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Enamored with you.

Intoxicated by you.

Completely and catastrophically gone for you.

Liking you never even entered the conversation.

Rowan studies my face as if he’s trying to fit that admission into everything else he knows about me. Then he shifts slightly against the pillows. “What about your parents?”

I frown. “What about them?”

“How did they react when they realized…” His ears turn pink. “Us.”

I smile despite myself. “You’re too late, princess. Mom has already approved of us. And Dad figured it out at the glass pavilion.”

“During the concert?”

I nod. “At some point, he watched me spend an entire evening staring at you instead of paying attention to anything else and decided the scholarship student probably wasn’t the real problem anymore.”

Rowan laughs and regrets it. The sound breaks off as he winces.

I shake my head. “Don’t.”

“What did you tell him?”

I look down at our joined hands. “I told him I hadn’t been keeping an eye on the scholarship student for a very long time.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Dad and I never actually finished that conversation. Rowan was taken before either of us could say much more, and every other concern fell away the moment we started hunting for him.

“Mom found out before she ever laid eyes on you.”

“That’s so humiliating.” The color in his cheeks deepens, eyes narrowing as though he’s considering murder. I ignore the threat completely, far too fucking satisfied by the smile sitting on his gorgeous lips.

He almost looks like himself again, warm and alive and impossible, and I find myself memorizing the sight before it can disappear.

Rowan glances down at the band in his hand. “So, what happens now?”

The question catches me off guard. “What do you mean?”

He shifts carefully against the pillows, and pain tightens his features. After a moment, he settles again and looks toward the window before returning his attention to me. “All of it. I mean, what are we supposed to do with this?”

I’m already smiling. “With what?”

His eyes narrow. “Don’t.”

The smile only gets worse. “Fine.”

His gaze drops to our joined hands. “You’re going to inherit half the underworld. I’m a poor musician.”

“A very good musician, if I may add.”

“My point is that you may want to…reconsider. I wouldn’t take offense. Not really. Okay, maybe just a bit.”

I look down at our hands, my gaze lingering on the band around his wrist and the bruises scattered across fingers that belong on Noctis strings. “Afraid I can’t do that. You see, my cousin is already moving his obsession into the mansion, and I’m about to do the same thing. After that, we’ll work our way through college. Then you’ll become the best Noctis player on this side of the Reach. I’ll pretend not to be the canniest mobster hanging on your arm, ‘cause I don’t want to ruin your reputation⁠—”

Rowan elbows me in the side with a laugh that’s so pure it shoots right through my heart. “You’re crazy.”

“But you like it.”