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I watch him for a second.

Too long. He catches me looking and doesn’t look away, just slows his thumb against the ear.

Then I reach for the padded cuff, and his gaze drops to my hands.

Some of the softness leaves his face. The mouth that was half-open closes. The shoulders draw in a little.

Not all of it goes. The thumb keeps moving on the rabbit’s ear, slow and even.

“Just for now,” I promise him, gently taking his right wrist when he offers it to me without me having to ask.

Fuck me.

The fact that he gives it to me so freely makes me want to kiss him. Instead, I fasten the cuff around his wrist, secure it to the headboard, and then check the fit.

Kamden pulls his rabbit a little closer to his chest. “How much longer?”

The cuff.

He doesn’t have to say it. His free hand circles his trapped wrist above the padding as he asks.

“Not long,” I tell him.

His eyes rise to my face, searching it first before he lets himself believe anything. “Really?”

I glance down at where his wrist rests inside the padded restraint, at how he’s not pulling against it even now, just letting it hold him where I put him.

Yesterday, taking it off entirely would have been stupid. He’d have tested every door within an hour, and I knew it.

Even a few hours ago, I wouldn’t have considered it. There was still too much uncertainty in him, too much room for a bad decision made out of fear instead of thought.

Now?

Now I’m not so sure, because everything in him feels like mine.

And now that I’ve given in to the gravitational pull toward him, there’s no way in hell I’m ever letting him go.

But there are definitely other ways of keeping him here. Restraints that don’t feel as restrictive, like the weight of my hand on his neck, or the quiet command in my voice when I tell him to stay.

“Sooner than I thought,” I admit.

His face brightens like a lamp switched on in a dark room, and I hold up a finger.

“That does not mean today.”

The brightness dims slightly, like a cloud passing over the sun. Still, he says politely, “Okay,” his voice small but clear.

“You keep going the way you are, though, and we’ll try some time without it.” I brush a stray strand of hair from his forehead. “Do you think you can do that, sweetheart? Keep being my very good boy?”

He nods shyly, cheeks flushing. “Uh-huh.”

I smile. “That’s perfect. Now, you stay put, and I’ll be right back with some water and a snack.”

I leave before I can smile at him again—before that warmth in my chest turns into something even more dangerous.

Water.

Food.