Chapter 92: Just the Two of Us

Sunday morning, Isla found Roxanne standing in front of her wardrobe holding two different outfits, clearly frustrated. "You’re going on a date," Isla reminded her. "You’re allowed to care what you look like." "I care," Roxanne said. "I just don’t want to look like I spent three hours caring." "That’s unfortunate," Isla said, "because you’ve spent twenty minutes caring about not looking like you care."

Tessa wandered in a moment later, glanced at the clothes scattered across the bed, and began offering opinions nobody had asked for. Between the two of them, they helped Roxanne settle on something pretty but comfortable, the kind of outfit that felt like herself.

Isla asked whether she was nervous. "A little," Roxanne admitted. "Because it’s Kai?" Isla pressed. "Because it’s a date," Roxanne said, and the answer surprised even her. She had spent months navigating complicated feelings about all four brothers, but this was the first time she had knowingly agreed to spend an afternoon alone with one of them simply because she wanted to see where it might lead.

Before Kai arrived, Isla made her promise to report back afterward. "Everything?" Roxanne asked. "Everything appropriate for a girls’ conversation," Isla said, grinning, and Roxanne threw a cushion directly at her face.

At noon, Kai arrived dressed casually, nothing like his usual training clothes or formal attire. Roxanne noticed immediately how different he looked without the familiar academy uniform, and she had to remind herself not to stare too obviously. Kai looked her over for a moment, his expression quiet and completely sincere. "You look beautiful," he said, without any teasing smile attached to soften it.

Warmth rose into Roxanne’s cheeks. "You clean up reasonably well yourself," she said. "Reasonably?" he repeated. "Don’t get greedy," she said, and he smiled, and she realized she had already made him laugh twice without even leaving the academy grounds.

As they walked, he asked whether she’d eaten, and accepted her answer easily, without fussing. At the academy gates, she glanced over at him. "Where are we going?" she asked. "If I tell you, it won’t be a surprise," he said. "That’s a suspicious answer," she said. "You agreed to the date," he reminded her. "I didn’t agree to being kidnapped," she said. Kai looked at her, almost amused. "Would you like me to take you back?" he asked. She laughed. "No. Keep walking."

Kai led her to a small town a short distance from the academy, bustling with students and families, cafés and little shops lining narrow streets, the smell of street food drifting from an open-air market. Roxanne was genuinely surprised by the choice, having expected an expensive restaurant or somewhere grand enough that people would recognize him instantly.

"Isn’t there somewhere more royal you could have taken me?" she asked. "I could have," he said. "Then why here?" she asked. "Because I wanted to spend the afternoon with you," he said. "Not with everyone watching us." The answer stayed with her longer than she expected.

They wandered the market, stopping at stalls and arguing good-naturedly over which food looked best. Kai turned out to have surprisingly strong opinions about street food, delivered with the same serious expression he used for everything, which made his verdicts about fried snacks even funnier.

Roxanne deliberately chose the dish he’d warned her was too spicy, and he watched her first bite with barely contained amusement. "You’re going to regret that," he said. "I’m perfectly capable of eating lunch," she said, already reaching for her water a few moments later. "Don’t," she warned, catching his expression. "I haven’t said anything," he said. "Your face has," she said, and he finally laughed properly, loud enough that she realized how rarely she’d seen him this relaxed in public.

After lunch, they settled at a quieter café, and the conversation shifted away from teasing into something more honest. Roxanne asked whether Kai had always known he would become a royal warrior. "Everyone assumed I would," he said. "That wasn’t what I asked," she said.

He turned his cup between his hands before admitting he liked combat because it was one of the few places where the rules made sense. If he made a mistake, he could identify exactly what had gone wrong and correct it. People, he said, were much harder to figure out.

Roxanne understood that more than she expected to. She told him that after Dorian’s rejection, she had decided she’d never let herself depend on someone romantically again, not simply because of the heartbreak but the humiliation of trusting someone who had already chosen to betray her.

Kai didn’t interrupt or tell her that Dorian didn’t deserve another thought. Instead he asked, "Do you still believe that?" Roxanne looked down into her cup. "I believe I should have a choice in what happens to me," she said. "You should," he said. "And I don’t want anyone deciding who I belong with," she added. "Neither do I," he said.

She looked up, searching his face for some hidden meaning, but he offered no promise about the future. "I’m asking you out because I want to be here," he said simply. "That’s all you have to decide today." Something eased in her chest at that.

They left the café and wandered toward a quiet path along the river, the afternoon warm and unhurried, the academy feeling impossibly far away. Roxanne teased him about his terrible attempt to hide how much he’d enjoyed lunch, and he called her impossible. "You invited me," she pointed out. "I did." "So whose fault is that?" "Mine, apparently," he admitted, and she laughed, and he watched her with an expression that made the teasing fade entirely.

Kai stepped closer, then stopped just short of touching her. "Can I kiss you?" he asked. The question caught her off guard, not because she didn’t want him to, but because she’d expected him to hide behind silence instead.

She studied him. "You really don’t like assuming anything, do you?" "Not with you," he said. Her heartbeat quickened, but she wanted the decision to be entirely hers, without fate deciding it for her. "Not today," she said honestly.

Something shifted briefly across his expression, but he didn’t withdraw or make her feel guilty. "Okay," he said, and that was all. He didn’t ask her to explain herself, and he didn’t pretend he wasn’t disappointed. He simply gave her exactly the space she’d asked for.

Roxanne reached for his hand instead. "But I wanted you to ask," she said. Kai looked down at their joined hands, then back up at her. "Then I’ll ask again when you want me to," he said. She squeezed his fingers gently. "Don’t make me regret saying yes to this date," she said. "I’ll try to survive the responsibility," he said, and she laughed, and they kept walking hand in hand along the quiet riverside path.

Kai brought her back before dinner. They hadn’t kissed, but something between them had shifted all the same, having talked about things they usually avoided. At the entrance, he asked whether she’d go out with him again. Roxanne pretended to consider it seriously. "Depends. Will there be more spicy food?" "I’ll make no promises," he said. "Then I’ll think about it," she said. "I’ll take that as a yes," he said. "You would," she said, and he let her go without trying to prolong the goodbye.

Isla and Tessa were waiting the moment she stepped inside the dorm. "Well?" Isla demanded. Roxanne walked past them toward her bed. "It was nice," she said. "Nice?" Tessa repeated, outraged. "Very nice," Roxanne said. "Did you kiss him?" Tessa pressed. "No," Roxanne said, and Isla looked disappointed until Roxanne added, "He asked." The girls erupted into a flurry of questions, and Roxanne refused to give every detail, though she couldn’t hide her smile.

Later that evening, her phone lit up with a message from Kai. I had a good time today, it read. She replied simply. Me too. His next message arrived only seconds later. For the record, I still want to kiss you. Roxanne stared at the screen, biting back a smile, and typed back. I know. She set her phone aside before she could say anything else, and spent the next several minutes thinking about what her answer might be the next time he asked.