Page 22 of Mine to Keep
“Okay, little one,” I say. For a reason I can’t name, I wrap my arm around his shoulder and kiss his forehead like I caught Javier doing all day. Talon freezes for a moment, just as I do, then he melts into my side, hugging me quickly before walking back to his friend. Javier looks at me with a raised eyebrow, but there’s no anger in his gaze.
Looking back at the concierge, I say, “I’ll take the room for a week.” That’s the shortest amount of time they have to stay fortheir flight. If they allow it, I’ll pay for them to leave early if they want. I’ll propose the idea, but if I’m reading Javier correctly, he’ll turn me down. It’s already too much that I’m paying for their room—I doubt he’ll want me to pay for more than anything he can’t immediately pay me back for.
The concierge looks uncomfortable. “Um, the room…it’s three hundred and fifty dollars a night.”
I look at him without blinking. “A week for the room, please.” I hand him my card and the identification that corresponds with it, careful not to give him my Knox ID.
He quickly takes my card and runs it. When it goes through, he hands it back and codes our keys. He tells us when breakfast is served, how we can reach room service, and gives us locations to all kinds of tourist places nearby. I don’t care about any of that, but maybe Javier and Talon will want to go out.
After we’re all checked in, I guide my boys to the elevator.
Wait, what? No, they’re not mine. I feel a sense of protectiveness for them, but they’re their own men, not boys.Not my boys.
When the elevator reaches our floor, I usher them inside the suite and Talon looks around, prancing from room to room, taking it all in. When he steps out of the first room he entered, he says, “This bed is bigger in here. So you should take this room, Knox. It’s because of you we’re even here.”
I put my bags in the other room, with the queen bed. “I take it the two of you will be sharing a bed.” They nod. “No need for me to take a king when it’s just me. I insist,” I say when they both try to plead their case.
Talon sighs. “Fine. I promise we’ll pay back every penny.”
“Go lie down,” I tell him gently, and Javier nudges him to the room.
We both watch as he drags himself into the room, shutting the door softly behind him.
I sit on the couch, fatigue crashing down on me. Sitting and talking to the two of them had me forgetting how bone-tired I am. Leaning my head back, I let out a long sigh.
“You like him,” Javier says, sounding both defensive and amused.
“I’m not sure,” I answer, not opening my eyes. I just need to rest them for a few moments, then I’ll go to my room and stretch out. My body is so tired, I can’t do anything but move my mouth to speak. “He seems?—”
“Fragile,” Javier finishes.
“Like he needs someone to take care of him,” I agree.
“He does. Talon is sensitive. He’s too good for this world. Cole wasn’t the one to do that.”
“But you are.”
“Or you are,” he fires back quickly.
I crack a lid open to look at him. “You need someone to take care of you, too,” I mention for a reason I can’t name. There is something about the two of them that has my insides all tied up.
Javier looks nonplussed. “No. I uh…I’m good.”
“Until you need someone.”
He stares at me, open-mouthed, like he wants to deny it, but knowing he can’t. They’re both fragile. Javier may come in a bigger package, but he’s as breakable as Talon. I don’t want anyone or anything to break either one of them.
He doesn’t get a chance to answer before his phone buzzes in his pocket. Javier pulls it out and groans, running a hand down his face.
“What is it?” I ask, opening my other eye and leaning forward.
Instead of answering, he hands me his phone. I grab it and see he’s on his social media page. A video is playing, but the sound isn’t audible. I click the button and hear yelling between Javier, Talon, Cole, and a woman. On the upside, the woman ison their side, asking Cole why he didn’t inform her he was still in a relationship with the American boy he always used to talk to.
Javier’s face is red, his lean, muscular arms trying to reach over and grab the front of Cole’s shirt, while Talon and a few others try to pull him back. Talon has tears running down his face, anger and hurt clouding his expression.
“You could have just told me,” Talon says when the shouting dies down. “I would have let you go.”
“No, you wouldn’t have,” Cole says in a nasally, snarky tone. “I’ve been trying to quit you for months, but you held on.”
