Nico's POV:
I stared up at the ceiling from my bed while Khloe changed into her pajamas.
We had pretty much spent the rest of the night dancing away in my room.
Khloe had improved a lot from the ball, like her confidence had boosted.
She didn't seem as nervous and impressively never stumbled unless I was the one that messed up.
Which happened more than Id care to admit.
It was kind of hard to pay attention to my own movements when Khloe was right in front of me, smiling beautifully as her fiery hair danced with us. Hearing her melodic laugh whenever I would twirl her or we would try something else.
Not to mention that I was holding myself back from completely closing the space between us literally that entire time, and trying not to think about how beautiful her lips looked.
I sighed, running my hand down my face.
She was so happy and still is now.
But I'm running out of time and need to tell her whats going to happen.
I turned my head towards the closet as she walked out of it, wearing one of my T-shirts and a pair of grey sweatpants that I had gotten her.
Both of us smiled as our eyes met.
The exchange caused my chest to tighten yet again.
I never wanted to ruin the happiness that took this long to show.
I turned my body towards her as she hopped up onto the bed, pulling the blankets over her body as she scooted towards me.
She laid her head on the pillow about a foot away from mine, that small smile still on her face.
God dammit.
I bit the inside of my lip before I reluctantly spoke up.
"Do you remember what the slave boy that brought you up here the day you came home from the clinic looked like?" I asked.
She seemed confused by my sudden question.
"Yea his name is Marcus," She began, sounding as if she really fonded this boy, " He's tall, well, taller than me, with blonde hair and blue eyes."
"You know his name?" I questioned.
Slaves never usually shared their names, especially with pets.
"Mhm. We met at the Ball. He was my first dance and I guess we just became friends from there."
My eyes glanced to the side.
Good enough friends for him to risk breaking the rules for her...
Although I was happy that despite her current status, Khloe still managed to find herself some friends, I felt guilty about what had happened to him.
"Why do you ask?" She questioned.
I shrugged, "Just curious I guess," I lied.
It would be better if she didn't know.
I'll tell her once I return the favor.
Luckily she didn't press that subject any further
I was initially planning on just hopping from the slave boy subject straight to the Layla subject, but now that that time was here, the words didn't want to leave my mouth.
And apparently, I couldn't even stand looking at her.
"Nico, are you okay?" She asked.
That goddammed ache in my chest would not go away.
"No," I said, my voice coming out weak.
There was a very short pause before I heard Khloe shift beside me.
My eyes darted to meet hers the second I felt both of her hands grab one of mine under the blankets.
She was genuinely worried.
Which made me feel that much worse.
"Is it about what the Lord said?"
I nodded, gently squeezing one of her hands.
I really needed to get this over with.
"Do you want to talk about it yet?" She asked me, the tone of her voice telling me that she wouldn't mind whether my answer was yes or no.
She just wanted to comfort me.
When in reality this conversation was supposed to be me comforting her.
This girl wasn't even mine yet and I already didn't deserve her.
"Khloe..." I sighed as I scooted towards her, wrapping my arms around her body.
I felt like maybe If I held her it would somehow make this conversation go better.
"The Lord told me that I was to house Layla in my room for a couple days while they fix the issues on her floor."
Khloe stilled in my arms, her breath hitching.
"Oh..." She responded quietly.
"Which means," My grip tightened on her as I let out a sigh, "Which means that for your safety, I'm going to have to treat you differently than how I usually do."
Khloe didn't respond. She didn't even move, but her heartbeat was beginning to speed up.
"Neither Layla or the Lord would like how I currently treat you, and if I happened to do something that they didn't like, who knows what they would make me do to you. I know this sucks and I'm not happy about it, but I didn't have a choice and I just." I paused for a second, " I just want you to be safe while she's here."
Still, Khloe was quiet.
Her silence was agonising to me. I knew she didnt like this, and I knew she must want to say something about this.
Hell her heartbeat and breaths were only telling me so much.
Was she upset or mad or what?
"Khloe im so sorry about this and I wish more than anything that I didnt have to put you through this. Ill make this up to you somehow I swear.
She still didn't say a word.
I partially wished that I hadnt pulled her to me so that I could read her face for some sort of hint.
I wanted to know what she was thinking, what she was worried about, or any questions she had so that I could ease her worries as much as I could.
"Okay." she finally said.
I was stunned.
"Okay?" I questioned, finally leaning myself back enough to where I could see her face.
She still had a small smile on her face.
Except I knew this one was fake.
Ever since after the ball she hasn't tried to hide how she felt with me, so why now? Why now of all situations?!
"Yeah," She cleared her throat, "I mean it's only a couple of days so it shouldn't be so bad right?" her voice squeaked towards the end.
She cringed at the sound of it, seemingly cursing herself for not pulling off her lie.
Not that I wouldn't have been able to tell either way.
Even a human could tell that she was lying.
And that fact caused a look of anguish to come over my face.
As soon as Khloe noticed it, her eyes darted away. A pained look crossed over her face for barely a second as she did.
Was she so upset that she felt like she needed to hide it? To lie to me?
I still couldn't even comprehend why she would lie.
"I'm gonna go turn off the lights," she spoke quickly as she hurriedly got off of the bed, knowing that I had a remote on my nightstand for that purpose.
I just watched her as she did, still trying to grasp some sort of sense about what had happened.
I didn't want to press her for answers, not after what I had just told her.
But for some reason her whole reaction to this... it felt like something was eating me alive.
I wanted her to feel somewhat comfortable with this. I wanted to clear her worry, but she wasn't letting me.
She flipped off the lights before slowly making her way back towards the bed.
Her eyes stayed glued to the floor the entire time and continued to look downwards as she got back into the bed and close.
And as if the entirety of this conversation wasn't painful enough for me, she turned her body so that she was facing away from me.
"Goodnight," She spoke softly, her voice hiding most of her discontent.
I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to think.
The part of my brain that was currently panicking was telling me that she was mad at me, but there had to be something else that was going on.
After a couple silent moments of concluding nothing, I moved closer to her.
"Goodnight," I replied, wrapping my arm around her near her stomach.
Her hand slipped on top of mine almost immediately after my action.
She just gave it a small squeeze before she reluctantly let go.