Page 58 of Bear With Me

With a sigh, Bjorn regretfully untangled himself from Dennis and stood from the bed. He checked his phone for the time; it was 10am. The coffee shop in the lobby should be able to supply them with caffeine and some quick breakfast. "If you get up," he offered to Dennis, who'd gone lax in bed, "I'll buy you a very large coffee and the pastry of your choice."

Dennis opened his eyes and studied him suspiciously. "How large?" His voice was gravelly with disuse, and he paused to clear his throat. "And what kind of pastries?"

Bjorn shrugged carelessly. "Dunno. Whatever they have in their display case. And the coffee can be as large as you want. I'm not here to limit you."

Dennis sighed and turned onto his back. Bjorn did his best to not fixate on his mate's half-hard dick. "This is why I tolerate you better than most people. You give me coffee."

From his grumpy mate, tolerance was practically a declaration of love. Bjorn grinned. "Come up, let's get some clothes on and pack up our stuff and we can hit the coffee shop on the way out."

Grumbling, Dennis nevertheless rolled off the bed to land on his feet unsteadily. "Ugh, mornings." He sighed. "At least you didn't boot me out of bed last night."

"I didn't?" Bjorn asked excitedly. Hooray! Maybe he was done embarrassing himself!

Dennis shook his head and disappeared into the bathroom, the door shutting behind him. "Yeah, the bed was big enough that it held both of us even when you hulked out," he called through the door.

Well, Bjorn supposed that was better than the alternative, though he was a little disappointed to discover that he wasn't regaining any control over his shifts. But, he reminded himself, if all kept going well between him and Dennis, maybe soon he would get his control back, because he'd have been bonded!

The toilet flushed, the sink ran, and Dennis emerged from the bathroom running a damp hand through his hair in an attempt to get it under control. It wasn't working, and Bjorn thought it was adorable. He held in that comment, though, figuring his masculine mate probably didn't want to be called adorable. Then he forgot what he'd been thinking about, because Dennis bent over to grab clothes out of his overnight bag and damn, that ass was right there. And those balls! And his dick! Bjorn wanted to grab, desperately.

No. Bad bear. No grabbing reluctant mates whom you're trying to charm.

Chewing his lower lip, he watched Dennis shimmy into a pair of underwear, then jeans and a button-up shirt. "Uh, Bjorn?" Dennis said as he finished the last button.

"Hm?"

"You…gonna get dressed too? Or are you just gonna stand there staring at me?"

Oh, damn, he was. "Uh, sorry." He quickly spun toward his own overnight bag and started rooting through it with determined focus, despite the fact that it contained little more than a change of clothes and some deodorant. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Dennis chuckled, and a sharp slap landed on Bjorn's ass as he went to step into his pants. He jumped about a foot in the air and spun like a dancer. "What…?!"

Dennis was grinning at him, the look just begging Bjorn to make a big deal of it. Oh, two could play at that game! "Oh, never mind," he said with a casual wave of his hand. "Thought I felt a bug."

"A b-" Dennis's eyes widened. "Oh, you are such a bitch," he laughed. "Now, get dressed."

"Yessir." Bjorn worked his pants up to his hips, then donned a t-shirt. He gathered the clothes they'd left strewn around the night before and stuffed them into his bag, not paying much attention to what was whose.

"You gonna wash those for me, too?" Dennis asked, raising an eyebrow at Bjorn's packing style.

"I mean, I would if you needed clean clothes. It's no effort to throw an extra shirt and pair of jeans in with my load." He shrugged. Doing laundry wasn't a chore he disliked particularly – though folding the laundry once it was clean was anathema – so he wasn't going to act like it would be a big hardship to add in his mate's wash. "I'm not exactly a house-husband like my mom wanted, but I've got a good handle on all the household basics."

Dennis patted him on the shoulder on his way past to the bedroom doorway. "I don't doubt you do. You moved away early from everything you'd ever known, even your Gran, so you could finally be completely free from your shitty parents; I'm pretty sure you can manage to do the laundry and take out the trash."

It warmed him to hear his mate talking so confidently about Bjorn being good and competent. He didn't get much of that growing up, no matter how Gran loved him, and it had taken a long time to build confidence in himself. He hoped Dennis's confidence now meant that he really was growing on him, like the man had said the night before. He just had to keep it up, be as lovable as possible, and maybe he had a chance.

Straightening his shoulders, Bjorn followed his mate out of the bedroom, finding him bent over tying his sneakers. He was sorely tempted to return the ass slap, with interest, but he was still internally debating the wisdom of that when Dennis straightened up and met his eyes. "You wanted to slap my ass, didn't you?" Dennis challenged.

Bjorn shrugged. "Guilty. But I restrained myself, so I should get credit for that!"

Dennis visibly considered that, then nodded magnanimously. "I'll allow it. So. I was promised coffee. Lots of coffee."

"You got it. Got everything you need?" Bjorn checked, shouldering his overnight bag.

"Yup." Dennis held up his bag. "Wasn't much to gather, once you grabbed the laundry." He strode to the door and unlocked the security bar. "Now. Coffee."

"As you wish, mate."

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