“Calm down, Rothesby.” Without taking his eyes off me, the first man pats his companion on the shoulder and stalks in my direction. “Donovan Tate?”
I scramble to my feet as he comes to a halt a few steps from my couch, the other guy right behind him. “Uh, yeah. Am I supposed to bow or something?” I ask stupidly. But I’ve never met a king before, and I’m stilldisoriented by the sight of Derek’s younger brother, Elliot, standing in front of me.
“Yes,” Rothesby says at the same time Elliot says, “Absolutely not.”
I stand frozen, not sure who I should be listening to.
Rolling his eyes, Elliot puts a hand on Rothesby’s shoulder and gently shoves him back a couple of steps. Then he turns back to me. “Please don’t bow.” He scrunches up his nose. “Especially not here.”
That’s the response I was hoping for, but now I don’t know what to say. “I…uh, thought you were in Candora.”
“I was.”
“That’s on the other side of the world.”
“I took a plane.”
He must have come straight here after talking to Derek. “Why?”
Elliot grins as he glances around the lobby, and the expression looks so much like Derek that I’m able to relax with my next breath. “Because I thought Derek might need some backup, even if he’s convinced otherwise.” His eyes trail over me now, and I feel like he’s seeing way more than I want him to. Derek is good at reading people, but I get the sense that his brother is even better as his eyebrows pull low. “You’re out here instead of with him.” It’s less of an observation than it is an accusation that fills me with renewed guilt.
I swallow. “We agreed it was for the best.”
He narrows his eyes. “Why?”
“Sir,” Rothesby interjects, “you shouldn’t be out in the open like this.”
“Find me a threat, and I’ll go somewhere more private,” Elliot responds without hesitation. Again, his eyes never leave mine, and it’s unnerving being trapped in his gaze like this.
I wait for Rothesby to come up with a reason to move. When he stays silent, I search for the best way to answer Elliot’s question without this turning into a repeat of Derek’s fury earlier. The man in front of me hada highly successful career in the Special Forces before becoming Princess Freya’s bodyguard, and now he’s a legit king. I’m assuming Rothesby is his bodyguard, but there’s no way he could stop Elliot the way Hunter did with Derek. Not when Elliot is all muscle and intensity.
Guessing things will get worse if I delay, I take a deep breath and say, “He’s talking to your mom.”
To his credit, Elliot only tenses a little. He stays relatively calm as he asks, “She’s here?”
“Yeah.”
“Explain.”
“There’s a lot we’re not sure of,” I reply, and I wish I knew more of what Derek and Elliot talked about on the phone last night. “If I had to guess, she’s hoping Derek is feeling helpless enough to turn to her.”
“Helpless,” Elliot repeats, his expression twisting into confusion. “Derek?”
A nervous laugh slides out of me. “I think it sounds ridiculous too, but Derek was pretty believable when he pretended to be breaking under the pressure of everything. And I think we convinced your mom that the story she posted about me was enough to turn Derek against me too. There were lots of tears. On my end, not his.”
Swearing under his breath, Elliot fully relaxes and smiles as he takes me in again, this time with a lot less scrutiny and more interest. “No wonder he likes you. Fitting that he would fall for an actor.”
“No longer an actor,” I say with a shrug.
“Right, because you’re a brain-damaged addict being haunted by your demons.” Apparently he read the story somewhere between Candora and here. He tilts his head. “I have to say, you’re looking great, all things considered.”
Laughing, I finally feel okay about leaving Derek on his own. No matter what happens, I’m not the only one in Derek’s boat with him, and we’ll be here for whenever he needs us.
“So you met her,” Elliot says, putting his hands in his pockets. In his black t-shirt and dark jeans, he doesn’t at all look like how I would picture a European monarch, which I’m sure Rothesby appreciates. Hopefully no one will look at him too closely and realize who he is.
I nod. “Your mom is…something.”
He chuckles. “I’m sure she is, but I never plan to meet her and find out.”
