Page 7 of Divine Oaths

“Okay,” I said. “What do you want?”

Jojo leaned forward, a twinkle in his eyes. “Guess.”

He was teasing me. He always teased me.

Normally, I’d have a better retort for him, but words escaped me with his body so close and my heart thumping in my chest. It was times like these when I found myself wondering if he felt something from me too.

New Year’s Eve had been a turning point for us. There’d been a party in our building, and somehow, Jojo and I had found ourselves together moments before midnight. We’d shared a kiss as the year ended and this new one began.

I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since.

But of course, just a few weeks later, he’d started dating a woman in our building. When she’d confronted Jojo about us in our downstairs lobby, he’d laughed it off.

“I work at her aunt’s psychic booth for extra cash. Sianna and I are just friends,” he’d said. “Don’t be delusional.”

The words had been a brutal reality check.

“Well then, don’t make me feel like I am,” the woman had said. “And stop acting like you have feelings for her.”

Jojo had apologized and I scurried away as the two of them embraced. I had no interest in watching that. When they’d broken up the next day and I asked him why he’d ended it, he’d said dating was a distraction from his career. He’d rather have friends in his life at the moment, friends like me.

I sat beside him, placing my bag on the ground between us and trying to keep my expression blank when our thighs accidentally brushed.

“Louisa’s going to be back in a bit. She’s off luring customers.”

I nodded.

“Aren’t you going to ask why I’m here?” he said. He smiled, and there was that dimple on his cheek—the one that I always yearned to be the reason for.

Suddenly, it occurred to me.

“Wait, why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be in one of those orientation sessions for your new job?”

With him leaving for his new research residency and Aunt Louisa moving our entire life to Rhode Island, finding a local place on my own would be the only way I could stay in Virginia and be close to him. Hence, my desperate need for money.

“Something came up,” he said. “So I thought I’d come see you. Are you happy?”

I turned away from him, hiding the smile that had already started tugging at my lips.

“Psh, to see you?” I lied.

Jojo laughed. Beneath the mall’s incandescent lighting, his rich brown skin gleamed softly, and I found myself spacing out, smiling at the way his ebony locs fell gently against the side of his face while he spoke.

My mind flickered back to the Saint James heir, remembering the intensity of his strong gaze. But I buried the thought. Between their similar broad builds and glow, maybe I had a type. Still, Jojo had an air of experience and manhood that was nothing like the arrogant yet youthful glint of boyhood that the Westfield heir embodied.

“Why are you making that expression?” Jojo snickered. He’d leaned forward, vying for a look at my face as I shifted away from him.

“Because, I barely see you anymore and you still haven’t told me anything about your new job.” I was trying not to be too clingy or obsessive, but it was eating me alive not knowing more about it. I pretended to hold an invisible bowl, pouting at him and speaking in a terrible impression of Oliver Twist.

“Please, sir. Tell me more.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not the right quote,” he said, laughing again. “But since you’re starving for information, the job is a semester-long residency doing research on the occult and historical artifacts. It could run for the full academic year if I play my cards right. There’s just some—drama. You know how academia is.”

“You forget that I was homeschooled until I was fourteen and only spent a few years in public school.”

“And that’s why you should be excited about moving with Louisa. There’s so much history in Rhode Island, and if you decide to go back to school there, you’ll get to explore the towns and the ocean side. You’ll love it, Sianna. I know it.”

“Just because Louisa’s going doesn’t mean I have to go too.” I was nineteen, nearly twenty. Long since an adult. I didn’t need Louisa or him patronizing me about this move situation. “Besides, you’re not in Rhode Island.”