My Heart | Book 4 of My Bodyguard

Prologue

Geralt POV

"No elevator," he agreed. There were two, actually, the beaten down one they had used last time, and the nice one everyone else used. But the stairs would work well enough, even if it meant climbing a crap ton of stairs. Vesemir did not keep his office on a reasonable floor. It was on the twelfth, or something. Geralt worked on only the fifth. Hopefully, they would just be dropping by the office he shared with Eskel. That was all he was going to Headquarters to do.

And yes, it would undoubtedly be a test. When would it not. Even if they didn't see Geralt's old mentor himself, the people they passed in the halls would be reporting to him. The security mechanisms would be viewed by him. There wasn't one place in the building they would be going that wasn't observed by Vesemir.

"Hm," he said. Geralt was going to have to change as well, he realised, street clothes weren't going to cut it—

Wait. 'Da-?' Like in date? Ciri had been calling their dinner that, Jaskier must have just picked it up, was all. Nothing to be concerned about. It was just two friends getting dinner together. In an unnecessarily fancy setting, sure, and an almost romantic one. But still. Friends. Nothing more, because Geralt couldn't allow it to be, even if he had felt the same as Jaskier did. Which he didn't.

Geralt's hand came up to cup Jaskier's jaw again, encouraging the kiss. Chances were this was going to be the last one they shared for a long time, though not that long. Hopefully only for a few hours, tonight at the latest.

...not that Geralt was THAT excited about kissing Jaskier. It was just that being able to do so again would likely be signalling the man had come back to himself. Geralt would prefer to keep some distance, physical and mental, between the Julian persona and his own self. Thank fuck he would have an excuse now, not that he actually needed one to do so.

Julian POV

Jaskier smiled a little as he felt Geralt's hands move to his jaw, cupping his face softly with his larger hand and gods, how could he refuse but to lean back in and kiss the man for a moment longer than he planned? He smiled into the kiss, placing his hands over Geralt's and gave a small chuckle as he pulled away after several long moments of love. He opened his eyes slowly, grinning up at Geralt before he urged the man's hands to slide from his face with a soft nudge, implying the idea that they move but doing nothing to actually invoke the action.

"As much as I want to stay here and kiss you all day darling, we can't be late and I have to get ready, which by the way, look-" He cut himself off. Christ, he was already going into business mode, and no, Geralt was not an underling, he did not need to be told to check over his notes twice more, ensure proper English before handing in the report to Vesemir. Christ, this was going to be an interesting side of himself.

Jaskier glanced out of the corner of his eye to the basin and touched his own barely-there stubble with his finger and hummed, he would have to shave that was for sure. After the last events, he already knew to keep the door open He had to grab a razor from the bedroom anyways. So he tilted his head slightly to gesture tot he door. The thing about Julian is physical signs will be much, much different. He could already tell he was standing up straighter.

Geralt POV

Geralt frowned as Jaskier cut himself off. Fuck. He could tell that the man had slipped already. It was the little things, the subtle signs that the man in front of him was no longer Jaskier, but had donned the mask of Julian. Geralt fucking hated it. But it wasn't like they had many other options, or like he wasn't going to be doing something similar. 

Except he didn't have personas, he just had what he was like at work versus at home. He could afford to be a little more open and compassionate at the apartment when it was just them and Ciri. At Headquarters, such a thing was like to get him sent in for an evaluation and more training out his emotions.