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I huffed, stepping back and pulling him into my apartment. “I must have a problem.”

“It’s fine,” he said solemnly, dropping his bag on the floor and kicking the door shut behind him. “I’ll be a bad influence and feed your addiction. Whenever you need to see my face, just let me know. Or my dick,” he added after a pause. “I’ll selflessly show you my dick whenever you need me to.”

“My hero,” I deadpanned, heading for my tiny kitchenette to get him a glass of water.

“Do you need to see it right now?” he asked hopefully as he followed.

I burst out laughing. “Maybe later.”

“Nice.” Strong arms wrapped around me from behind as I filled his glass at the tap. Nuni bent his knees to kiss my neck. “How was your evening?”

“I went for a drink with Hustin after work.” Nerves made my palm slightly clammy as I passed him the glass. He hadn’t asked for water, but I knew Nuni. He was regimented about his water consumption.

He released me to take it and gulped it down as I watched, fiddling with the hem of my pyjama top. Now that he was here, in front of me, I was nervous. I wanted to talk to him about… everything. And deep down, I believed he felt the same way.

But it was still nerve-wracking as shit.

“Where did you go?” Nuni asked with interest as he put his empty glass in the sink.

My mouth quirked into an affectionate smile. That was the thing about Nuni. He was genuinely interested in me and the things I told him. He wasn’t a self-obsessed asshole.

Okay, he was pretty self-obsessed in some ways, but he wasn’t narcissistic. He was thoughtful and considerate.

And I was definitely a tiny bit in love with him.

“Bismuth’s,” I told him, taking his hand and tugging him over to the couch. “Have you been there before?”

“Yeah, my sister Suni loves that bar.” Nuni chuckled as he settled beside me on the couch, jerking his chin at the TV. “What are you watching?”

“It’s that show where humans compete like old-world demiurgus.” I shuffled as close to him as possible, smiling when he automatically wrapped his arm around me and tugged me into his side.

“Oh yeah, Greid watches this.” Nuni cocked his head. “I’d be so fuckin’ good at it.”

“You’re a demiurgus. Of course you would.”

“I know, but I’m a born-and-raised surface dweller, so I’m just saying.” Through the soft cashmere of his sweater, I felt his muscles flex. “I am really good at climbing, even though I don’t stay in my true form very much.”

He’d already told me that, when he showed me his deeproom a while back. I was interested in seeing his true demiurgus form, but I wasn’t going to pressure him into showing me.

Slipping my hand beneath his sweater to smooth it over his warm stomach, I teasingly asked, “Bring your new pyjamas?”

I’d started buying frog-themed things for him whenever I saw them, and my most recent purchase had been a pair of pyjama pants covered in an illustrated pattern of blue poison dart frogs. I’d had to endure an animated ten-minute speech about the aposematic patterns of frogs in the Dendrobatidae family when I presented the gift to him, but it had been worth it.

“Of course I did,” Nuni told me solemnly, slipping his hand down the back of my own pyjama bottoms to squeeze my backside. “Gotta bring PJs for a sleepover. Unless you want me to go now that you’ve had your fill of seeing my beautiful face. Well, after I’ve shown you my dick, of course.”

I laughed through a fresh bout of nerves that churned my stomach. “No, I don’t want you to go.”

He grinned down at me, dipping his head to nudge his flat nose against mine before kissing me. “Good. Your bed is nowhere near big enough, but it’s still pretty comfy. Plus, you’ll be in it. I can put up with a shitty mattress for that.”

“My mattress is not shitty,” I protested. “It’s just… maybe a little old.”

He chuckled, patting my ass as he dropped another kiss on my temple. “It’s fine, Nita.”

I licked my lips, my mouth suddenly dry. “Nuni?”

“Yeah?” His eyes were focused back on the TV, and he actually looked interested in the show, but his gaze quickly leapt to me when I shifted around and straddled his lap. His big hands settled on my hips, squeezing gently as he grinned at me. “Dick time?”

I laughed, wrapping my arms loosely around his neck. “No. Not yet.”