Oakley grabbed onto the neck of some tall guy with muscles bigger than my head, pulled him close, and ground their hips together. For a moment, I thought they were going to kiss him, but they stopped with their lips only centimeters away.
A low growl formed in my throat before I could stop it, and I had to force myself to stay still, to stop from marching over there and ripping that guy’s arms away and biting his head off before grabbing Oakley up in my arms, shifting, and flying them out of here.
Running my hand over my face, I tried to shake away the ridiculous thoughts. Even if I had the right to pull the guy off—which I didn’t since Oak had no idea about our connection—the thought of shifting in here and flying away was illogical. I’d hardly fit in this place in dragon form. And hello, there was a ceiling.
Also, I wasn’t a murderer, so I wouldn’t be ripping limbs off some random innocent guy.
If he hurt Oakley, that was a different story entirely, and hewouldsuffer the consequences.
But Oak seemed perfectly happy to dance the night away out there while I sat on the barstool, watching from a distance and making sure no one hurt the royal child of Sedoba—not that anyone here knew who we were. At least, I hoped they didn’t recognize us.
It was possible they’d seen news articles about us, but Garrick had done a good job of keeping our faces out of the spotlight the past year or so, and we’d both changed our hair, put on makeup, and made ourselves look just different enough that people would probably question whether we really were the royal child and the king’s right-hand man or not.
Being so far away from our territory’s capital helped. No one would expect a royal to be in a place like this.
If someone did happen to guess, we were ready to play up the whole child-of-a-public-figure-rebelling-against-dear-old-dad thing. Hopefully, that would be enough.
It hadn’t been a problem so far, so I was keeping my fingers and toes crossed that we’d done enough to blend in with the local crowd.
Oakley was so elegant on the dance floor, and they were absolutely the most beautiful person here, so I wasn’t surprised they were turning so many heads. It was difficult to take my eyes off them in order to keep an eye out for any threats.
After what felt like an eternity, Oakley walked off the dance floor and over to the bar beside me. They shot me a wink on their way by before they leaned on the bar and ordered a water bottle.
I turned on my stool to watch the bartender. He grabbed the water bottle and passed it to Oakley with the lid still on. Oak thanked the man, and I reached out with my magic to make sure there wasn’t a spell or any kind of drug inside the bottle.
“You know I can check my own drink, right?”
I shrugged. “Makes me feel better if I do it myself.”
Oakley let out a long, exasperated sigh as they opened the water, then drank a few long gulps. I watched their Adam’s apple bob, and I had the urge to lean in and give it a little nibble.
Shaking that away, I concentrated on my… friend, asking, “Having fun out there?”
“Oh yeah. It’s been a blast.” They shot me a cheeky grin and leaned in close to my ear. “Did he see me?”
I nodded. “Sure did. I’m sure you can make your move now.”
“Yeah?”
I nodded again. “Unless you’d rather dance some more?”
They shook their head. “Nah. I’ll go over now while I have his eye. Wish me luck.” They shot me another wink, and I watched them walk over to the back table where Barney Porter sat.
Porter was the owner of the bar we were in. This was the third night in two weeks that Oakley and I had come in and tried to get his attention. He’d noticed Oak both other times, but he’d already been entertaining other people those nights, so we’d come a little earlier this time.
It looked like it worked.
Now I had to sit back and watch Oakley saddle up to Barney Porter, the douchebag.
Sigh.
Chapter Three
Oakley
Barney Porter was the biggest ass in the history of asses, and it was taking everything in me to continue to laugh at his horrible and cruel jokes. It had been over two hours of playing it up with this guy, and I was so ready for this night to be done.
To make matters worse, Roman had been sitting at the bar the entire time, looking more and more pissed off. I didn’t know what his problem was since our plan was working out perfectly, but it was annoying me that he was so angry.
