Chapter 136: I LOVE YOU

DIANA’S POV

The first letter came easier than Diana expected.

She wrote I, then stopped.

Raigoro waited across from her. He had barely moved since Diana gave him her real name, apologized for the lie, and asked the question Maerissa had spent days teaching her to fear. He had also resisted repeating yesterday’s confession to make hers easier.

Diana appreciated him for approximately three seconds before wishing he would stop being so patient.

Patience gave her nowhere to hide.

She lowered the chalk again.

I LOVE YOU.

Diana stared at the words.

First her name. Now this.

Maerissa’s letter, Hollow Bridge, Vharos, the lie, and Raigoro finally explaining what the old demand had actually meant had all brought her here. Whatever had happened before this moment, Diana loved him.

She turned the slate toward him.

Raigoro read it. He closed his eyes briefly and released a breath.

"You are sure?"

Diana considered striking him with the slate.

Instead, she wrote:

DO NOT RUIN IT.

Raigoro smiled.

He did it openly enough that Diana forgot what she had intended to do after confessing. She saw that smile too rarely for it to be fair.

Then his gaze dropped to her mouth.

They had reached versions of this moment before. There had been an accidental kiss, the dance, the storm shelter, and other times when one of them wanted something neither had been ready to claim.

This time, Diana knew what she wanted.

Raigoro seemed to know too, yet he remained where he was.

The man could order soldiers into battle without hesitation and apparently required written authorization to cross several feet of carpet.

Diana set the slate on the table, crossed the room, and stopped close enough to place one palm against his chest. Warm fabric covered the steady heartbeat beneath her hand.

"Diana."

Her name was no longer a question.

Diana rose onto her toes and kissed him.

Raigoro met her immediately, careful at first until Diana caught the front of his shirt and kissed him again.

His hand moved into her hair while the other settled around her waist, drawing her closer after she had already moved toward him.

Diana had imagined kissing him before.

Her imagination had done a poor job of it.

It had missed the warmth of his hand at her waist, the scrape of his thumb beneath her ear, and the quiet sound he made when her fingers slid into his hair.

Curious, Diana did it again.

Raigoro inhaled sharply and drew back enough to look at her.

"That seems unfair."

Diana raised her brows.

Fairness had apparently left with the Selena discussion.

She kissed him again, and this time Raigoro answered without the earlier caution.

Diana preferred that.

His hand pressed more firmly against her waist while she pulled him closer by the front of his shirt. When the edge of the table pressed against her lower back, Raigoro shifted them sideways without breaking the kiss until the furniture stopped interfering.

He kissed the corner of her mouth, then her cheek.

Diana closed her eyes.

She had spent an entire night in a relay shelter pretending his shoulders were irrelevant.

Her hands now confirmed the opposite.

Raigoro’s quiet laugh brushed against her skin.

Diana opened her eyes.

"What?" he asked.

She shook her head.

Whatever amused her could remain unexplained, especially when kissing him was available as an alternative.

His hand stayed at her back while Diana caught the front of his shirt again.

Raigoro glanced down.

"You seem pleased with yourself."

Diana raised one eyebrow.

"That was not a criticism."

She kissed him before he could make it worse.

This time he met her halfway.

Diana liked that even more than his patience. He could want her without deciding what wanting had to lead to, and she could enjoy his eagerness without becoming afraid of it.

When they drew apart, his hair was in considerable disorder.

Diana inspected her work.

"You are enjoying this," Raigoro said.

She nodded.

"At least one of us is honest."

Both of them were, which made the accusation unreasonable.

Diana kissed the edge of his jaw in protest.

His breath changed.

Interesting.

She tried it again.

"Diana."

Her name sounded very different when he was attempting to sound stern and failing.

Diana smiled and brushed his hair back from his temple. The scar there caught beneath her thumb. She touched it carefully, then traced his jaw and the exhaustion still visible after Vharos’s collapse.

Raigoro turned his face into her palm and kissed it.

Diana’s amusement faded.

She could stand here with his hand at her waist and her own name between them, without hiding or pretending to be anyone else.

Raigoro watched her.

"Are you all right?"

Diana nodded.

He began to give her space, but she caught his sleeve.

She was not finished.

His gaze dropped to her hand, and his smile returned.

"Ah."

Diana reached up and kissed him again.

His arms came around her. She felt him laugh once against her mouth and found herself smiling too.

For a while, they simply kissed. No question needed an answer, and nothing beyond the room required either of them.

Then someone knocked on the study door.

Diana pulled back and stared at Raigoro.

The knock came again.

"Raigoro."

Daric.

Diana closed her eyes.

Commander Voss had survived wars, assassination attempts, Ashen attacks, and nineteen years of Raigoro’s personality only to die tonight outside this door.

Raigoro lowered his forehead against hers.

"What?"

Daric answered through the closed door.

"Dragon Heights sent a runner. Vharos is awake."

Diana’s irritation vanished.

Daric continued.

"He is not collapsing. Clair says his breathing remains stable, but he woke agitated and keeps trying to rise. They cannot settle him without risking the wing."

Raigoro’s arm loosened around her.

"Does Clair want me there?"

"Yes."

There was no decision to make.

Diana stepped away first, immediately resenting the loss of his warmth.

Neither of them looked particularly prepared to return to being respectable members of Blackharrow’s government.

Raigoro straightened the front of his shirt, which Diana had managed to pull thoroughly crooked.

She pointed toward his hair.

He touched the disordered strands and looked at her.

"Helpful."

Her answer was a look.

He attempted to smooth it into place with little success.

Raigoro turned toward the door.

Diana reached for the slate, then stopped.

Responsibility had returned. It did not get to erase what had happened before the knock.

She wrote quickly.

Raigoro had almost reached the door when Diana caught his sleeve.

He turned.

She raised the slate.

I MEANT IT.

His gaze moved from the words to her.

Diana added:

I LOVE YOU.

Then:

I WAS NOT FINISHED KISSING YOU.

Raigoro read the lines.

The way he looked at her made one thing very clear.

Daric’s interruption had solved nothing.

"Neither was I."

Diana was pleased with that.

She glanced toward the door before adding one final line.

THIS IS DARIC’S FAULT.

Raigoro laughed quietly.

From the corridor, Daric said, "I can hear enough to know I object."

Diana stared at the door as Raigoro opened it.

Daric stood several steps away with his back very deliberately turned toward them.

For once, Diana respected him enormously.

"Dragon Heights," he said.

Raigoro looked back at Diana.

She nodded.

They went together.