Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“That’s okay. I get it.” She definitely wasn’t my first choice.
I didn’t even have a first choice. I glanced at the food tent, cringing at the thought of walking in there where everyone would stare at us.
“Do you maybe want to take a walk? We could go to the playground or something. There’s a picnic table over there, and hopefully, no one else will be around. ”
“Let’s go.”
I was a little surprised by her eagerness, but I wasn’t about to complain. Maybe she didn’t want everyone staring at her either.
We walked in silence to the outskirts of our community to a small playground.
Technically, this playground was public property and off of our lands, but Master Gremyar had given us permission to use it when we were kids, and many of our community still came here.
In fact, no one else ever did, so it was as if this playground actually belonged to the Emissaries of Gepisha’s Iron.
Coral sat on the picnic table—the table part, not the bench—so I joined her, leaving plenty of space between us. She was quiet for a few minutes, and I had no idea what to say either, but finally, she asked, “You’re nonbinary, right?”
My eyebrows rose in surprise. “I am, yeah.”
She nodded. “So, um, you use they/them pronouns? After you told everyone last year, I managed to get a couple of books about being nonbinary and stuff—I had never heard of it before then. So, um, I’m sorry if I mess up, but I’m going to try.”
My mouth fell open in surprise. No one, not even my own mother, had been this considerate to me. Ever.
My eyes stung with emotion, but I still had to ask, “Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
I blinked back the tears that wanted to fall.
I’d been terrified of meeting with Coral, scared of spending alone time with a girl I didn’t know. But she’d just given me the most precious gift I’d ever received, and I didn’t think she even realized just how wonderful it was, how amazing she was being right now.
She tilted her head to the side, staring at me now. “I know this is weird, and we didn’t really… well, I just…” She sighed. “Look, this sucks. We both know it. But maybe we can try to… be friends? Or something? Right? We’re both in this, no matter what we want, so…”
I stared at her for a few seconds, taking a breath to clear away the emotions—the last thing I needed was someone else seeing me like this. “I think I’d like that.”
She smiled, just a little. “You like to read, right? I’ve seen you with books.”
“I love it. What about you?” And she’d said she got ahold of some books about being nonbinary. That meant she was sneaking in things that weren’t allowed too.
Maybe… maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. Not if we could be friends. I’d never had a friend before.
A secret smile spread across her face. “I have so many books. Maybe we can trade a few or something. Like, not to keep, but just to read? It’s hard getting new books here sometimes, but I bet you have some I haven’t read before. Do you, uh… like any romance books?”
My eyes widened. “I love romance. And adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, anything like that.”
“Really? Me too! Those are my favorites.”
We shared a smile, and yeah, maybe we really could be friends.
Hopefully she’d still want to after she got to know me better.
“Oakley.”
I blinked.
“Oak, you okay, babydoll?”
I sucked in a breath and turned to see Roman sitting beside me, staring at me in concern. “I…”
His head tilted to the side. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head, trying to shake off the random memory. “Nothing. I was just thinking.”
He stared at me for a long moment, and I was pretty sure he saw through my bullshit, but I was glad he didn’t call me out on it. If it was just the two of us, maybe I would tell him, but there were too many others around us right now. No one needed to know about Coral.
I’d have to tell Roman about her eventually, but not… not now.
Particularly not when today’s news—us being viramores—should be celebrated. And we both needed that, especially when my dad had treated Rome so badly.
So I shook off the unwanted memories and sent my viramore—holy shit, Roman’s my viramore—a small smile.
Roman stared at me for a moment, then sort of nodded to himself and asked Keryth, “Can we take our bags up now?”
Ker gave him a nod. “Sure.”
Keryth, Roman, and I got up and walked out of the family room.
Ker led us upstairs since that was where the bedrooms were, and I dutifully followed behind Roman—and yes, I totally checked out his ass when he was in front of me on the stairs.
I mean, who wouldn’t? It was a nice ass, and it was right there and had the added benefit of truly bringing me back into the here and now, leaving the past exactly where it should stay—behind me.
Plus, I still really wanted to lick him.
Keryth pointed to two rooms. “Both of these are empty if you need two rooms. We have more, but I figured you wanted to be close to each other. Of course, you don’t have to use both rooms…” He shot me a wink and walked back the way we’d come.
“Very subtle,” I called after him.
He gave me a finger wave over his shoulder, managing to sass me without even opening his mouth. It made me snort before I turned back to my super serious… uh, person.
Roman stared at me for a long moment, looking unsure and worried, and even though I was nervous, I grabbed his forearm and dragged him into the closest bedroom. I set my bag on the bed, then turned to him, dropping his arm.
“I don’t want to sleep in separate rooms, but I’m not…” I grimaced.
Roman closed the door, set his bag on the floor beside the bed, and stepped forward, cupping my jaw to lift my face up to his. “I would love to share a bed with you, Oak, but we don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for. There’s no pressure. Aside from me asking if we can at least cuddle?”
I snorted and looked down. “Like I haven’t been making you cuddle me every chance I get for weeks.”
“True enough, but I’m pretty sure it’s different now, yeah?”
Taking a breath, I met his eyes again. “Yeah, it is… but…”
“But what?”
“But… I like it.”
He smiled again, stepped closer, and cupped my cheek. “Can I kiss you?”
I nodded, my breath hitching as the handsome man lowered his lips to mine in the softest, sweetest, most tender kiss of my life.
When he pulled back, I chased his lips before I realized what I was doing and opened my eyes. He was still there, still smiling at me, looking tender and fond and warm and like the sexiest man I’d ever seen. But Scales, the amount of affection I could see in his gaze was… overwhelming.
Did he truly feel that much for me?
For me?
I swallowed around the lump in my throat, then cleared it and stepped back. “Um, right. Okay.” I didn’t know what to do with all of this affection. With all of this tenderness.
I didn’t know what to do with myself, let alone with this big, handsome, confident dragon standing in my room.
What should I do? Where should I go? Should I run into the bathroom and hide for a second? I could… and I could change or something then. But I didn’t want Rome to think I was running from him.
But then… should I sit on the bed? Would that be weird? Would it look like an invitation? Would it look like I was ready to go to sleep already?
Ugh. I didn’t know what the fuck to do or where to go or how to handle any of this. I was so out of my depth when it came to Roman that I just… I just… I just…
“Hey.”
I tentatively looked at him.
“It’s okay, Oak. You’re okay.”
I wasn’t so sure that was true.
Roman toed his shoes off and climbed into bed without changing out of his clothes.
He moved the blanket and opened his arms in invitation.
It only took me half a second to kick off my own shoes, take off some of my bracelets and necklaces, and climb into his arms. He covered us and wrapped me in his arms, pressing a kiss to my forehead.
“I’ve got you, Oakley. You hear me? I’ve got you, and I promise I won’t let you go.”
Taking a deep breath, I buried my face against his throat and closed my eyes, trying to let his comfort fill all the broken and missing pieces of myself.