Rosie reached a hand out and mimicked my motions, quickly drawing a rumbling purr out of Shadow. Her gaze met mine, her eyes brimming with joy.
“You like animals?” I asked, grinning at her.
She nodded enthusiastically. “I love them! Sometimes Knox lets his dog Eugene sleep with me. Those are the best nights.”
“Well, Shadow clearly likes you, too, and he doesn’t often take this quickly to strangers.” An idea hit me and I sat up straighter. “You know what? Your brother and I will be traveling quite a bit over the next few months for the coronation tour. I know there is plenty of staff here to take care of him, but would you like to be in charge of Shadow when I’m gone? I would feel so much better knowing that he’s being well loved.”
Rosie leaped off the couch, clearly on cloud nine at the prospect. “Yes! I would love that so much. I promise to take such good care of him and send you pictures every day!” She threw her arms around me in a tight hug.
I squeezed her back, my heart warming. “Thank you, Rosie. I will owe you one.”
Rosie gave me one last squeeze, scratched Shadow behind the ear, kissed him on the head, and practically skipped out of the room. She waved and called goodnight to someone in the corridor as she disappeared.
A moment later, Oliver poked his head in from where she had left the door ajar. “Mind if I come in?” he asked.
I jerked my head in a “yeah, come on” motion and he entered the room, closing the door softly behind him.
“I can’t believe you’re still standing,” I said, huffing a laugh. “I would have thought you’d be dead asleep by now.”
Oliver smiled wryly. “I am beyond exhausted, but I also think I still have too much adrenaline in my system to fall asleep any time soon. I wanted to check in to make sure you were settling in okay before I turned in.”
I nodded. “The staff hung up my clothes for me—which they absolutely did not need to do, I could have managed! So I just have a few more things I need to unpack.”
“Wonderful.” He shuffled a bit, his hands in his pockets. “Listen, I overheard the tail end of your conversation with Rosie…thank you for that. I think sometimes she struggles with her place in the family. She’s so much younger than us boys and when you’re a royal—well, the world expects so much from you at such a young age, yet you still have so little autonomy. Giving her something to feel ownership over means more than you can imagine.”
He met my gaze and my heart—goddamnit—gave a little flip.
“You’re welcome,” I murmured, my cheeks heating. “She’s a great kid. I’m happy I could—oh shit, Shadow! No!” I broke off as I spotted my enormous cat across the room about to scale one of the floor-to-ceiling curtains. “Sir, your ass is far too big for that, don’t you eventhinkabout it!”
Before I could reach him, the asshole had pounced, grabbing hold of the undoubtedly expensive drapery and scaling to the top of the curtain like a jungle cat.
I stood at the bottom, giving my unruly son the look thatalways made my students snap to attention. “Shadow, get down!”
He ignored me.
“Shadow! Oh, damn it all to hell…Azriel! Get down herenow!”
At that, he gracefully leaped from the curtain rod onto my shoulder, then to the floor, and sashayed into the bedroom, disappearing under the bed again.
I turned, remembering Oliver was still there. He was watching me, amusement on his face.
“Sorry,” I began apologizing. “There’s a reason I don’t have curtains in my house; he’s a menace. I can?—”
Oliver cut me off. “Azriel?” he inquired, tilting his head. “I thought his name was Shadow?”
If I had been blushing before, my face was certainly on fire now. “It is. Azriel is a nickname Dash gave him. He just…prefers it to his actual name.”
Oliver’s eyes narrowed slightly, as though he was trying to remember something. “Azriel…what is that from? Is that from a book?”
“No,” I said quickly, turning away as I pretended to fix the curtain.
It was. When I had told Tadashi that I was naming my newly rescued kitten Shadow, he had responded, “Why not name him for one of your book boyfriends instead? After all, they’re the only boyfriends you ever have!”
Much to my chagrin, the nickname stuck. It was the only name the damn cat would actually respond to.
Oliver cleared his throat and I turned back around, hoping my blushing was under control. “Well,” he said a bit awkwardly, “I guess I should get to bed. You should, too. We’ve got a few weeks before the first leg of the coronation tour begins, but I know there will be plenty keeping both ofus busy before then. And Mum is lining up meetings with the wedding planners, so…” His words drifted off as we made eye contact.Right. The wedding.
“Of course,” I replied, moving to walk him to the door. I paused as I reached for the doorknob and turned back to Oliver. “Hey, you did great today. Please don’t forget what I said before: You’re going to be a wonderful king.”
