Page 51 of Petrified

Amand looks down at the folder again but doesn't reopen it. “Essence sent another proposal.”

Lev groans and rolls onto his back so he can look at him. “I thought we agreed paperwork was banned after dinner.”

“We agreed you weren't allowed to burn it.”

“That sounds like a loophole.”

Amand’s mouth pulls slightly at one corner. “They are offering us independent contracts. We would choose the cases and work without direct supervision.”

Lev sits up slowly between us. “For Essence?”

“Technically.”

His expression answers before he does. “No. I still want the work, but I'm not building the next part of my life inside the company Gerald used to study me.”

I rub my thumb against the side of his neck. “Then we don’t. We open our own place, take the cases we want, and nobody gets access to us because they sign our checks.”

Amand nods. “That was my preference too.”

Lev looks between us before leaning back into me. “Fine. But one of you is doing the paperwork.”

Amand opens the folder again and taps one of the pages. “We can deal with the business side tomorrow.”

Lev reaches over, takes the folder from him, and drops it onto the coffee table. “Tomorrow sounds excellent. Tonight, I would like both of you to stop pretending there is anything in that folder more interesting than me.”

I pull him closer until his back settles against my chest, and Amand catches his chin long enough to kiss him. Lev melts into it without hesitation, one hand sliding into Amand’s hair while the other finds mine where it rests against his stomach. There is nothing frantic in it, nothing desperate or tied to fear. When Amand pulls back, Lev turns his head toward me and kisses me next with the same slow certainty.

We stay like that for a while, trading touches and kisses without any urgency to make them become something else. Lev eventually ends up sideways across both of us again, one leg over Amand and his head against my shoulder, while my fingers trace lazy lines beneath the hem of the shirt he stole.

He goes quiet long enough that I start to think he is falling asleep.

Then he clears his throat.

Amand looks over immediately. “What?”

Lev scowls at him. “I was working up to something.”

“Then work.”

“That isn't helpful.”

I tighten my arm around his waist. “Take your time.”

Lev looks down at his own hand where it rests on my stomach, then reaches across himself until he catches Amand’s fingers too. “I have spent a truly embarrassing amount of time avoiding saying something because every time I thought about it, either somebody was trying to kill us or biology was doing something weird.”

I feel my chest tighten before he gets any farther.

Lev glances up at me, then toward Amand. “I love you. Both of you. I have for a while, probably longer than I was willing to admit, and I'm saying it now because nobody is dying and nobody forced it out of me.”

For a second, neither of us answers.

Lev’s face starts changing immediately. “If you both make that expression much longer, I'm going to regret this and possibly become a wall.”

Amand moves first. He catches Lev by the back of the neck and kisses him hard enough to stop whatever threat was coming next, and I wrap both arms around Lev from behind until he is pinned between us.

When Amand finally pulls back, his forehead stays against Lev’s. “I love you too.”

I turn Lev toward me enough that he has to look at me. “So do I.”