Page 95 of Dewpoint
There wasn’t much to say to that, but his phone rang and interrupted the moment. He frowned and pulled it out of his pocket, glancing at it and silencing it before tucking it back in his pocket. “Sorry.”
He got in after me, but it rang again.
And again. He chuffed the third time and silenced it. “So sorry.”
“Or you could turn it off when on a date with the queen,” the driver drawled under his breath.
I appreciated the support, but I understood this one. “The King of Protesia could call him at any moment to come back or with an issue because of what he’s doing to help us.”
“Yes, that’s the only reason I have it—” Onyx growled and pulled it out again. “Oh, these dumbasses. It must have gotten out we went to dinner. This is a message asking when we’re mating. Yeah, thanks, idiot. We’re on the date and—sorry. I’m not even friends with this fool.”
He looked genuinely flustered which was kind of cute on a man his size and how smooth he was.
“It’s fine,” I forgave. “People are ridiculous.”
He smiled at me and silenced another one. “I’ll turn it on vibrate and check for the king’s people every so often. This is so silly over a dinner.”
I swallowed down my real response and met Lydia’s gaze. She knew it was probably the interview since she’d been in the room at the time.
“‘You’re gonna piss the rest of them off if she’s already throwing down for you. How did you win her before the first date?’” Onyx read with a frown. “What is going on?”
I moved my hand over his phone. “It’s fine. Let’s just get back to the castle.” I said it more for the driver and my security.If he was getting messages like this and now I’d been visible at the restaurant… There could be a problem with the press.
“We’re heading out, convoy direct route,” the driver announced. “Lights and radio in to the castle.”
“Wait, that’s if there might be a problem,” Onyx muttered, already read in on security protocols. “What is going on?”
I let out a slow breath and tried to take his phone away, glad when he let me. “You won’t look until later?” I was glad when he nodded after a moment. “I made some rather inflammatory statements during my interview with June earlier.”
“About me?” he worried. “What did I do wrong?”
“Not about you,” I clarified.
“Then why would people have… Kole. This had to do with—what did that fucking prick do now?”
I hurried to defend Onyx when the driver and Lydia opened their mouths. “Look at a map of where he keeps going for the issue in Protesia. It’s beyond remote.”
“Fine, but he still lands at our regular airports and then the flights back and forth,” Lydia grumbled.
“Yes, but I normally sleep,” Onyx defended. “I didn’t just stay there and rest. I jump back on a plane or—what did Kole do?” He moved his hand to my knee when I didn’t answer. “Sagan, please. Please, I can’t have—please don’t let him come between us. We could really have something here.”
I maybe thought that before, but now… And it wasn’t even Kole’s rant. I glanced at the rearview mirror and thought back to the date.
The lame date where Onyx talked the whole time and actually acted a lot like Kole. Then I just felt tired.
I pulled up the clip on my phone and handed it over along with his. He could watch. It would be easier than talking on the drive back to the castle.
Plus, I’d already watched it several times, so what was one more?
I stared out the window as Kole’s voice filled the car. He was sober, but the video showed him having a drink with some “friends.”
Yeah, he was so stupid that he kept trusting people who evidently weren’t on his side and were leaking information just like the ones who had been pumping him for details in my castle. One had poked him about the breakup and everything going on and then recorded his whole rant.
And it was a rant.
An unhinged one that rewrote so much history that I honestly thought Kole was out of his fucking mind.
I never stared at him before we met. I never talked about him to others and it got back to him. I had had no idea who he was, but—Treena had told the truth about what happened.
