Don't make a sound, don't make a sound, I chanted silently to myself as I felt my way backwards, unable to peel my eyes off the sight of Dain railing someone up against the garden wall. I made it around the corner and turned, wide-eyed, trying to creep away. Behind me, the woman's voice broke out into a series of moans, followed by a shuddering cry that sent another flash of heat down across my body, spiking into tingling want in my nipples and between my legs.

I started walking faster. Dain's growl chased me, coiling around me as if he was sliding his fingers down my body, and then he cried out, a groaning sound of raw pleasure as he orgasmed. Don't think about it, don't think about it, I thought, attempting to escape. Oh, my God, what if he could smell that I'd been there? What if he followed me?

I zipped away from their corner of the garden and found a different one, dropping down onto a bench and staring at a lily pond without seeing it. I was seeing Dain's strong back and the serpentine motion of his hips, and my body was spending a forceful amount of energy imagining what it would be like to get bitten by him. I've been told it's very pleasurable. God. I did not need the mental imagery. Dain was hot enough without me knowing that he had snake hips and liked to growl during sex.

He's an ass, I reminded myself.

He certainly does have an ass, the carnal part of my brain helpfully supplied, along with some supporting evidence.

I groaned and leaned my head back, staring up at a starry sky without a single familiar constellation. It was bizarre to know that pretty much all kinds of intense emotional relationships were on the table for me and Dain, garden-wall fucking included, if I decided not to hold him at arm's-length. Friendship seemed... better, though. Safer.

We could have aggressive hate-sex until the death of the sun.

Tempting as sex was, and as much as I liked it, I wasn't really that interested in a kismesis-style relationship, let alone one that would last until the death of the sun. And, hot as Dain was, I didn't feel any possessive jealousy over the fact that he'd been banging a rando in the garden.