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Kell’s rhythm breaks with mine. He’s still moving, but there’s nothing measured about it now, only short, uneven strokes that carry me through every aftershock until the last hard rush of pleasure leaves me shaking beneath him.

My release tips him over with me. Kell locks above me as the resonance drops so low I feel it through the mattress. His hips press fully against me, and for one suspended second every strand in his body seems drawn tight.

Then he comes apart. Not the way a human man does.

A powerful shudder runs through the length of him. The weave beneath my hands draws tight, then eases as the resonance tears through his entire body, deep and rough and unmistakably involuntary. His arms tremble. Another shudder follows the first, then another, each one vibrating through him where he’s still buried inside me.

Nothing spills between us. There’s no human finish to clean up afterward.

Just Kell. His whole living structure caught in pleasure. I wrap both arms around him and hold on because I want to feel every shudder.

The resonance gradually thins to a faint hum. Kell remains braced above me, still inside me, the weave beneath my hands trembling with the last of it.

Neither of us speaks. Then he raises his head.

“That was an orgasm.” It isn’t a question.

I start laughing. Kell gives me an offended expression. “What?”

“Yes. It absolutely was.” He pauses for perhaps two seconds.

“I like sex.”

That makes me laugh harder. Kell is still inside me while the last of the resonance fades through his body. I run one hand down his back.

“You can pull out now.”

His head lifts slightly. “Now?”

“Yeah.”

He withdraws carefully, and I exhale as the pressure eases. There’s something reassuring about the clear ending of it.

Kell lies down beside me. For a while, neither of us says anything.

My bedroom looks exactly the same as it did this morning. Same lamps. Same dresser. Same ridiculous throw pillow now lying on the floor because the decorative symmetry didn’t survive the evening.

I’m warm, pleasantly sore, and still trying to process how quickly Kell has developed a very strong opinion about sex. There are probably several responsible thoughts I should be having. I don’t have any of them. Kell turns onto his side.

“Laura?”

“Hmm?”

“You were worried downstairs that I could not choose.”

I turn my head toward him. “That was part of it.”

He reaches toward my hand, then stops just short of touching me.

“Can I hold your hand?”

My breath catches. After everything we’ve just done, it should be the easiest thing he’s asked of me all night. Instead, the tenderness of it catches me completely off guard.

“Yes.”

His fingers close around mine.

“I chose.”