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)
4
You can do this.
Just step out into the courtyard.
“Are you all right, Lottie?” Nico asked. “We can stay inside if you like.”
“I’m fine,” she said hastily.
Liar.
He didn’t call her a liar, but his face told her that he didn’t believe her.
“What if we open up the double doors?” he asked suddenly. “We could put the blanket out on the floor and eat here while those two burn off energy racing around.”
She wanted to nod, but that wasn’t helping herself. That wouldn’t show everyone, herself included, she was stronger than they thought.
“No. I want to have it outside. But maybe we could put it just there.” She pointed to a few feet away. The grass out here was lush. Regent had a full-time gardener who took care of the grounds.
“All right,” he replied. “But if you start to feel ill or panicky, I want you to tell me right away, understand?”
The words weren’t stern exactly, but they were said in a firm voice. A voice that told her he expected to be obeyed. Funny, Nico had never struck her as particularly dominant.
“You don’t need to worry about me.” She didn’t need someone else thinking she was weak and needed to be sheltered.
“Funny, that’s all I seem to do,” he muttered.
She frowned. She couldn’t have heard him right.
He stepped through the doors and went to set up the picnic. Ace and Keir were already outside. She hoped they weren’t doing anything too reckless. What she’d learned from being around them was that little boys didn’t have a good sense of safety. If it was messy, dangerous, or crazy, then they were completely into it.
Lottie stared down at the steps that would lead her outside. Just three steps down. Then two more to where the blanket now lay on the ground. Nico was setting out plates and glasses from the wicker basket that Gerald had prepared for them. He’d even offered to make more cookies; the boys had demolished the first batch.
Just take a step, Lottie. You can do it.
But all her earlier bravery seemed to have fled. The idea of stepping over the threshold had her feeling nauseous. She gulped in breath after breath.
Ridiculous. You’re being ridiculous.
She could do this. She’d promised the boys a picnic and they wouldn’t understand why she suddenly changed her mind. She didn’t want to explain to them that she was a nutcase who couldn’t take a few steps out of her house because of some irrational fear that someone might hurt her.
If she really believed that she wouldn’t let the boys go out there on their own. She’d insist on them staying inside.
So, the danger wasn’t real. It was just all in her head. And she needed to get it out.
Stop acting like a crazy person.
“Lottie? Hey, pretty girl. What’s the matter? Breathe for me. That’s it. Just breathe. Good girl.”
The tone, more than the words, penetrated first. She felt her hands being taken in a pair of calloused warm ones.
“Look at me. Lottie, look at me.”
She raised her gaze up to his dark eyes.
“That’s it. Nice slow breaths. Good girl.”
One breath. Then another. As her anxiety faded another feeling took residence. Attraction. Interest.
What would it be like to wake up each morning and see those eyes, to be able to kiss those lips, to feel his arms around her?
A fantasy that will never happen. Even if she was capable of being in a relationship with someone, she couldn’t forget that Nico was taken.
He wasn’t interested in her like that, he was simply being kind.
“That’s it. Feel better now?”
“Sorry,” she muttered.
“No need to be sorry. I’ll move the blanket inside.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I can go outside. I’m just . . . usually . . .”
“Tell me,” he urged.
A laugh, barren of amusement escaped her lips. “Usually, I have someone with me. Someone that I . . .”
“That you trust,” he finished. Something filled his face. Something that looked like disappointment. “And you don’t trust me. How can you trust me when you don’t know me? We haven’t exactly talked much. Just that awkward dinner when you were dating the worm and sometimes when we’ve been here to see Regent.”
She licked her lips, grateful he understood. Then a smile curved her lips. “The worm? That’s what you call Michael?”
“Apt, don’t you think?”
She placed her hand over her mouth to try to smother her giggle. “I shouldn’t laugh, but . . .”
“But he’s totally a worm?”
Yeah, he was a worm. He’d broken up with her the same day she’d been kidnapped. And she hadn’t heard from him since.
He was worse than a worm.
“Maybe that’s a bit harsh,” Nico pondered. “On the worms.”
A burst of laughter shot out of her, shocking her.
“Who said worm? Do you want worms, Lottie?” Ace called out, appearing out of the trees. His hands were coated in dirt and there were streaks across his face.