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?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Roman
How was Oakley so damn sweet?
I smiled to myself as I covered the cheek they’d kissed with one hand, and I stepped onto the elevator. It only took a moment to reach Garrick’s office floor, and when Elvira, Garrick’s secretary, saw me, she offered a bright smile.
“He’s expecting you.”
“Thanks, El. It’s nice to see you, by the way.” I dropped a chocolate chip muffin on her desk with a grin—they were her favorite.
“Oh! Thank you, Rome. I’m gonna save this for a lunch treat.”
I gave her desk a small knuckle knock, then headed into Gar’s office without knocking.
“Hey, Rome.” He offered a smile, and a big part of me felt guilty seeing that expression.
He was my best friend, and I’d been avoiding him for the last week.
Sure, I was pissed about the case, but that wasn’t the real reason. I was nervous to tell him about Oakley being my viramore.
So fucking nervous.
But my relationship with Oak couldn’t move forward until I told Garrick. I knew that. It’d taken me a week to gather the courage, but Oakley was worth it. I wanted more with them. More than snuggles, more than cheek kisses. I wanted to take them to bed, I wanted to hug them and hold them any time I wanted instead of only at night behind closed doors.
There was no way in the world I’d ever keep Oakley a secret, so… this was step one in moving forward with my Woo Oakley Plan.
“You doing alright?” Garrick asked me, walking around his desk and gesturing to the sofa he kept in the corner of his office.
I sighed and took a seat—in one of the chairs so he was far enough away I could run if needed. “Yeah, I just want to talk to you about something.”
When I didn’t say anything after that, Garrick sighed in his own chair, ran his hand over his face, then leaned his elbows on his knees, his hands loose, staring at me. “You have got to tell me what’s going on, Rome. You’ve been acting off for months.I know you’ve been mad this week, but even before that, before you left on your last mission, you wouldn’t come over. You’re barely talking to me at all. I miss my best friend.”
