At least it wasn’t his normal black tactical pants, though.
Even looking like a massive dork, he was still hot.
And even though he’d tried to make me wait in the car like an ass, I was still excited to go out with him.
We waited together at the counter where the pickup area was, both of us scanning our surroundings and watching each other’s backs. The bell over the door rang, so I let out a sigh like I was bored, turned around so my back was to the counter, leaned on it, and checked out the newcomer. Roman remained where he was, keeping an eye on everything behind me.
A woman with two kids walked in, clearly not paying attention to anyone since she was too engrossed in keeping her kids with her.
“We’re good,” I murmured under my breath to Rome.
He gave me the slightest nod, keeping up his bodyguard scan-absolutely-everything thing.
After another minute of waiting, the man came back with our food, Roman paid, and we headed out together.
At the car, we both used our dragon magic to sense any tampering, but when we didn’t find anything, we got in. Roman was driving, so I held the food in my lap and took my ball cap off.
“Well, that was fun. Doesn’t look like we have a tail or anything.” I glanced back again and still didn’t see anyone following us.
“I don’t think we were recognized.”
“Me either. Even if we were, I doubt my dad would’ve been able to get someone out to us so quickly. We were there for less than ten minutes.”
“True, but I’m taking some extra turns, just to be sure. Plus, it’s not really your dad I’m worried about.”
“I figured.” I shot him a mock glare, but I wasn’t actually angry. It wasn’t like I wanted to be attacked by random people from my old life anytime soon. “I like your mustache.”
He snorted. “Want me to grow one for you? I will.”
I laughed. “No way. Please don’t.”
“But I thought you liked it?” He pouted in my direction, and I laughed again, giving him a small push.
“Stop. No pouting.”
He pouted harder but ended up laughing after only a second.
It wasn’t long before he pulled into a mostly deserted park and drove through the winding road until we ended up in an empty parking lot. There were trees around us and a small lake that was frozen over, although I wouldn’t risk walking on the ice, just in case.
Our territory was almost always covered in snow, so there was a good chance the ice was thick enough to hold our car, but that wasn’t a risk I would take. I mean, I could swim, and I had wings, so I’d be okay, but I wouldn’t want even one toe going in that freezing water. Being wet in this weather would be awful. I shuddered at the thought. Not to mention, I wouldn’t want Roman to get hurt or to worry about me or anything like that.
Roman placed a blanket on the hood of his car and gestured for me to get up. As soon as I was sitting, he grabbed two more blankets from his back seat, wrapped one around my shoulders, and settled the other over my legs. Then he grabbed four more blankets, placed two around himself the same way he had me. He wrapped one around both of our backs, and the other over both our legs, so we were doubled up and sitting extremely close.
Yes, it was definitely cold enough outside to warrant all the extra blankets. I knew we had even more in the car if we needed them. But luckily, we were both dragons, so we could keep our bodies warm by igniting the fire within us.
And we ran hot in general anyway, so I was good like this.
I unpacked the food, placing things on top of our legs, and we started eating our burgers and fries.
Not the most romantic meal, but it was from a nice place, not a fast-food joint, and sitting here with him was… really damn perfect.
He shoulder-bumped me. “I didn’t know you liked stargazing.”
I smiled, staring up at the stars as I finished chewing my bite. We were too close to the city to see most of the stars, but there was still a good bit out there. “Back when I was with Gepisha’s Iron, I used to look up at the sky and wish I could fly that high, maybe see what else was out there, maybe just… get away.”
He shoulder-bumped me again, then kept his body there, a solid presence reminding me I wasn’t in that place anymore, that I was free, that I never had to go back.
“Did you ever try it?”
