Naz, at best, was an impatient fucker. It could be considered his greatest flaw if he cared to think about his few flaws. Except he didn’t … and he was more than willing to embrace all his impatientness when it came right down to it.
Throwing back the last bit of whiskey—he’d let himself have one glass for this party just in case Roz wanted to get the hell out of there later and he had to drive—he peered over the crowd again to see if he could find his girl. He swore every time he laid eyes on her, someone else was coming around to take her away.
He hadn’t gotten five minutes of conversation with her the whole night. It was driving him nuts.
A hand clapped his shoulder hard on the left side, and Naz relaxed a bit at the sound of his father’s quiet chuckles. “What are you doing over here in the corner, Naz?”
“Maybe I’m letting Luca have his spotlight.”
Cross arched a brow like he was considering that statement. “I might believe that, if you actually thought you might take it away. You wouldn’t—you’re not the type. Try again.”
His gaze swept the crowd again. “Did you see where Roz went?”
“Ah.”
He would not look over at his father. He would not.
Except he did.
Cross was wearing a shit-eating smirk again. Goddammit. “Everyone taking up her attention and time, and I bet you’re a sad little puppy over here.”
Just the tone of his father’s voice was enough to make Naz bristle. “I swear, if you try to pet my head like—”
His father slapped his cheek twice instead. “Nope, just going to enjoy pestering the fuck out of you, son. No one else dares to.”
That was mostly true.
Luca did, sometimes.
“You know, back when I was your age and this was me and Catherine … I used to just sneak her out the first chance I could. We’d take off, and it’d be hours later before someone realized we were even gone. Good times.”
Usually, when his father talked about things like that regarding his mother, Naz tuned him out. He didn’t need to know those things of things. But that was actually kind of helpful, and he was going to pull a Cross as his mother liked to say.
He was his father’s twin, after all.
Or that’s what everyone told him his whole fucking life.
Naz’s lips split with a sly smile. “That sounds like a great idea.”
“Hey, I didn’t—”
“Thanks, Papa.”
He heard his father’s sigh echo behind him as he turned his back to his father, and headed into the crowd. If he couldn’t find Roz, then she could come and find him. And once she did, they’d be gone.
Perfect, really.
“There you are,” Roz said as she slipped out the front door of her parents’ home. Her wide smile made Naz grin, too. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“I bet.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Naz chuckled, and shook his head. “Means nothing. I just figured instead of waiting for you to find me in there, it might be better if you found me out here.”
Roz eyed him curiously as she came down the steps. The chill in the air wasn’t too bad, but it was enough that he could see a slight shiver crawling over her exposed shoulders under the dress she wore. Once she was close enough for him to reach out and grab her, Naz did just that.
Her laughter colored up the driveway—filled to the brim with cars from guests—as Naz dragged her into his warm chest. He used his jacket to wrap around her as she tucked her arms in close to his body. Resting her chin on his pec, she peered up at him with a brilliant smile curving her sweet lips.
“Better?” he asked.
“Is what better?”
“You were cold.”
Roz’s gaze softened. “Yeah, it’s better, Naz.”
“Good.”
He tightened his hold around her, refusing to let go. Now that he had her outside of that house, there was no way he was letting her go back in so someone else could steal her away from him again.
Nope. Wasn’t happening.
“Do you wanna get out of here?” he asked.
Roz laughed. “Oh, my God.”
“What?”
“More than you know. I swear they invite everybody, and then the house is so fucking full of people you can’t breathe. It happens every time, so you know they never learn.”
Naz shrugged. “Gotta let them have their fun. Everybody enjoyed seeing you play, though, didn’t they?”
He didn’t miss the way she stiffened in his arms, but she kept her smile firmly in place anyway. “Yeah, seems so.”
“What’s that about?”
“Hmm?”
“You went still just now. I mentioned the piano, and you went—”
Roz shook her head. “Nothing. It’s nothing.”
No, it was definitely something. Tonight wasn’t the night he wanted to have his first battle with Roz, though, so if she didn’t want to talk about whatever it was, he’d let it go. But not for long. Just for now. She’d figure it out that he wasn’t the kind of man who forgot anything when the right time came.
Naz would make sure of it.
Back to the better issue at hand …
“But you know, people are pouring alcohol now,” he said, “so I don’t think they’d even notice us gone.”
Roz arched a brow high as she looked up at him again. “Is that why you came out here? You had this all planned, did you? Figured instead of trying to find me in all the people, you’d let me do the work to find you. And then we’d sneak out of here to go have some real fun. That’s it, huh?”
He tried to look innocent.
And failed like a fucker.
“No,” he said slyly.
Roz just laughed, and patted a hand against his chest. “I don’t even care. Did you have something in mind? Where are we going?”
“Wherever you want, babe. It’s always about what you want, Roz.”
Didn’t she know that?
She should.
“Let’s go to your place,” she said suddenly, pushing away from him and heading for where he’d parked his car—not the bike this time—at the very end of the driveway. Naz knew better than to try and get a closer spot to the house. No one could ever leave when their vehicle was crowded by everyone else’s. “We can go there, right?”
He was still watching her walk away. “Is that where you want to go? There’s not much to see at my place. We can go anywhere, Roz.”
“Why not?”
Yeah … why not?
“So, what do you think?” Naz asked.
Roz leaned in his bedroom doorway, and peeked at the space in there. He wasn’t a big decorator, and he didn’t plan on living here forever, so he hadn’t put in much effort other than furniture, and a few things on the wall. The only thing that really meant anything to him inside the apartment was the Baby Grand piano in the living room that his grandfather, Calisto, had passed onto him when he first moved into the place. He certainly wasn’t at Roz’s level of talent when it came to the piano, but he knew a song or two and the scales.
Good enough for him.
“It’s cute,” she said.
Naz scoffed. “Cute?”
She shot him a sweet smile over her shoulder. “It feels very much like a bachelor lives here.”
His lips split with a smirk. “I’m not really a bachelor now, though, am I? I have you.”
Roz winked as she spun in the bedroom doorway. “Yeah, you still are even with me.”
“Ah, I see.”
“What is that above your bed, anyway?”
Naz didn’t even have to look in the bedroom to know what she was talking about. The equation above his bed had been left unfinished, and the large six-foot by three-foot whiteboard was only half filled with numbers and symbols. Ready for him to get back to it whenever he felt the need.
“Time,” he said. “It’s time.”
“Above your bed?”
Naz shrugged. “I’ve always had a whiteboard above my bed. I do my best thinking first thing in the morning, or right before I go to sleep. I need it close to translate what’s in my head as it comes to me.”
“And what’s on that board—”
“Is an equation—or the formula for an equation—about time, yeah.”
Roz peeked back over her shoulder. “How so?”
“It’s an equation for the idea that if time was on a constant loop, one that doesn’t end, then it would be more like an oval shape instead of the traditional infinity symbol most people think of when we think about infinite time.”
“Why?”
He chuckled, and shoved his hands in his pockets. Why she wanted to know, he didn’t understand. It was just a boring theory in his head that hadn’t left him alone from the time he was sixteen. He’d finally decided to put it to paper even if he had dropped out of college, and left physics behind.
“Because with the idea of it being the traditional shape, at some point, time has to meet again. There’s a point where it crosses over, and we know by the fact no one has ever recorded it happening … time has never crossed over again. Instead, like an oval, we have long stretches of time that seem to mirror past events. They aren’t exactly the same, but they feel very similar. People have moments of—”
“Deja vu,” Roz interjected, smiling a little.
“Yeah, like that. So, I just thought if I could work out the math for this theory, then maybe it would be a new way to look at it.”
“And that’s all you plan to do with it? Just work out the math, and look at it?”
Naz’s tongue peeked out to touch his upper lip as he laughed. “Yeah, babe. Sometimes my head is full of so much shit that I just … have to get it out somehow. And that’s one way I do it.”
Roz stepped out of the bedroom doorway, and closer to him. “Is it always like that—your mind, I mean? Just overflowing and too much all the time?”
He stilled when her hand came up to brush against his jaw, and then her fingertips danced over his temple softly.
“Not when I’m with you,” he murmured. “It’s … quiet when I’m with you.”
Which was exactly why he hadn’t been able to get back to that equation. Why he hadn’t been able to finish it despite having it banging around in his head like a wasp that wouldn’t leave him alone for years.
Absolutely perfect.
“I forgot for a moment,” Roz whispered.
Naz smiled as she inched closer until their noses were touching, and her lips grazed his as she spoke.
“Forgot what, Roz?”
“How smart you are. It’s just … I forgot because you’re pretty amazing in every other way, too. The genius thing is just something else to add to it, I guess.”
“I’m not amazing,” Naz said. “I’m just me.”
“Maybe.”
He heard her unspoken words.
But not to her.
He was amazing to her.
“Naz?”
Hmm?”
She was still watching him in that way—like she was seeing him for the first time all over again, and nothing else mattered.
“You know I didn’t come here just to look around your place and talk, right?”
Naz kissed her softly. “Yeah, I know. But it’s all on you, girl. Whatever you want, whenever you want it. I love you, so it’s always on you.”
Roz’s blue eyes darkened. “Do you really?”
“What?”
“Love me that much.”
So very much.
His hands came up to cup her throat and jaw, so he could keep her looking at only him. “Let me show you, Roz. Can I show you how I love you?”
His lips were on hers again when she whispered, “Please.”