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’thaveto 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.
