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)
She quickly left.
Nico rose, ready to go after her, the urge beating inside him. He didn’t want to be apart from her. Ever.
“Wait.” Liam grabbed his arm, stilling him.
Nico gave him a worried look. “How are we going to convince her that we’re not going to run at the first sign of trouble?”
“It’ll take time. And that’s what we need to buy ourselves. And look how far we’ve gotten in a short time.”
“What do you mean? She just ran from us.”
“She came to breakfast, though. She ate a few bites. And she talked to us, asked us questions about our relationship.”
He let out a breath. “Right. She did do those things.”
“I’m going to go talk to Regent. Tell him my plan. You go track her down, make sure our girl is all right.”
“Okay.”
Liam leaned in and kissed him, nipping at his lip. “Good boy.”
“Fucking asshole,” Nico muttered as the other man laughed. Sometimes, he was a jerk.
He walked with Liam to the study. “What if he says no?”
“This has become a real problem for him. He’ll say yes.”
Liam didn’t seem nervous at all. But Nico felt nervous enough for both of them.
“And when he finds out we have feelings for his sister?”
“Uh, then we might want to make sure he’s not armed and there are witnesses.” Liam winked at him after saying that.
Definitely a jerk.
10
Why do I run when things become too much? Why do I just give up?
She was so damn annoyed with herself. She flung the paint at the canvas, knowing she was making a mess of things. But this was the only way she knew to safely let her emotions out without . . . without hurting herself.
But she refused to do that anymore.
“Am I going to get to see this one?”
She turned with a gasp, finding Nico standing in the doorway to the solarium, leaning against the doorway.
“No.” She should have known they’d come after her. But when they hadn’t stopped her from running off, she’d been worried they’d given up on her already.
“One day, you’ll show me,” he said confidently.
“Don’t be so sure.”
“You mad at me, Lottie?” He walked in and sat on the sofa across from her. She stared down at him, examining her emotions.
Am I mad at him?
Yeah. She was.
“Yes.”
“Why?” he asked, not looking upset, just interested.
“I . . . I don’t know. It’s stupid. I’ve got no reason to be mad at you.”
He leaned forward, placing his hands on his thighs. “Not stupid if they’re your feelings.”
She shook her head, closing her eyes for a long moment. “Where’s Liam?”
“Securing our stay here.”
Her eyes popped open. “What? What do you mean? Don’t you have to go home?”
It all felt too hard, too much. Them wanting to be with her. Too many obstacles.
Perhaps she was putting up all these obstacles to stop things before they even started. Looking for the negative instead of thinking about all the good things that could happen.
“I don’t know when I became so negative,” she whispered. “I never felt this way before. I could always bounce back from anything. Nothing bothered me. Maybe if I had more experience at being angry or upset or disappointed, I wouldn’t be struggling so much.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being resilient and happy,” he told her. “Or with being mad and upset. There’s nothing wrong with emotions. What is a problem, is when you let them stop you from doing something that you want to do or love to do because you’re letting them take over.”
“I get what you’re saying. But it’s one thing to know it and another to do it.”
“I get that, pretty girl. Probably more than you know. Come sit with me.” He patted the sofa next to him, and she put her paintbrush down then checked that she didn’t have wet paint all over her before she sat. He simply held out his hand, waiting for her to decide whether to take it.
Without thinking, she reached over and slipped her hand into his. His warmth filled her with a strength she wished she could always feel.
“I’m the youngest of five.”
She nodded, failing to see what his point was but willing to take the change in subject.
“I have two brothers and two sisters, and do you know what they do?”
“No. What?”
“My oldest sister, Zoe, is a defense attorney. She made partner at her firm last year. She’s the youngest partner there.”
“Wow.”
“Yep. Then there’s Cy. He’s a doctor. Orthopedic surgeon.”
Okay, she was starting to see where he was going with this.
“My next brother, Theo, he’s basically a genius. Works for some hush-hush think tank. Even we’re not allowed to know what exactly he does.”
“Wow.”
“My next sister, Ana, she’s a teacher.”
“Well, that’s something more normal, right?”
“Professor of physics at Harvard.”
“Nico,” she said quietly.
“Do you know what I’ve done with my life, pretty girl? Absolutely nothing. I’m ten years younger than Ana. A surprise baby. My oldest sister was already in college when I was born. I’ve never fit in with my family. I was unexpected and unwanted.”