Rowan and Mal clean up their belongings and wipe down the cross quickly, working in tandem. When they’re finished, Rowan leads them to the recovery room where Mal collapses onto the bed with a heavy, contented sigh. Rowan joins him, tugging Mal toward him and relishing in his body heat as Mal curls into his side.

He kisses the top of Mal’s head, whispering sweet nothings in his ear while he comes down. Mal hums lightly, reaching for Rowan’s hand and interlacing their fingers.

“Love you,” Mal whispers.

“Love you too,” Rowan replies, voice and heart light.

It feels good. Feels right, having Mal like this. Rowan is so lucky to have him.

They’ll settle down for a while, get their heart rates and minds back under control and wait for the rush of endorphins to subside. Then they’ll go home, cuddle up on the couch with some shitty movie on in the background and talk about nothing in particular. Eventually they’ll make their way to bed and fall asleep in each other’s arms.

A perfect ending to a perfect day. Rowan doesn’t think he’s off base saying he hopes it’ll be the ending of all their days for the rest of their lives. But for now, he’s happy with what they have.

They’ll always have the Menagerie.

It’ll be here when they need to get away, when they need to come home. It started as an impersonal place to lose themselves, but they never expected to find something else along the way. And now, they have so much more than a club.

They have each other.

And that’s worth its weight in gold.

Keep Reading for an Exclusive Excerpt from If You Let Me by Saria Bryant, Coming This Summer from Dreamspinner Press

CHAPTER ONE

SPRING BREAKS had never been more than a week of Jasper locking himself in his room and keeping quiet. How enjoyable the week was always inversely correlated to the number of times he saw his father, which meant spring breaks were usually shit.

This year was different. Now that he’d moved in with his cousin Amber, her fiancé Terrance, and their three housemates, he no longer had to sneak around his own home to avoid verbal or physical blows. This year Jasper intended to enjoy himself, especially while he had a small break from both college and his part-time job. Which was how he ended up standing inside a kink club on Saturday night.