“Can I… are you okay?”
“I’m good. Just needed to, um, check something and talk to Ker.”
“Okay…” He still didn’t walk away.
“Rome?”
“Yeah?”
I sighed. “Open the door. It’s stupid that we’re talking through it.”
He opened the door and leaned against the doorjamb, though I didn’t bother moving after I glanced over at him. I just lay there on the bed like a complete lug, staring at the ceiling and praying to the embarrassment gods.
“Hey,” he said quietly after a few seconds.
I asked, “Are you okay?”
When I looked at him again, his eyebrows were raised. “Am I okay? I’m not the one that ran out of the kitchen like their ass was on fire.”
I groaned. “Sorry.”
“No, I’m the one who owes you an apology.” He pushed off the doorjamb, closed the door, and crossed over to the bed, then stood there, looking unsure.
Sitting up, I patted the spot beside me, curious about why the hell he thought he owed me an apology.
He sat down and sighed. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”
My brow furrowed. “What? When?”
“When I put my arm around you. I wasn’t trying to—”
“Woah. Wait a minute.” I grabbed his arm. I needed to shut this down right now before he started blaming himself for other stupid shit. “You did nothing wrong, Roman. I… you… I like when you, um… when you hug me and stuff.”
He turned his pretty blue eyes to me. “You do?”
I nodded.
“Then why…?” He looked so confused and upset that I knew I needed to give him a good reason for running away. I couldn’t have him thinking he couldn’t cuddle me into his side or something ridiculous like that.
“I, um… was embarrassed.”
His brow furrowed further. “About what? You don’t get embarrassed about anything.”
I groaned and fell back on the bed, covering my face with my arms so I didn’t have to see him. “If I tell you this, you’re not allowed to make even a single comment about it, okay?”
“Uh… okay.” It almost sounded like a question.
But I took a breath and prepared to die of embarrassment anyway. “You were, you know, rubbing my arm and, like, smelling my hair and—”
“I’m sorry.”
“No. Shut up. You’re not. Or you shouldn’t be. I… I liked it… a little too much.”
“What does that mean?”
“Oh my Mother of Scales. Iliked it. Like, a lot.” I waved at my crouch with one hand while keeping the other arm over my face.
He didn’t say anything.
