The Kings IV I

30

Lena

"Thank you," I said, smiling at the man who grabbed my suitcase.

He nodded with a smile, roughly throwing it on the cart. I bit down on my bottom lip and my eyes went round, but I quickly wiped the look off of my face as soon as he looked towards me.

"È tutto?" He asked, making me tilt my head over.

"Sí, grazie," Josiah responded, placing a few Euros in his hand with a pat on his back.

I bit down on my bottom lip and caught what felt like the thousandth glance of the day. I rarely got the pleasure of seeing Jo in a simple outfit, as he was currently wearing, and it was a pleasure, to say the least.

I subtly waved at the man, smiling as I caught up to Jo. I folded my arms over my chest and blew my hair away from my face, gawking at the interior of the hotel.

"Yeah, normal people stay here," I muttered, earning Jo's eyes.

He nodded, his jaw taut. I almost melted into a puddle at the sight of his entire being paired with a baseball cap. Who even looks that good?

"It's beautiful," I said, biting down on the inside of my lip.

"It is," he said.

I was completely immersed in the moment, but I was pulled back into reality when I felt Josiah's hand in the curve of my back. "You've got people behind you."

"S-sorry," I stuttered, looking over my shoulder at them.

Jo pulled his hand away from me and I looked up at him. "You didn't have to."

He looked down at me, slipping his hands in his pockets. Luckily, we were next to the check-in desk, and the moment was less awkward.

"Josiah and Lena King," he said, folding his arms on the desk in front of him. He and the lady exchanged a few words, and we were handed our keys to our room soon enough.

"They're bringing the bags up," he said.

"I'd like to keep her with me," I said.

I caught a glimpse of a smile. "I'm fully sure that they deal with Louis Vuitton luggage on a day to day basis. She'll be fine."

I smiled up at him. It'd felt like ages since I'd seen a smile.

We stood at the elevator in silence until he looked over at me.

"We're not meeting Giovanni, for your information," he said, nodding down at me.

I shook my head. "I would've been fine if we would've."

He folded his arms over his chest. "I purposefully booked a city on the other side of the country so we wouldn't have to."

I bit back my smile, stepping in the elevator as soon as it made it down to us. We stood on opposite sides, both trying to make the silence a bit less awkward.

"I like this look," I said.

He nodded. "Thanks. I figured you didn't want to see me in slacks, so."

"That look works, too," I said, "I just don't see you, you know, casual-"

"Right," he said, nodding, "I don't really have the chance-"

"Yeah," I said, nodding.

He leaned his head back against the elevator, trailing his eyes down me. I still got nervous at that sight, so I cleared my throat and stepped out of the elevator as soon as it stopped.