Nervous. Truly? Damen slid a studying look at him. He remembered what Laurent had said last night, and started to wonder if he wasn't the only one left feeling vulnerable by their disastrous sexual encounters so far. He simply nodded and left the laces alone. He liked the way Laurent called him by that name.

Mornings, Damen's hair was even more of a wild mane than it was after being tamed in the bath. Curls launched themselves in every direction, and the moment Laurent let one go, it would spring up more enthusiastically than before.

"Yesterday," Damen said. He spread his hands over Laurent's bare back. "You were angry when you left the room. You have parted in anger every time we try to make love. I begin to think that I am - unwittingly forcing my attentions on you." Those soothing strokes returned, a slow rhythm tracing Laurent's shoulderblades. "Will you tell me, husband, what angered you, so that I may know what to avoid in the future?"