Page 87 of The Menagerie

[RC]No shit?? Did you like it?

[MS]fact that i only did it once should speak for itself man

[MS]but no not really

[MS]wasn’t that bad i guess. the stretch felt kinda like a big toy, but the guy kept wiggling his fingers and it was weird as fuck

[RC]Jesus

[MS]that’s not something you wanna do is it?

He can practically hear the grimace in Mal’s tone, and it makes him smile.

[RC]Fuck no

[RC]The gaping aspect can be kinda hot, but I don’t like it to that extreme

[RC]Reminds me of this guy with a prolapsed anus we had to drive to the ER once

[MS]you know you fucked up if it don’t go back in on its own

And was that a… joke?

Like an actual, unprompted, ha-hajoke?

God, Rowan likes himso much.

DESPITE HISbest efforts to keep himself under control these past few weeks, Rowan’s blossoming…whateveron Mal is so embarrassingly obvious that even Addison has picked up on it and hounds him relentlessly because of it.

She catches him texting Mal on one of their rounds, turning his phone out of her view so she can’t see the photo of the new vibrating plug that Mal bought.

“That your ‘booty call’ again?” she asks, not even trying to hide the smugness in her voice.

“Shut up,” Rowan tells her, because he is a mature adult fully capable of keeping his emotions in check andnota hormonal teenager.

“You’ve been seeing this guy for, like, amonthnow, Rowan. That’s not a booty call anymore.”

“We fuck once a week. Saturday at eight. That’s a booty call.”

“Uh-huh, and me and Char are just roommates.”

“You’remarriedto them. And that’s different,” Rowan shoots back.

“Domestic partnership,” she corrects. “But no, the point stands.”

“We’ve only fucked, like, five times so far. It’s nothing serious.”

But he wants it to be. Notgoing steadyserious, ’cause it’s way too early for that, but he’d be a filthy liar if he said he didn’t want anything more than what they’ve got going on right now. Or at least a shot at something more.

Hell, he’d settle for a kiss.

“I can count on zero hands the number of times I fucked someonefive timesand didn’t end up dating them for at least a year,” Addison says matter-of-factly.

Rowan bristles, unsure exactly why he’s being so defensive about the whole thing. Well, he knows why. Despite that they’ve started talking more between sessions and spending longer and longer at Sheila’s diner at the end of their sessions, he has no idea if Mal feels anything between them or not.

They’ve got great physical chemistry. Their bodies fit together in a way that feels effortless and, well,specialfor lack of a better word. Hell, Rowan’s had some great sex in his life, but it’s never been like this. Easy. Fun. Deeply satisfying during and after. And all that whilesober, for fuck’s sake, which is more than Rowan can say for many of his past hookups.

“It’s different with guys,” Rowan says instead.

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