wall.
The contrast between the hot water and the cold marble made her gasp.
Ro broke the kiss, his forehead resting against hers, both of them breathing hard.
"This is confusing," Hae-Won said.
"What is."
"You. This. All of it."
"How so."
"Twenty minutes ago you were—" She stopped, her face heating.
"I was what."
"You know what you were doing."
"Say it."
"No."
"Hae-Won."
"You were being rough," she said quickly. "And now you’re being gentle. And I don’t understand which one is real."
Ro’s hands ca up to fra her face again, tilting her head back so she had to et his eyes.
"Both," he said simply.
"That doesn’t make sense."
"It doesn’t have to make sense." His thumb traced her lower lip.
The honesty in his voice did sothing terrible to her chest.
She kissed him again before she could stop herself.
This ti she took the lead, her hands sliding up his chest to his shoulders, pulling him down to her level. The drain pulsed between them, bright and electric again, and she felt her body responding despite everything it had already been through tonight.
Impossible.
She should be exhausted. Sore. Ready to collapse.
Instead, she wanted more.
Ro pulled back enough to look at her. "Again?"
Her face burned. "I don’t—I an—"
"Yes or no, Panda."
The nickna should have annoyed her.
It made her stomach flip instead.
"Yes," she whispered.
Ro’s eyes darkened. "Sure?"
"Yes."
"You’re going to be sore tomorrow."
"I’m already sore."
"It’ll be worse."
"I don’t care."
He kissed her again, harder this ti, his hands gripping her hips and lifting her entirely off her feet.
Hae-Won’s legs wrapped around his waist automatically. Her back hit the tile wall and she gasped at the cold, but Ro’s body pressed against her front, warm and solid and perfect.
The drain opened wider.
Their Essentia flooded the channel, cycling faster than before, and Hae-Won understood suddenly how ra had been convinced.
This was an incubus wearing human skin.
This was a trap she had walked into willingly with her eyes open and her overnight bag packed.
Ro’s hand slid between them, finding her already wet, and she moaned directly into his mouth.
"Again," he said against her lips. "Say yes again."
"Yes."
"Good girl."
The praise went straight through her, bright and sharp, and she arched against him, chasing friction that he gave her freely.
His fingers worked her with the sa attention he had brought to everything else tonight, finding the spots that made her gasp and focusing there until her brain stopped working entirely.
The water beat down on them both. Steam filled the shower. Hae-Won’s fingers dug into Ro’s shoulders hard enough to leave marks.
"Ro—"
"I know."
"I can’t—"
"You can."
Her orgasm hit fast and hard, catching her by surprise, and she cried out his na while her body clenched around his fingers.
Ro held her through it, kissing her jaw, her neck, her shoulder, murmuring sothing she couldn’t quite hear over the rushing water and her own racing heartbeat.
When she could think again, she realized she was trembling.
Ro noticed. Of course he did.
"You good?" he asked.
Hae-Won nodded against his shoulder, not trusting her voice.
He turned the water off with one hand, still holding her with the other, and stepped out of the shower.
There were towels on a warming rack. Because of course there were.
He wrapped one around her first, then grabbed another for himself.
Hae-Won’s legs still felt uncertain, but she managed to stand on her own while Ro dried her hair with careful attention that made her chest ache again.
"I need to brush my teeth," she said eventually.
"There’s a spare in the drawer."
"You keep spare toothbrushes?"
"ra leaves things here," Ro said casually.
Right.
ra.
His actual girlfriend.
Who had signed the contract too.
Who knew Hae-Won was here tonight.
Hae-Won’s stomach twisted.
Ro caught the change in her expression imdiately. "Hey."
"What."
"Don’t do that."
"Do what."
"Start spiraling." He tilted her chin up. "ra knows. ra’s fine with it. You signed the contract. Everyone’s on the sa page."
"That doesn’t make it less weird."
"No," Ro agreed. "But it makes it honest."
She wanted to argue.
She didn’t have the energy.
Instead, she found the spare toothbrush and brushed her teeth while Ro did the sa, both of them standing at the double sink like this was completely normal dostic behavior.
When they finished, Ro led her back to the bedroom.
The sheets were a disaster.
"I should change those," he said.
"Later," Hae-Won heard herself say.
Ro looked at her. "Yeah?"
"Later," she repeated.
He pulled back the covers anyway, the clean side of the bed, and climbed in.
Hae-Won stood there in her towel, suddenly uncertain again.
"Co here," Ro said.
She dropped the towel and climbed in next to him, her body finding his automatically, her head tucked under his chin.
His arm ca around her waist, pulling her closer.
"This is insane," she whispered.
"Probably."
"I barely know you."
"You know enough."
"Do I?"
Ro’s hand traced lazy patterns on her hip. "You know I drain Essentia through physical contact. You know I can copy abilities if the connection’s strong enough. You know I’m registered as adaptive-type as of this morning. You know I’m ranked fifty-ninth and need to place top five at the festival to keep my inheritance. You know my father runs Angelo Corp and my sister wants my spot. You know ra’s my girlfriend and she knows you’re here. You know I touch you and you fall apart. You know when I kiss you, everything else disappears."
He paused.
"What else do you need to know, class rep?"
Hae-Won’s throat closed.
"If this ans anything," she said quietly. "Or if I’m just another na on a list."
Ro was silent for a long mont.
Then he shifted, rolling her onto her back, propping himself up on one elbow so he could look down at her properly.
"You’re not a na on a list," he said.
"How do I know that."
"Because I don’t keep lists." His thumb traced her cheekbone. "I keep people. There’s a difference."
"What difference."
"Lists are transactional. People are choices." He kissed her forehead. "I chose to pull you into that storage room. I chose to kiss you. I chose to invite you here tonight. You chose to co. You chose to stay. We keep choosing. That’s how this works."
Hae-Won stared up at him, her heart doing complicated things in her chest.
"I don’t know how to do this," she admitted.
"Do what."
"Be soone who does this. Who shares. Who accepts being second."
"You’re not second."
"ra was first."
"ra was first chronologically," Ro agreed. "That doesn’t make you second. It makes you different. There’s enough room for both."
"That’s not how relationships work."
"It’s how this one does."
He kissed her then, soft and slow, and the argunt died in her throat.
When he pulled back, his eyes were serious.
"Stay tonight," he said. "Leave in the morning if you want. But stay tonight."
Hae-Won felt her last resistance crumble.
"Okay," she whispered.
"Okay?"
"Yes. Okay. I’ll stay."
Ro smiled and pulled her close again, her back to his chest, his arm around her waist.
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