Jeheon Han had fallen asleep peacefully, but around 4 a.m. he started to toss and turn.

Caesar woke from a light doze when the man trapped in his arms began to squirm.

Did he wake up?

As the drowsiness lifted, dulled senses sharpened, and things he hadn’t noticed before caught his attention.

Hun?

The forearm he’d wrapped around him was soaked with cold sweat, and instead of the calm breaths that had been puffing through those lips, low groans were leaking out.

Caesar smoothly pushed his own cumbersome hair back out of the way and began quietly studying Jeheon’s face.

Ah. A nightmare.

Then the content is obvious.

He’s probably dreaming about a hammer.

There’s nothing else that thick-sinewed man would fear more than that.

Should I wake him?

He hesitated, then shook his head.

If I wake him now, his pride will take a hit. He’s the type who hates showing weakness to anyone…

He’d been like that since his league days.

Even when a rival stepped on his foot and cracked the bone, he refused to show he was hurt, insisting, “If I go down, the game gets hard. I don’t want to drag the team down,” and played to the end. If I fuss over him now, it’ll only burden him.

Better to soothe him while he sleeps.

Caesar dug through old memories.

The trouble was, across all those many “repeats,” there weren’t that many times Jeheon had shown him a weak side.

Still… there were a few.

It took quite a while before he found the memory.

Back then, because of trauma, he’d turned to meds, and whenever he had a nightmare he looked for them. Once he touched the stuff, he got addicted and dependent on all kinds of things… So on those nights, I tied his arms down and…

…gave him a different breed of pleasure. Until he broke down sobbing and promised, “I won’t do that crap again.”

Silver eyes rolled and looked back down at Jeheon’s face.

The type of PTSD hasn’t changed, so he’s probably carrying similar damage this time too. But that way of soothing is all I ever learned…

And the Jeheon here… he actually blends into society pretty well.

Even if it’s the same trauma, maybe the pain’s a lot shallower than before.

Do I get hated for hurting his pride, or get hated for doing something inappropriate…

He was still weighing it when—

“Mmngh…”

Jeheon groaned, lifted a hand, and tried to claw his own face. Caesar caught the hand on reflex and held it down.

He stared at the sleeping man’s face again.

Poor thing. He should’ve woken by now, but he can’t, like he’s pinned by sleep paralysis.

At this rate he’ll be trapped like that all dawn and only come to in the morning—looking even more gaunt than before he slept.

“It was a long, exhausting day, and now he can’t even sleep… No matter how sturdy he is, I don’t like watching it.”

Murmuring under his breath, Caesar lowered his head without hesitation.

Soft lips began to press mechanical little kisses to the beaded cold sweat at the corners of Jeheon’s eyes and along the bridge of his nose.

“Nn…”

Each time his lips touched and lifted, a cute little pop sounded on skin.

“…”

Under the light, feathery kiss-barrage, Jeheon’s tightly furrowed brow eased. Strength drained from the wrist that had been twitching like it might scratch at his eyes any second.

Ah. It works.

Encouraged by the positive response, Caesar let go of his wrist and slid a hand to support the nape of his neck. The head tipped back a little, and a natural gap opened between his lips.

“Mm—”

An instant later, the parted mouths sealed. Two tongues with a faint hint of mint tangled, and the soft pops that had been on skin now sounded mouth-to-mouth.

“Mm.”

The tongue that had been testing, sucking, and licking at his lips suddenly pushed in deep. It homed straight in on the sensitive spot along the palate and started to suck.

Fingers that had gone slack twitched and jumped.

“Ha…”

When their mouths broke for a beat, a pant leaked through the parting. The limp fingers stirred again.

Caesar laced their fingers together.

“Shh. It’s okay…”

Then he pressed in deep again.

Who knows how long the tongues tangled to those wet sounds. Strength began to return to that hand that had only been twitching.

Sleep paralysis broke.

Almost at the same time, Caesar gently licked around Jeheon’s mouth to erase the traces of the kiss, quickly unwove their fingers, and lay back down.

In short: he started pretending to be asleep like nothing had happened.

And he’d judged well. Within minutes, Jeheon woke.

“Ugh…”

Back to himself, the man sighed once, then slowly pushed himself up.

“What is that stupid dream…”

From the prickling heat on his cheek, he was probably staring holes into him.

He looked down quietly at Caesar for a moment, then sighed and shook his head.

“So much for my self-control.”

Sounded like he’d mistaken the hazy memory of a kiss for a dirty dream.

The adorable misconception almost made Caesar laugh, but he clamped his lips shut. If he laughed now, Jeheon would realize it hadn’t been a dream.

“Shower…”

Meanwhile, Jeheon got up and shuffled out of the bedroom—obviously to deal with certain bodily changes caused by that kiss.

Only then did Caesar allow himself a foggy smile.

Anyway, the man really did have a surprisingly innocent streak.

I was helping Caesar with breakfast when my face suddenly went hot. Because I remembered what happened before dawn.

Two wet dreams about that man, in a row…

On the plus side, the nightmare turning into a wet dream left me feeling better… but facing him the very next day made it weird.

I didn’t make any weird noises in my sleep, did I?

If Caesar heard, I’d die of shame.

Sighing, I dragged the zester over the lemon. Half-enlightened, I kept on with the repetitive task, and my phone lit up. It was a text from Noah.

Captain, you’re coming to morning practice today, right?

Practice?

Ah… right, I think that came up when I talked to Noah yesterday.

I set the lemon down and texted back.

Can’t make it today.

I’m still with him.

Go with McQueen, just the two of you.

I’d barely put the phone down before messages started flooding in, but I deliberately turned my head away from the screen.

“Your phone’s going off nonstop. That the friend from yesterday?”

Because of the man next to me.

Yeah, I figured you’d get jealous…

I kept my tone as even as possible.

“Even after I retired, the three of us—McQueen, Noah, and me—kept doing morning practice. On overlapping days off, we never skipped.”

“You need someone there to clock your times?”

“No, uh… If you get hurt alone, there’s no one to do first aid.”

“So you were pushing hard enough to get hurt.”

“That’s football. You jump high, you explode with speed in a split second… ligaments snapping isn’t even a big deal.”

By then, the lemon was stripped bare.

I held up the cleanly peeled lemon to show Caesar.

“All done.”

“Nice and neat.”

Even while he praised me, my screen blinked on and off a few more times.

At this rate the battery’s gonna die. I should plug it in…

With that in mind, I picked up my phone again—only for Caesar to pluck it out of my hand and set it back at the far edge of the table.

“You’re not even leaving the house today. Why hold that?”

“I…”

“You itching to go work out?”

I started to say I wasn’t replying, when suddenly Caesar pressed himself flush to my back. His particular scent and his warm body heat spread over me.

“You can work out with me.”

“…”

“You said we’re having a date, and you’re going to spend your time on someone else?”

I glanced back and found him pouting.

You’re a little too close…

Just a bit closer and there’d be no space left between our backs. And with him dipping his head a little, if I turned mine just a bit more, our lips would—

Ugh, I didn’t need confirmation that my self-control is feather-light.

Thanks to last night’s dream, the patience I was already short on was worn even thinner.

It’s my place, and nobody’s watching… should I just start something?

With that thought, I reached back and grabbed Caesar’s forearm—

[ding-dong]

The doorbell rang at the front door.

Chapter 24

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