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“Remember the first time we met her?” Nico asked. “At that god-awful dinner the step-monster held. Michael had been dating her a couple of months. I thought she was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen.”
Liam nodded. He hadn’t wanted to go to that dinner. He’d never met Lottie before, but Regent had been an acquaintance, so he thought they had better go to the dinner and check that his brother was treating her right.
It had been the usual disaster. Anything that involved the step-monster usually was. He’d come up with that nickname when he was ten and his father had married her, and it had stuck.
Sometimes, he wondered if he’d have ended up this way, cold and with emotional attachment issues if his mother hadn’t died. He could still remember her laugh, the way she’d sing all the time. Her hugs.
Yeah, maybe he wouldn’t be such an asshole. But he couldn’t blame it entirely on the step-monster. His father could have stepped in to protect him. Spineless bastard.
He could still remember the first time he saw Lottie. She had a timeless beauty. Classic. Elegant. But that wasn’t what drew him in. He’d met plenty of beautiful women. But there was something about Lottie.
She’d been sweet and charming. Sneaky and witty. Far too delicate for his peace of mind, but back then, her personality had made her seem so much stronger. The center of the world with everything revolving around her, just hoping that she might bestow a smile on them.
She’d been raised to believe she was special, precious. Which is exactly what she was.
A jewel.
A princess.
“If I’m not allowed to take her, then we need another plan. We’ll show her that she needs us.”
“Yeah? You think we can do that?”
“Of course, we can. We’ll have to move slowly, though.” Which wasn’t going to be easy when they lived in New York and Lottie never left this house.
“I knew you’d have a plan. This is why we work well together. You’re the planner, the strategist, and I’m the fun one who keeps you from turning into a stodgy old potato.”
“Stodgy old potato?” he repeated. “Is that a dig at my Irish heritage?”
“Yes. Wasn’t it obvious? I was trying to be obvious. FYI, it was also a dig at your age, old man.”
Liam shot out his hand and wrapped it around Nico’s throat. Immediately, the other man relaxed. Pleasure shot through his face and Liam smiled. They were fucking made for each other. Liam could be rough, and Nico enjoyed that side of him. It wasn’t a part of him that he could let loose around Lottie, though. He was well aware she couldn’t handle that. But she didn’t have to.
“Old man? I can run rings around you. You gonna be a smartass to me now?”
“I’m a smartass to everyone,” Nico countered.
He wasn’t wrong. But right here, right now, he was in charge.
Sometimes Nico was the only thing that kept him sane. That stopped him from falling completely into the darkness. He knew he didn’t deserve him. Didn’t deserve love. The things he’d done in his life had turned his soul permanently black. But maybe there was some redemption in his love for this man.
And for the precious girl they had yet to claim.
He’d told himself to forget her. She needed someone far better than him.
He’d used all his excuses. She was too broken. She needed time.
But that wasn’t about Lottie. It was him. His needs. His fears.
And look at her. She was slowly fading away. Suddenly, his excuses were bullshit. What he needed to do was man the fuck up. To find the gentle side of himself. To make himself into the man she deserved.
Somehow.
He’d do it, because the alternative was unthinkable. They had to have her. The missing link. The piece that would complete them.
“What are you thinking?” Nico asked.
“About all the things I could do to your body,” he purred, tightening his hold on the other man’s throat just a touch.
