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Onus Angelorum — Sheets
Chapter 1 — Alerie and Leo start off the story together.
Leo’s body was a stunning example of superior breeding, but his shower rendition of “Dust in the Wind” was off-key.
Pulling the crumpled sheets with me, I crawled back on the naked mattress and savored the rush of endorphins time with his skin always produced.
Spicy perfume from my clove and honey body wash floated in the steamy bedroom air. I imagined Leo standing under the hot water, sniffing all my scrubs and conditioners, deciding what bottle to slather on his skin next.
Over the last few years, Leo’s still teen-like body converted to the muscular athlete’s physique he paraded around naked today. Rugby training carved a superb V-pack of stomach muscles into his torso. Go, Colonels, indeed.
The sight of Leo naked made my insides quiver, especially when I didn’t see him for days at a time, but I would never admit this — his ego was too big already.
Leo was a Kane, one of my family’s oldest allies. His father and my mother were longtime friends. Allies like the Kanes were more loyal than blood relatives in my experience. Preserving these relationships was important. Community and secrecy are all that shields our Clan from outright exposure in the end.
As a business major, Leo would graduate next year — well before me. The thought of being away from home without him drained all the enthusiasm I usually felt when contemplating my future away from Clan rules.
Switching from full-on Med to Biology this year was not well received by my parents. Still, there’s less math with this major and less of everything else I was at failing at miserably.
Being hidden from Clan gossip had advantages, but Leo and I wouldn’t be allowed to continue our more than friendly interactions once we moved back home.
It wasn’t like we were in love.
Being raised together, Leo and I were like incestuous siblings bound by old secrets and a list of ridiculously outdated Clan traditions.
Someday, Leo and I would be expected to find suitable spouses who advanced our Clan’s way of life. But for now, I could enjoy looking down at him, looking up at him, and looking back at him.
