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A shiver raced through her. One of arousal and need, not fear. It was bizarre. If anyone other than her brothers touched her, she would freeze. But with Nico, all she felt was warmth. But she didn’t understand why she felt that way with him.
Maybe it’s because you can’t have him.
Yeah, maybe that was it.
Ace frowned up at Nico. “Let Lottie go. I wanna show her.”
“She doesn’t want to go right now,” Nico said firmly.
“Ace, what you doing?” Keir called out.
“I wanted Lottie to come see where we’re building the tree house, but this guy won’t let go of her.”
Keir frowned and ran over. His too-knowing gaze took everything in.
“We’ll show her later. Once we’ve got it all done. It will be better then.”
Ace sighed. Loudly. But he let Lottie go. Keir drew him close and whispered something to him. Ace looked up at Lottie and nodded.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” he said to his brother.
Embarrassment flooded her.
“Sorry, Lottie. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” Ace asked, looking worried.
“Course not,” she replied. “I’m tougher than I look.”
Ace scowled, looking at where Nico stood. “You can let go of her now.”
Lottie cleared her throat and stepped away from Nico. Ace gave a nod of satisfaction then turned to run off.
Keir studied Lottie for a moment. “You okay, Lottie? I’m sorry about Ace.”
“Nothing to be sorry about,” she told him. “But I think maybe you should have some help building the tree house. It doesn’t sound safe.”
“It’ll be fine. We built one at home.”
“You did?”
“Uh-huh. Better go, though. Ace’ll mess it up if I leave him.” He raced off before she could say anything more.
“Let’s set up the picnic inside, okay?”
She nodded. That was a big fail. “I’m sorry I’m so difficult.”
“Hey.” Reaching out, he took grasped hold of her chin. “You’re not difficult at all. Understand me?”
She gaped at him, not quite knowing what to say.
Maybe it was because he’d already seen her starting to panic and hadn’t made her feel bad or awkward, but she felt more at ease now. A wave of tiredness hit her after they set the picnic up just inside the doors.
“Sit down,” he said with concern. “You look pale. Here, drink this.” He poured her some sparkling orange juice and handed it to her once she was sitting on the blanket.
“Thank you.”
“Will you be all right if I go check on what they’re up to?”
“Yes, thank you.”
