He Loves Me Right, Finally novel Chapter 167

The small group lingered together for a while longer before Alice announced she was heading back to her room to rest, and that was that.

Wynette and Adriel made their way back to their own room.

The auction wasn't until evening, and by now the liner had left the harbor behind entirely, cutting smoothly out toward open water.

"Get some rest," Adriel said, giving the bed to Wynette without discussion and settling onto the couch with his tablet.

This was the first time Wynette had shared a room with Adriel while fully, consciously awake, and the awareness of it sat on her with a mild, persistent awkwardness.

The idea of just lying down on the bed in front of him felt strange in a way she couldn't entirely explain.

Adriel seemed to sense it, because the moment he finished speaking, he dropped his gaze to the tablet and kept it there.

Wynette felt the tension in her shoulders ease, degree by degree, as the minutes passed.

She stretched out on her stomach with her phone, scrolling idly, and somewhere between one thought and the next her eyelids turned to lead.

She went under with her arms wrapped around a pillow and her phone still loosely in her hand.

Adriel had been tracking her with peripheral awareness the whole time.

He set the tablet down, rose quietly, and crossed to the bed.

He eased the phone free from her fingers, settled her properly against the mattress with careful hands, and drew the blanket up around her.

He stood at the bedside for a long, still moment, watching the soft, unguarded lines of her sleeping face, before he finally looked away.

He let himself out of the room.

The door of the neighboring cabin opened at almost the exact same moment, and he came face to face with Amias stepping into the hallway.

"Hey, Adriel." Amias glanced briefly at the closed door behind him before looking up with an easy smile.

Adriel studied him for a moment. "Settling in alright?"

He knew Amias had never been comfortable in crowds or social gatherings.

The man genuinely preferred his own company, which was the only explanation for how he'd managed to make a weekly habit of retreating to the Sacred Light Monastery just to get some quiet.

His showing up to an event like this one had genuinely surprised Adriel.

Something had changed the calculus for him. The question was what.

Amias answered lightly. "I'm fine, thanks for asking. Though I'm surprised you're out here without Wynette."

He said her name with the practiced casualness of someone just filling in a sentence.

It earned him the full weight of Adriel's attention.

"She's asleep," Adriel said.

"Ah." Amias kept his tone unhurried, his expression easy, as though the question had been nothing more than small talk.

But Adriel's gaze stayed on him, and it stayed there long enough that Amias felt it begin to press against his composure.

When Adriel finally spoke, his voice was quiet and completely direct.

"You sure you're not Ammius-Crocus?"

Though Wynette had dropped the idea of recruiting Ammius-Crocus, it didn't escape Adriel that the loss hit her hard.

She was genuinely curious about whether Amias was the man she'd been looking for.

Amias went still, the smile on his face pausing mid-expression.

Under that steady gaze, he curved his mouth into something measured and a little careful. "Adriel, the fact that you're asking tells me you've already drawn your own conclusion. Even if I said no, you'd still have your doubts. You know that."

It was a beautifully constructed non-answer. It was neither a confirmation nor a denial, just enough to leave the question exactly where it had been.

Adriel withdrew his gaze with the unhurried calm of a man who'd heard what he needed to hear.

"Whether you are or aren't doesn't concern me particularly," he said. "Whatever your reasons are for not saying so, that's your business." He paused, just briefly.

"But Amias, I treat you like a younger brother, and so does Lucas. I'd rather not end up on opposite sides of something with you. Don't reach for what doesn't belong to you."

Don't go after your friend's partner.

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