Present Day, London

The feeling of nostalgia was back now, but it felt a little different. Not an ache for home but for the familiar. This situation with Thom brought back memories even though it was different from the trap I’d fallen into with Yun Seo, and as I wandered through the city I found his ghost haunting my steps. 

Standing on a street corner, I looked up to see an advertisement for Requite on the digital billboard on the other side of the street and stared at it until the display changed, remembering the way working for Yun Seo had made me feel. It had been thrilling and a little unsettling at times, but overall it had been strangely empowering. I’d felt like I was making a difference in a world where hardly anyone got the chance to feel that way, but all along I’d known there would be a price for what we were doing. Bucking the system was always going to have consequences. I managed to escape before I had to pay that price myself, but that didn’t mean it would go unpaid.

I worked my shift at the Goldcrest in a daze. Lyla was so giddy about her date the night before that she didn’t notice my sullen behavior. She didn’t even question me when I offered to lock up again, grateful to have an opportunity for round two with her new friend. I didn't see any fresh graffiti on my way home or hear any footsteps on roof tiles, and the apartment was once again empty when I arrived home. I wasn’t quite ready to talk to Thom again, so I was grateful to find Thom’s bedroom door open and the room beyond dark.

The air in the flat was chilly enough that I checked the thermostat to make sure that it was still set at the right temperature. Deciding to take a scalding shower to warm myself up, I blamed my shivers on my emotional turmoil, but the apartment felt even colder after the heat of my shower. I dressed in a long-sleeved t-shirt and sweatpants, suspecting I would get overheated partway through the night, but I felt too cold to settle for my usual t-shirt and boxers.

I was almost asleep when a series of metallic thuds startled me back into alertness. They sounded like footsteps on the fire escape outside, but they were light, like the footsteps of a child. For a moment I thought I had dreamed the sound, but then I heard it again, followed by a yowl and a thump against the wall. 

Still lethargic with sleep, I crawled out of bed and saw movement in Thom’s room when I stepped into the hallway. I approached the door cautiously and flipped on the light, freezing when I saw a cat on Thom’s bed. Trying to figure out where it had come from, I noticed that the window was open and chuckled at the mundane explanation for the cold. Ignoring me, the cat limped across the covers, leaving a trail of blood over the white fabric, its broad paws sinking deep into the comforter with its weight. I’d never seen a cat so large. All black except for a patch of white fur on its chest, it hissed at me and retreated as soon as I moved toward the bed.

“Stay there,” I instructed as I backed out of the room, not sure why I expected an obviously feral cat to understand and obey. I searched the bathroom until I found a first aid kit and dampened a rag with lukewarm water. Returning to the bedroom, I approached the cat with outstretched hands. “You’re hurt,” I said gently, feeling foolish for trying to communicate with an animal. “Will you let me patch you up?”

The cat made an irritated sound but didn’t move away, its ears flattening to its head as I cleaned the blood off its paw. When I got too close to the wound on its flank, it flinched out of reach, leaving a scratch on my arm that burned. Wincing, I decided I’d done enough cleaning. 

“This will sting a little,” I told the cat as I squeezed some salve onto the cuts, and it made a soft sound of warning, its tail flipping wildly over the covers as I wrapped a bandage around its paw, amazed that the animal had allowed me to do this much. On some level I’d already started to suspect the truth, but it was the middle of the night and I was barely coherent, so focused on taking care of the creature that had wandered into my life out of nowhere that I didn’t spare much thought for how strange and dreamlike the entire situation really was. 

Once the cat’s wounds were bandaged, I pushed the window until it was open only enough for the cat to flee when it was ready. I had a feeling Thom would be angry to find a wounded cat on his bed when he got home, but the thought seemed less important than it should have been as I crawled back into my own bed, so tired that I began to drift off almost immediately. I felt the bed shift as something heavy landed on top but was too tired to move as I felt a bundle of warmth curl up beside me, rumbling with a deep purr.

I woke up the next morning in stages, noticing first how warm and content I felt. There was sunlight shining on my face, bright enough that it was burning through my eyelids, so I shifted to find a patch of shade, surprised when I bumped into something cold.

Opening my eyes as I backed away, I saw Thom’s face looking back at me, his burnished gold eyes watching me with a mixture of curiosity and something else, something I wasn’t yet ready to acknowledge. I blinked a few times to make sure I wasn’t still asleep and tried to assess the situation. Thom was naked except for the bandages on his ankle and shoulder, and he was curled on top of my duvet, his face close enough for me to feel his breath on my skin. My body reacted to his nudity but I did my best to hide my arousal, determined to stick to my self-imposed chastity where Thom was concerned.

I swallowed hard. “You’re a cat,” I said softly, foggy memories of tending to an injured stray the night before coming back to me with the unreality of a dream.

His lips curved but didn’t quite resolve into a smile. 

“How did you get hurt?”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.” Lifting his uninjured hand to the side of my face, he traced cool fingers over my cheekbone and then my ear.

I shivered and squeezed my eyes shut. “No,” I whispered.

“Yes,” he retorted. “I can smell your desire. You’ve been reeking of it from the moment we met, and I only have so much self-control.”

I pushed against him as he leaned toward me to prevent him from moving closer. “This is a bad idea.”

He laughed. “I’m not expecting a long-term commitment. You only signed a three-month lease, remember? And it’s already been a month.” He nipped at my nose, his breath warm against my skin while his nose was cold as he nuzzled against me, his lips dragging over mine as he continued. “You don’t want to help me protect my kingdom? Fine. But you can give me this much, can’t you? I promise you won’t regret it.”

My resolve was crumbling, the heat of his body too insistent to ignore. My willpower fell apart with the first kiss, and soon I was grasping at his shoulders and letting him pin me down to the mattress, his tongue delving deeper until all I could think about was the way it felt, rough and agile against my own. I didn’t track all the details after that, unsure how I managed to strip off my clothes, whether I did it on my own or with his help, but soon I was on hands and knees, my back arching with pleasure as he filled me from behind, my fingers clawing at the sheets as he took me hard and fast. 

I floated through the aftermath of my first orgasm, my mind drifting through memories of different hands holding me down, other teeth against my jaw, and shuddered when he finally grunted through his own release, his voice deep and familiar in my ear in a way I hadn’t expected. I blacked out after he coaxed a second, unexpected orgasm from my body too soon after the first, wondering briefly how he had managed it before the darkness swallowed me whole.