Rami considered it. Imagined Julian nodding and getting up and leaving without a backwards glance, protecting Rami’s sensibilities or something.

But this… heat beneath their skin was new and exciting, and it had been so very long since anything exciting had happened to Rami.

“No,” they finally said.

Julian’s gaze darkened at that, and Rami swallowed. They couldn’t look away, caught in his sticky honey depths.

“Good,” Julian said, soft and low.

Then he closed his eyes again and leaned his head back on the tub.

“Where were we?” Julian asked.

Rami suspected he already knew the answer to that question.

Rami

Julian’s eyes may have been closed, but Rami was under no such obligation.

So they stared.

Watched Julian’s lips move as he spoke, watched as he swallowed.

Let the sight of this demon alone build the warmth inside them until…

Until Rami skated their hand beneath the water again, knuckles bushing against the hard length between their legs.

They sucked in a breath, and it was audible. Julian stopped mid-sentence.

He shuffled, rocking from side to side as he tugged at the fabric of his pants stretched across his thighs.

A lightbulb went off in Rami’s head.

“Are you aroused?” Rami asked suddenly.

Julian paused, then settled down. He cleared his throat before saying, “Well, yeah. You’re inches away from me, touching yourself while I talk, so. I’m not unaffected.”

Another bolt of heat struck through them. “Oh,” Rami said eloquently.

“Does that make you uncomfortable?”

“No,” Rami breathed, surprised with justhowcomfortable they were, not alone in their feelings. “Quite the opposite, I think.”

Julian tilted his head back, and if his eyes were open Rami suspected they would’ve been pointing up, pleading for patience.

The irony was not lost on them. And maybe in that moment, the reminder of who Julian was—a demon—should’ve provided clarity, snapping Rami out of their aroused trance, but it didn’t.

“That’s… good,” Julian choked out, and leveled his head again. He rubbed his palms across his thighs, and Rami’s lips twitched.

They liked the idea of Julian being aroused bythem.

What was the saying? “All hot and bothered?”

Julian said this…actcould befun.

Rami was having fun flustering Julian—did that count?

It lit something within them, the idea that Julian wouldn’t touch himself, all while Rami got to—