MORNING AFTER

CHAPTER 11

Neither of us mentioned it at breakfast.

Roman sat across from me, reading through a stack of reports as though they contained something urgent.

I poured tea I had no intention of drinking, if only to give my hands something to do.

"Did you sleep?"

"I had work."

He didn't look up.

I stared at him.

"You stayed all night."

His pen stopped.

A pause.

"You needed someone there."

I waited.

Nothing.

"That's it?"

His eyes lifted.

"What else do you want me to say?"

Something.

Anything that acknowledged the way he'd gone completely still when I'd told him I was glad he was there.

Anything about the look in his eyes before he'd told me something had changed and walked away.

Instead, I looked down at my untouched tea.

"Nothing."

I forced a small shrug.

"Forget it."

He studied me for a moment.

There was something in his expression that contradicted the flatness of his voice.

Like he wanted to say more.

Like he'd already decided he wouldn't.

"Eat something."

His gaze dropped to my plate.

"You've barely touched your food."

"I'm not hungry."

"Eat anyway."

I picked up a piece of toast.

Mostly because I could feel him watching me.

I took a small bite.

Only then did his attention return to the reports.

For several seconds, the only sound in the room was the quiet scrape of his pen.

Then he set it down.

"I've decided something."

I looked at him.

"I'll accompany you to your healer appointments from now on."

I blinked.

"You'll do what?"

"Personally."

He said it as though he'd announced something completely ordinary.

"Starting today."

"You have a council."

"I know."

"A territory."

"I know."

"An entire staff whose job is to make sure things like this happen."

His expression didn't change.

"They can manage without me for an hour."

"Roman, you don't need to do that."

"After last night, I'm not leaving your medical care to chance."

"I'm not helpless."

"I never said you were."

"Then why do you need to come?"

He was quiet.

Too quiet.

Finally, his eyes met mine.

"Because I want to."

The words landed harder than they should have.

He said them without hesitation.

Without embarrassment.

I didn't know what to do with that.

So I said nothing.

Roman picked up his reports again, as though he hadn't just shifted something between us.

Tessa found me an hour later folding linens in the hallway outside my room.

"Is it true?"

I looked up.

"Is what true?"

"Roman is escorting you to Sable's himself?"

"Word travels fast."

Tessa laughed.

"Word travels instantly in this house."

She placed the linens on a nearby table.

"He's never done that."

"Maybe he's being cautious after what happened."

"Maybe."

She tilted her head.

"But Roman isn't usually cautious in that way. If something concerns him, he assigns someone to handle it."

I frowned.

"You're saying this is unusual?"

"I'm saying I've never seen him personally rearrange his schedule for a medical appointment."

That settled somewhere uncomfortable in my chest.

Tessa picked up the linens again.

"Whatever the reason, don't worry. Sable is good at what she does."

"I know."

Tessa smiled.

"Then stop looking like you're waiting for someone to explain the universe to you."

She walked away before I could answer.

I almost laughed.

Almost.

But my mind returned to the previous night.

Roman sitting beside my bed.

His hand adjusting my blanket.

The way his entire expression had changed when I'd told him I was glad he was there.

Whatever was happening between us, I wasn't ready to give it a name.

Maybe neither was he.

Later, I thought about asking Sable what she'd really found.

I made it as far as the hallway outside her room before stopping.

Her door was closed.

A folder rested on the desk inside, partially visible through the narrow opening.

No label.

No markings.

Just a thick file deliberately kept out of sight.

I stared at it for a moment.

Whatever Sable had discovered, she wasn't ready to tell me.

And Roman clearly wasn't forcing her to.

I couldn't decide whether that was patience or protection.

Or whether the difference even mattered.

My fingers tightened around the edge of my sleeve.

I wanted answers.

But I also remembered the uncertainty in Sable's eyes.

That's not supposed to happen.

For now, I let it go.

That afternoon, I was ready ten minutes early.

I stood outside my room out of habit, expecting a servant to arrive and escort me to the healer's wing as they had every week.

Instead, Roman was already waiting.

Exactly on time.

Not a minute late.

He looked at me.

"Ready?"

I stared at him for a second.

"You're really coming."

"I said I would."

Four words.

No explanation.

No apology for the silence at breakfast.

No mention of what I'd said in the dark.

No acknowledgment of the way he'd gone still when I'd told him I was glad he was there.

But he had come.

Exactly as promised.

He hadn't sent a guard.

He hadn't assigned a servant.

He'd come himself.

I stepped into the corridor beside him.

For several moments, we walked without speaking.

Our shoulders nearly brushed.

Neither of us moved away.

And somehow, that small distance felt more significant than it should have.

Roman hadn't answered any of my real questions all morning.

Why had my wolf reacted?

What had Sable discovered?

What did Corvin know about my mother's family?

And what had Roman meant when he'd said something changed?

Yet here he was.

Walking beside me.

Keeping the promise he'd made without asking whether I wanted him to.

For the first time, I wondered if his silence wasn't the absence of an answer.

Maybe his actions were becoming answers of their own.

I just didn't know what they were answering.

Or what it might cost either of us to find out.