Mal nods. He lets a beat of silence linger, a thoughtful look on his face, before telling Rowan, “You get it. Usually takes people a lot longer to suss this shit out, but you’re good at readin’ me. If I felt like you weren’t getting it or you needed a firm set of boundaries, I’d say we should write something. But that’s not the case.”

There’s that flush again, this time spreading all the way down to his fucking toes with a cascade of warmth that has nothing to do with the redness of his skin.

“It helps that you’re pretty open about what you like,” Rowan tells him.

Mal grunts noncommittally. “You’d think so. Had some Doms in the past who’d flat-out ignore obvious cues, let alone subtle ones.”

Rowan’s not surprised. He thinks back to the man he’d helped at the club barely more than a month ago. How his partner hadn’t noticed all the signs of someone slipping out of consciousness, some of which should be obvious even to an untrained eye.

“Used to it from work, I guess,” Rowan tells him.

“Didn’t know paramedics fucked their patients,” Mal quips back, amusement in his eyes.

“Only the hot ones,” Rowan jokes. Mal’s tiny side smile feels like a victory before he continues, “Nah, I mean that, like, half the time the people we help are either unconscious or close to it, so you kinda have to be good at reading body language and shit if they can’t tell you what’s wrong.”

Mal hums thoughtfully. He stuffs some BBQ chips inside the corner of his sandwich and takes a bite, the crunch of it reminding Rowan that his oyster crackers are probably soggy in his soup by now.

As Rowan’s scooping them out with his spoon, Mal says, “The one thing I’d say is that there were times when you could’a gone further.”

Rowan raises an eyebrow at him. “Oh yeah?”

“Mmm. Not complainin’, but you could’a made me work for shit more. Not given in so easily.”

Rowan shifts in his seat. “Pretty fuckin’ hard denying you anything, Mal.”

As soon as the words leave his mouth, Rowan wants to kick himself. Because that’s a whole lotta too much too soon that’s probably going to make Mal uncomfortable. Hell, it makes him uncomfortable with how sincere it is.

But thankfully Mal blows right past it. “Push and pull, man. I get off on being denied shit, and you get off on doin’ it. The payoff’s more satisfying havin’ to work for it.”

“Yeah,” Rowan tells him. “I know. Just… need to get outta my head.”

Maybe there’s something off about Rowan’s tone, because Mal’s eyes narrow a fraction before he speaks again. “You feel guilty or anything?”