Page 56 of Cold Ignition

“Don’t stop,” he said, the words rough, honest.

Rangi’s grin turned wicked. “Not a chance.”

Alexios’s gaze held his, steady, dark, certain.

“We’re just getting started.”

Rangi’s hand slid up Keanu’s side, slow now, intentional, fingers splaying over his ribs as if grounding him through the sensation rather than overwhelming him with it. His thumb traced once, twice, mapping, learning.

“Breathe,” Rangi murmured softly. “You’re holding it.”

Keanu let it out in a rush he hadn’t realized he was keeping in.

Alexios watched the shift, then leaned in again, one hand settling at the back of Keanu’s neck, not forcing, just guiding.

“Stay with us,” he said again, quieter this time.

Closer.

Keanu nodded once.

“I am.”

And for the first time since he’d stepped into the room—he wasn’t thinking about where he fit. He was exactly where he was supposed to be.

Between them. Chosen. Choosing. And not alone anymore.

The rest could come later.

Right now—

There was only this.

And neither of them was letting him go.

****

The bedroom wasn’t large.

It didn’t need to be.

It was built for intention, not excess—clean lines, warm wood, a wide mattress set into the slide-out Keanu had engineered with obsessive care. There was a faint scent of fresh linen layered over something warmer—sun-warmed metal, the quiet ghost of his own presence, the life he’d imagined for himself long before he’d understood what it might look like.

Now it looked like this.

The door shut behind them with a soft, final click.

Keanu felt it in his chest.

A boundary crossed.

No stepping back out of it the same way.

He turned slightly, breath slower than his pulse, taking them in as if this might be the last clear moment before everything shifted again.

Rangi was closest—heat and ease wrapped in one solid, grounded presence. Alexios was just behind him—still, controlled, watching with that steady, assessing gaze that missed nothing.

Keanu had spent two days trying to understand what that look meant when it landed on him.