Chapter 165

Confronted with the scenario of the man I wanted to sleep with very clearly about to sleep with someone else, I did the only thing I could think to do.

I swiveled on my heel without a word and took off down the hallway. I fully intended on returning to my room, crying my eyes out, and then pretending this never happened.

I would never be such a fool again either. I didn’t know how I could think that Nicholas would want only someone like me. He obviously had needs. Maybe he really had changed since I’d known him, but –

A hand caught my arm, stopping my body and my thoughts at once.

“Piper, wait.”

We were in the hallway. We had to keep our voices soft. He might as well have shouted at me, because my entire body flinched.

Maybe he noticed. Maybe he didn’t. Either way, he did not let me go.

“Piper, please. I need your help.”

I looked back at him.

There was desperate, wild look in his eyes. He seemed utterly lost.

His hopelessness softened my demeanor, until I remembered the lipstick on his collar and I hardened again.

“Surely Lilliana can help you with whatever problem you have,” I snapped. “I have no intention of being involved.”

“Lilliana is the problem,” Nicholas said.

“I’m not going to give you love advice –”

“She’s drunk,” Nicholas said.

I paused. My brow scrunched in confusion.

“I think it’s a last ditch effort from her to maintain her position as my favorite despite her poorer showing recently. I don’t know. I don’t care. I only know she came to my room dressed like that, and grabbed me by the crotch as soon as I opened the door.”

His fingers on my arm held me with a gentle insistence. I could break free with enough force. He’d even let me.

But I stood still.

“I don’t know why she thought this would work,” he said, frowning. “Even if I wanted her, which I don’t, I would never bring someone drunk like this into my bed.”

“So if she was sober?” I asked.

“I would turn her away,” Nicholas said. He stepped closer to me, and I closed my eyes, feeling his warmth. “You know my heart and body desire another…”

I open my eyes and find him staring at me with such open fondness that it steals my breath away. It makes me want to fall into him right here and now, forget everything, and just push forward with this man.

But that wouldn’t solve the current predicament of Lilliana mostly naked in Nicholas’s room.

“I don’t know if she needed to get this drunk to have the courage to approach me so blatantly, or if the alcohol is instead an excuse she could use as a cover if things went poorly for her,” he said. “I’m not fond of either possibility.”

“If she’s that drunk,” I suggested, “maybe we can convince her to go to her own room, and in the morning she might forget any of this ever happened.”

“I hope so, Piper, because right now, she refuses to leave my rooms unless I sleep with her. I’ve spent the past ten minutes explaining to her why that can’t and won’t happen, but she refuses to listen. I fear being more forceful. I don’t want to physically harm her.”

“I’ll speak with her,” I said, surprising us both. Embarrassment and jealousy were beginning to fade from me as the truth of the situation became more and more clear. In their place, however, anger was taking root.

Nicholas was the one worried about taking advantage, but Lilliana was the one who wanted to take advantage of him and his kindness. She kept pushing after he declined. Would she have kept pushing him all night if I hadn’t shown up?

I imagined Nicholas hiding behind a locked door as Lilliana continued to try to seduce him. Even that more amusing thought did little to quash the rage growing within me.

Nodding at Nicholas, I moved past him and returned to his rooms. He released me at once and fell in step behind me instead.

Inside his rooms, I moved toward Lilliana, who was down on one of the ornate rugs. Her legs were kicked out of her, her nightgown drawn up to her hips. She peered up with a sultry look, likely expecting Nicholas.

She sighed when she saw it was me, but didn’t move much otherwise.

“I should have known he’d invite you too. Well, it’s all the same, really. I can do a threesome if that’s what he wants. What do I care anymore?”

“Uh, no,” I said at once, taken aback both by the sudden and inappropriate offer, as well as her resignation to it. This had to be the worst seduction in the history of wolf-kind.

She clearly wasn’t into any of this. Was this what she thought she had to do to maintain Nicholas’s interest? Surrender her body without passion or desire for the sake of a crown?

My anger slowly dimmed and I felt pity instead.

What a sad life, to never be able to live for herself. To sacrifice so much for power alone. Did she even like Nicholas at all? Did she find him as sexy as I did? Did she gravitate toward his generous, caring heart like me?

It sure didn’t seem like it. Instead, it seemed like she wanted this to be over as fast as possible so she could sleep.

To me, it seemed the drunkenness had been a necessity for her, to do what needed done.

How… tragic.

“Lilliana… Is this even what you really want?” I asked.

Lilliana shrugged, then stretched out more fully on the rug. “What I want doesn’t matter. I will do anything to please my prince.”

Nicholas, meanwhile, was nearby but facing the wall, not looking at Lilliana at all.

To Nicholas, I said, “Can you get a bathrobe? Something soft and fluffy?”

He moved at once, rushing into the bathroom.

To Lilliana, I said, “You can’t be very comfortable on the floor? Perhaps you’d like to return to your own room, your own bed, and get some sleep? It’s late.”

“I am sleepy…” Lilliana yawned. She tried not to. “But I came here for a reason. I have to…” Another yawn, larger than the first. “I have to…”

Whatever she was going to say, she didn’t finish it. I didn’t press, not wanting her to remember why she came here.

Nicholas returned with a white fuzzy bathrobe, exactly what I had been hoping for.

I accepted the robe from him, and with effort, was able to convince Lilliana to pull it on.

“Aren’t you cold?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.

It took longer still to convince her to stand off the ground.

“The prince might trip over you and hurt himself,” I said.

“Oh, that’s true,” she said and let me help her up.

The sleepier she got, the more complacent she grew.

“I think the prince would be happier if you slept in your own bed,” I said. “He wants you to be comfortable.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Nicholas started to open his mouth as if to say something of his own, but I cast him a sharp look, quieting him. If Lilliana heard his voice, who knew what would happen.

Out in the hallway, I propped Lilliana up against the wall and went back to the doorway to speak with Nicholas lightly.

“I’ll see her back to her room,” I whispered.

“Thank you, Piper. You are a lifesaver.” He paused a moment, but I knew he wanted to say more so I lingered. "You came here for a reason tonight. I never asked what it was.”

I looked away from him, back to Lilliana barely holding herself upright against the wall.

“Maybe I was making my own reckless choices,” I said and left him to help Lilliana.