Page 55 of Cold Ignition

In his chest.

In his hands tightening at Rangi’s back.

In the way his breath hitched when Rangi deepened the angle just enough to take more without asking for it.

Alexios didn’t interrupt.

He adjusted.

One hand slid along Keanu’s side, steadying, grounding, while the other caught the back of Rangi’s neck, guiding him aside—not breaking the contact, just shifting it.

“Share,” Alexios murmured.

Rangi huffed a breath against Keanu’s mouth, a soft, amused sound. “Was planning to.”

Alexios took his turn with a different kind of heat.

Slower.

Deliberate.

He kissed like he did everything—controlled, precise, claiming space inch by inch instead of taking it all at once. Keanu felt the difference immediately—the way Alexios set the pace, the pressure, the intent—and it hit something deeper than instinct.

It steadied him.

Focused him.

Made the moment feel less like something slipping out of control and more like something being built.

Keanu’s hands tightened on both of them, grounding himself in the reality of it—the weight of their bodies, the heat of their skin, the fact that this wasn’t imagined or hypothetical anymore.

This was happening.

Rangi’s hands moved again, sliding lower, fingers hooking into the hem of Keanu’s shirt. He didn’t yank it up—didn’t rush the moment—just lifted it slowly, giving him space to stop it.

Keanu didn’t.

The fabric dragged over his skin, cool air replacing it, every nerve suddenly too aware.

“Yeah,” Rangi murmured, voice rough with approval. “That’s what I thought.”

Alexios’s gaze tracked the movement, sharp and attentive, cataloging the reactions he pulled out of Keanu like data points he intended to use later.

“Bed,” he said quietly.

The word settled into the room like gravity.

Inevitable.

Keanu let them guide him back, each step slower than the last, the edge of the mattress catching behind his knees before he dropped down onto it. The surface gave slightly under his weight, grounding him even as everything else sharpened.

Rangi followed immediately, crowding in close, one knee pressing into the bed beside Keanu’s thigh, one hand braced behind him while the other traced over bare skin with a familiarity that hadn’t been earned by time—but somehow still felt right.

Alexios took his place on the other side, slower, measured, watching the interplay between them before stepping in only when it mattered.

Always when it mattered.

Keanu looked between them, chest rising and falling harder now, breath uneven, the world narrowing to the two men in front of him and the pull that had been building since the moment he’d seen Rangi across a track years ago.