To my surprise, he scooted his chair over until we were facing each other with one of his knees between mine. He stared at me for a full minute before groaning and standing a little to peck my lips. As he dropped back into his seat, he muttered, “You’re gonna be the death of me.”
“I hope not.” I knocked his knee with mine.
He caught my knee between his and held it there with a smirk. “Order the pizza.”
Rolling my eyes, I pulled out my phone. “Would it kill you to say please every once in a while?”
“Yes.”
I smacked his leg with a laugh and made the call to the pizza place. Once that was done, I said, “I want to tell you something, or maybe ask? But I don’t want you getting mad at me for it.”
He lifted his eyebrows.
With a sigh, I said, “Ailin invited you onto coven land… like to come stay with me or whatever. If you want.”
He tilted his head. “Ailin wants us to stay with you?”
“No—I mean, yes, he does, but I want you and Rasha to stay with me. Ailin’s in charge of our wards, so I need him to let you guys through, and he’s on board with that.”
He bit his lip. “I’m not sure what you’re askin’, Basil.”
“Do you and Rasha want to come stay with me? It’s safer on coven land than anywhere else in the world.”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”
I sighed. “Yeah, I figured, but this is an open invitation. I know you’re still wary of witches, but I promise you that my family would keep you and Rasha safe. And my little sister and my niece are both around Rasha’s age, so she’d have other kids there to play with.”
He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, but then he sighed, slumped back in the chair, and rubbed his hands over his face. “I really don’t know if I can trust witches enough to bring my daughter on their territory—”
“It isn’t some witch’s territory, Hiro. It’s my home, my family.”
“I know. I do, but I’m only just gettin’ used to the fact that I have one witch in my home around my daughter.” He sighed. “I’m not tryin’ to hurt your feelings, Basil—and don’t deny it because I can feel what you’re feeling.” He patted his chest, so I guessed I wasn’t doing a great job of keeping the hurt away from him. “I’m sorry, shadow boy, but I need more time, okay?”
I didn’t reply right away because I knew my voice would show how much his distrust hurt. “So you’re saying not right now, but maybe later?”
“Yeah… I am.” He reached over to take my hand in his. He didn’t lace our fingers together, but he kept rubbing his thumb over my skin and placing tiny kisses on the back of my hand and the inside of my wrist. “You know I care about you, right?”
I sucked in a breath. “No.”
He sighed and shook his head. “Well, I do.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek to hold in any response because I could tell he had more to say.
“You showin’ up for me at the hospital like you did, that… that meant a lot. I’ve never had anyone with me for any of Rasha’s emergencies, so… thank you. And thank you for bringin’ Ailin in to help her.”
“You don’t have to thank me for any of that. You’re my viramore, Hiro, that makes you—and Rasha—my family. I know you’re still getting used to everything, but that doesn’t change how I feel and what it means for me.”
He took a deep breath, nodded, then leaned over and kissed me again. This time it was me that cupped the back of his head and wouldn’t let go. I kissed him hard until we heard giggles again. Hiro chuckled against my lips, then broke away and turned to his daughter.
“What are you gigglin’ at this time, peanut?” he asked as he leaned closer to her and poked her in the belly.
That only made her giggle louder.
“Aren’t you supposed to be restin’?” he asked her.
“My cup’s empty.” She held out a plastic cup.
Hiro lifted his brow. “Is that the right way to ask for somethin’?”
She scowled at him—and the expression was so cute and so much like her father, I had to hold in a laugh—but she still said, “Can I please have more water?”
“Much better, even if you are grumpin’ at me.”
That made her pout more and a snort escaped me.
Hiro pointed at me with a smirk. “No encouraging her.” He winked at me to show he was playing around, then swiped the cup from Rasha and stood up, making sure to keep his back to her since his big, giant problem still hadn’t gone away. It made me a little happy seeing how affected he was by me since I was just as affected by him.
As he was helping set her up in the living room again, the pizza arrived, so I answered, paid, and carried the pizza to the kitchen. Since Hiro was whispering with Rasha, I got out three plates, loaded them up, and took them over to the couch. As I set Rasha’s down on the coffee table in front of her, Hiro shot me a smile that I returned.
Seeing him here with her, in his own space was… amazing. He was so relaxed and so happy and content. He was beautiful.
And Rasha, she was… the sweetest little thing I’d ever seen. I hoped Hiro would let me come back here once she was feeling better so I could get to know her.
Hiro turned to me, patted the open seat beside him, and said, “‘Course you can come back. Maybe we can play a card game today after we eat.”
I blinked at him and whispered, “Holy shit.”
“What?”
Luckily, Rasha was too invested in her show to notice my curse slip. “You read my mind.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Did I?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“So that means we’re connecting more or somethin’, right?”
I nodded again. “Yeah.”
He sent me a smile. “Cool.”
Hiro turned on a movie, and after we ate, he put his arm behind me on the couch, and his other arm behind Rasha. When I saw that she’d leaned into him and fallen asleep with his arm curled protectively over her, I decided that she had the right idea, so I moved in and rested my head on his shoulder. He automatically put his arm around me. And when he started massaging my scalp, I closed my eyes and just let his and Rasha’s presence wash over me.
I stayed with them until Rasha needed to go to bed. Hiro asked if I wanted to stay, but then the sweet little girl asked him if she could sleep in his bed tonight. She must’ve been scared after everything she’d been through in the past few days. So I kissed Hiro goodnight, gave Rasha a fist-bump that made her laugh, and headed out. Once I was outside their house, I used my Bond with Blaze to pull myself to him since he’d flown home. Luckily, my Bonded dragon was right outside my house, so I didn’t even have to walk far before I fell into bed with a smile.
Chapter Fifteen
Hiro
This time when I was handed a case that was made for at least two people, if not a bigger team of them, I only hesitated for a few seconds before dialing Basil. He answered on the second ring.