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Perhaps you should learn to rescue yourself.
If only she knew how. She knew she was no match for Liam. Not physically or mentally. Definitely not emotionally. Unless he was a basket case as well.
She took a deep breath in, letting it out slowly in an effort to calm herself.
For some reason, Liam and Nico stirred all this emotion in her. Not just admiration for their good looks. She could get past that. Yeah, they were lovely to look at. But so was a beautiful vase or a bunch of flowers. You could admire them, then move on.
There was something about the two of them that messed her up. It wasn’t like she wanted them. She never intended to date again.
Besides Liam being a jerk, there was also the fact that they were gay.
Maybe that’s why she stared at them so much when they were around.
They were safe.
“You can’t, can you?” he said smugly.
Oh, how she’d like to wipe that look off his face.
But then her brother reappeared. “Sorry about that. Urgent call. I know you were meant to be flying back to New York tonight, but are you able to stay a few more days?”
Liam and Nico shared a look.
“I can call the hotel we stayed at last night and see if they have some availability,” Liam said.
Regent frowned and nodded. “Don’t worry about the hotel. Stay here.”
Don’t say yes. Don’t say yes.
Liam looked straight up at her. “Sure, we’d love to stay.”
Regent moved his gaze up, likely wanting to see what Liam was looking at. His eyes widened as he saw her sitting there. Then his gaze narrowed. “Lottie? You okay, darling? What’s wrong?”
She cleared her throat. “Nothing’s wrong. Just waiting for you, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“You couldn’t sleep?”
It wasn’t something she wanted to talk about in front of Liam and Nico. Regent seemed to understand this quickly and he turned to the guys. “Take any of the guest rooms on the third floor. I’ll see you in the morning. Come here, Lottie.”
Lottie rose and moved slowly down the stairs. Last thing she needed was to trip and make an idiot of herself. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she realized that she was going to have to walk past the two of them to get to her brother.
She only felt safe when one of her other brothers was around. But it was especially true with Regent. They had a different bond than she had with the others. Regent had always been there for her.
Steady. A rock.
Still, she had to take a moment to steel her nerves before moving past them toward Regent.
Liam frowned. “You should go to bed, Lottie.”
She paused and shot him a look. He stared down at her, his face stern.
Lottie turned to her brother, waiting for his reply. Regent gave her a thoughtful look then turned to Liam, his voice decidedly cooler as he spoke. “Lottie sometimes has trouble sleeping. We’ll say goodnight now.”
Regent held out an arm to her and she slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. He was often old-fashioned in his manners. But she took refuge in them. In an uncertain, scary world, Regent could be relied upon to always be courteous and protective. Calm and steady.
She let the blanket of his protection fall around her shoulders and it steadied her.
As he walked her into his office, though, she could feel two sets of eyes burning into her back.
