Chapter 294


    Chapter 0294


    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 Nichs 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 cor 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,” Nichs said. “I’m not going to give you love advice -” “She’s


    drunk,” Nichs said.


    I paused. My brow scrunched in confusion.


    “I think it’s ast 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 cro tch 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,” Nichs 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 Nich s’s room.


    “I don’t know if she needed to get this drunk to have the courage to approach me so tantly, 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 exining 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 ce, however, anger was


    taking root.


    N?velDrama.Org content.


    Nichs 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 Nichs 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.