Chapter Twenty-Three
Oakley
My new favorite part of the day was nighttime. Not because I liked sleeping that much, but because I’d managed to get Roman to watch TV with me and sleep on my couch with me every night for the last seven nights in a row.
We didn’t do anything except snuggle, but it was perfect.
Even Rome’s complaining didn’t bother me. In fact, every time he complained about things the archeologist got wrong on ParaHist, I was amused and more entertained than I would’ve been if I’d watched it alone.
Apparently, Roman was so damn old he remembered more than half the things the show’s crew dug up.
It was ridiculous, and even though he acted like he hated it, I was pretty sure he enjoyed telling the television how wrong they were.
And he definitely enjoyed pausing the show so he could tell me the artifact’s true history.
Last night, he’d given me a fifteen-minute-long lecture on the correct history of some ifrit vase the crew had found. His arms flailed as he passionately told me how wrong the TV guys were, and I’d sat there, staring at him in amusement. It was kind of adorable.
I loved it.
Spending this time with him had been amazing.
On the other hand, I was pissed off because my dad still wouldn’t let Roman and me back into the trafficking case.
The two of us had snuck in to talk to the surviving victims from the auction house, but other than that—which my dad didn’t even know about—we’d been completely cut off.
So I wasn’t really talking to him.
And neither was Roman.
So much for Dad wanting us home.
“You’re going to go argue our case again?” I asked Roman as we ate lunch together in my condo.
He nodded. “Yeah. I need to talk to Garrick anyway, so I figured I’d bring it up again.”
I sighed. “He’s not going to change his mind.”
“I know, but I’m hoping if we keep pestering him, he’ll let us back in… eventually.”
I snorted. “Yeah, eventually.”
“What are you doing today?”
“I’m gonna go out with Keryth and the girls. Zell and Sara need some new clothes because they’re growing so much, so I thought I’d tag along since I can’t work.”
“And Anton is picking you up from here, right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, he’s coming, so you can pass me off to him, alright?”
Since Roman was supposed to be my bodyguard for the foreseeable future, he had to set up another guard to take over for him while he spoke to my dad.
We’d gone through this before. It wasn’t reasonable for him to literally spend twenty-four seven with me at all times, so he and Dad had set up a few people to take his place when Rome couldn’t be with me.
There were very few people my dad trusted to guard me, and luckily, Keryth’s viramore was one of them.
I loved Anton, so at least it wouldn’t be annoying to have him tag along.
Still made me want to roll my eyes, though.
He nodded. “Good. It’ll be nice to hang out with all of them. I know they all miss you.”
“I miss them too.” I stared at him for a moment. “But I need to stop these traffickers.”
“I know. I feel the same.” He stared at me for a moment. “We’re gonna meet back up for dinner tonight, right?”
“Are you asking as my bodyguard or as my… friend?”
He rolled his eyes. “Your friend. I assume Anton will pass you off to me, but that doesn’t mean I only want to spend time with you because of it. I would’ve wanted to regardless.”
Even though I wanted to be annoyed at him, I knew he was telling the truth so I couldn’t get too angry. “You sure?”
He faced me, looking super serious. “Yes, Oak. Of course. I was hanging out with you before the bodyguard thing came back up, wasn’t I?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”
“I promise I want to spend time with you. So… on that note, do you want to have dinner with me tonight?”
I smiled. “For sure. You wanna go out so you don’t have to cook for once?”
He didn’t answer for a long moment, just staring at me with this look of… happiness? Affection? I didn’t know what it was, but finally, he said in a husky voice, “I’d love to go out with you.”
My belly swooned, and I lost my voice for a moment, unsure of how to take it. Did he… did he mean on a date?
I blinked.
No, he couldn’t possibly want to take me on a date. That was just my stupid crush doing all kinds of wild stuff to my brain… and my heart.
I sucked in a breath and nodded. “That’ll be fun.”
He smiled softly at me. “It sure will. I’ll make a reservation for two at… six-thirty?”
“Perfect.”
The way he’d said for two almost made it sound like he was emphasizing it, like he wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to invite anyone else out with us.
Was… was it a date?
I stared at him. At Roman, my sometimes bodyguard, my always work partner, my very dear… friend.
My crush.
And my father’s best friend.
I almost grimaced at that thought.
Right. He definitely couldn’t be asking me out, not when he was best friends with Dad, not when his king would want to murder him.
I held in an annoyed sigh and concentrated on my food.
No date for me.
Probably ever, if Dad had any say in the matter.
We finished our sandwiches in companionable silence, then cleaned up and headed for the door.
“The Emissaries of Gepisha’s Iron cultist still isn’t speaking?” Roman asked.
I shook my head. “I spoke to Tan earlier, and he said the guy’s still not speaking at all. Apparently, he won’t say even a single word, not even what he wants for lunch or whatever when a guard asks him.”
He nodded, then sighed. “That’s what I heard from Tan yesterday. I was hoping the guy broke overnight.”
“I honestly think he’s a dead-end.” I shrugged.
Having the Emissaries of Gepisha’s Iron after me was nothing new. Sure, we’d thought they’d given up—or at least I’d hoped they had—but it would be fine. Not ideal, but we’d dealt with it before, we’d deal with it again.
When we reached the elevators, he had to go up, and I had to go down—but I knew Rome wasn’t going to leave my side until my stand-in bodyguard was there, ugh—so we found ourselves staring at each other for a long moment.
The private elevator dinged, and we both got on. Hopefully, Anton was already waiting in the lobby. The only way this could be more awkward was if we had to stand around for a long time.
The elevator pinged, the doors opened, and I was relieved to see Anton standing right there. He met my gaze and smiled a tiny bit. “Hello, Oakley.”
“Hey, Anton.” I offered a grin. “Thanks for doing this.”
He waved that off. “It’s no problem.” He turned to Roman and bowed his head. “Thank you for trusting me. I promise to take good care of them.”
Roman was quiet for a few seconds before he returned the head bow gesture. “I know you will, and thank you. I appreciate your help.”
Anton straightened. “Anytime.” He held his elbow out to me. “Shall we?”
“Yes, just… gimme one sec.” I hesitated for only a second before I stepped closer to Rome and pressed my lips to his cheek, then whispered, “I’ll see you later.”
He sent me a soft smile, the one he reserved for only me. “See you later, babydoll.”
My heart flipped inside my chest, and my crush on him grew about five billion percent—and it’d already grown ten billion from all the cuddling this week.
It was so humongous now that they could probably see it from outer space.
With a nod, I stepped back and looped my hand through Anton’s elbow, watching the elevator doors close on Roman, and I finally blew out a long breath.
Holy crap. What was he doing to me?