Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 103413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 517(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“No. This just . . . you’re failing to see the issue!”
“What is it, baby?” Liam asked in a low, silky croon. “What is the issue?”
“Me!”
“Because you were attacked?” Nico asked gently. “Because you struggle with leaving the house?”
“With hurting yourself?” Liam asked darkly.
“Because I have problems with it all! I’m a mess! I don’t even know if I could have you kiss me, let alone have sex with you. Now, will you please just get out before I have to call the guards.” She moved to her dresser and picked up her phone. “I’ll do it. Please, go.”
Nico sucked in a breath. Would she do that? Maybe she would if she thought she was doing it for them. To help them.
Fuck.
He waited for Liam to explode. Or to go all caveman on her. But instead, he simply watched her, his arms crossed over his chest.
“It’s better this way,” she cried when they didn’t move. “Go find someone normal. Someone who can give you both what you need. Someone who isn’t me.”
“We’ve told you how we feel,” Liam told her. “Those feelings don’t just change simply because you say they should. Our feelings aren’t so shallow that we can just turn them off. I’ll never turn them off.”
“Me either.”
“Please.”
Liam watched her worriedly.
“Liam, we can’t just leave her,” Nico whispered as he grew closer to the other man. Not only because he didn’t want to, but if she was stressed and upset . . . he worried about what she might do to cope.
“We’re upsetting her further by being here,” Liam replied quietly.
“But she might hurt herself more.”
“Fuck,” Liam muttered. “Baby, we both know you’re not calling security so put the phone down.”
“I’ll do it.” Her knuckles were tight around her phone, and it nearly broke Nico’s heart to see her like this.
“You won’t,” Liam told her. “Just like you’re not going to hurt yourself any further.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I know, baby. I know. It’s a lot. And we haven’t helped matters by piling all of this on you. It wasn’t what we intended but we needed you to know that we care about you. Want you.”
“We hate hearing you talk about yourself like that,” Nico added. “You’re not baggage or a burden.”
“You’re our everything. You’re going to be our fucking queen,” Liam told her.
“I can’t.”
“You can,” Liam said with quiet assurance. “You just can’t see it yet. But we can be patient. We can show you. We can be confident enough for us and you.”
“I’m not special.”
“You are,” Nico told her. “We’ll make you see that.”
“You need to go.” But there was no conviction in her voice, and she slumped on the bed.
“We’re not going,” Liam told her. “We’re not leaving you.”
“Tonight?”
“Ever.”
“What if I opened myself up and said yes to all this. What happens when you decide you’ve had enough of me?”
“What if the reverse happens?” Liam asked. “What if I open myself up to you, and then you decide I’m too much for you?”
“That wouldn’t happen.”
“It might. But I can tell you now, I wouldn’t let you walk away. I keep what’s mine. And you’re mine, Charlotte Malone. Just like Nico is. The two of you are fucking mine.”
She sucked in a deep breath, then let it out slowly. Putting her phone down, she rubbed at her temples.
“Let us take care of you, Lottie? Please?” Nico asked. “I get this is overwhelming and way too much after the day you had. But please, just give us this small moment to show you how we feel.”
She looked so exhausted and lost as she sat there, staring at them. “I want to be alone.”
“Do you?” Liam asked. “Or have you been alone for too long?”
“I have my brothers.”
“Who you haven’t confided in. They don’t know about this, do they? About the fact that you’ve started hurting yourself again.”
“It was just twice,” she whispered.
“Don’t lie to us or yourself,” Liam said sternly. “If we hadn’t arrived when we did, what would you have done? Cut yourself?”
This was killing him. Thank fuck he’d listened to his gut. The thought of her harming herself made him want to puke.
“We can’t leave her,” Nico said.
“You don’t trust me. See? There’s no hope.”
“Trust is something that has to be earned on both sides,” Liam said. “Give us a chance to show you that you can trust us.”
“How?”
“By spending time with us. That’s the way trust is built, isn’t it?”
“I suppose so.”
“Here’s what’s going to happen. Nico is going to put our numbers into your phone. The minute you think about harming yourself, you’re going to call one of us. I don’t care what else is going on, you’re going to call us.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then there’s going to be consequences,” he said sternly.
“You’d hurt me?”
“Fuck, you best figure out quickly that I would never hurt you because it kills me a bit inside that you think that’s a possibility.”