“Zephyr!” their mother cried, soundly thoroughly scandalized.
“I’m fine, Zeph,” Rayne murmured against his sister’s hair, though he might be holding her just as tightly as she was holding him. “I promise I’m fine.”
She slowly loosened her hold and took a step away, roughly wiping away tears. “What the hell? You look like shit.”
Rayne threw his head back and laughed. He missed his sister. There were twelve years between them, and she spent most of her time away at a private school, but she was a bright spot in his life when they could steal a little time together.
“Zephyr, watch your tongue before the king!” Stanton barked.
His lovely sister took in the three strangers, and at least she had the good sense to settle on Caelan. Rayne could only adore her more when she cocked her head to the side and smirked at him. “Rayne’s boss, huh?”
Caelan smiled and extended his hand. “A pleasure to meet you at last. Rayne has told me a great deal about you.”
Zephyr shook it without blinking an eye. “Well, he hasn’t told me anything about you. Says he can’t gossip about the prince, but apparently he can gossip about me.”
“Trust me, he has very few interesting stories to tell about me.”
His sister snorted, releasing Caelan’s hand. “I don’t believe that at all.”
Rayne cleared his throat. It was probably best to head this off before one or both of his parents had a heart attack. Caelan would not be bothered by his sister’s behavior, but he didn’t want to worry about the hell that would rain on Zeph’s head after he left.
“Is there a spare bedroom we can use? Caelan could use some rest,” Rayne inquired.
“And Rayne has hurt his knee,” Eno added.
“What? Rayne!” This time instead of censor, he heard real concern wrapped about his name. “Big guy, you carry him upstairs. I’ll show you where the spare bedroom is.”
Drayce cackled again and even Caelan snickered, but it was largely drowned out by arguments from his parents about propriety and other nonsense, but they ignored them. Eno helped Rayne to his feet and allowed him to hobble through the lovely house to the main stairs. There he picked Rayne up in a bridal carry that left Rayne’s cheeks burning, but it was only slightly better than being tossed over Eno’s shoulder like a sack of grain.
At the top of the stairs, Zephyr led them along the hall to a nice room with a king-sized bed decorated in shades of pale blue. She swept in first and jerked the comforter and sheets out of the way.
“Put him here. Then we can worry about getting him out of those wet clothes. I think we’ve got some painkillers around here, but not much else,” Zephyr instructed.
“I can take care of Rayne’s injury,” Caelan instructed. “Though, getting rid of the wet clothes would probably be good.”
“I am not stripping with an audience,” Rayne snapped. “This isn’t a bloody peep show!”
Zephyr plopped her hands on her hips and attempted to stare down her brother. She was doing a rather admirable job of it too. She had learned their father’s stern look. “Well, you’re all a mess. If everyone wants to toss their clothes in a basket, I can run them through the washer and dryer. I’m sure I can at least find some towels and robes for you to use until your clothes are ready.”
“That would be great, Zeph. Thank you,” Rayne sighed.
“Something to eat?”
“Yes, please!” Drayce immediately chimed in. “It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it would be really great if it wasn’t rice.”
Zephyr grinned at Drayce and nodded. “Okay. I’ll see what I can pull together. Someone can use the bathroom across the hall to change and another person can use my room. Let me just get some things together.”
“I’ll stay with Rayne and help him get out of the wet clothes,” Eno offered.
“It’s not necessary—” But he didn’t get much further than that. Eno nearly snarled at him in warning and Rayne bit his tongue. This was not a battle worth fighting. If Eno wanted to undress him to check to make sure he wasn’t hiding any other injuries, he could do that for his lover.
Caelan and Drayce followed Zephyr out of the room, closing the door behind them. The moment they were alone, Eno sat on the side of the bed and worked off Rayne’s shoes with infinite care.
“I like her,” Eno began in a low voice as he dropped the second shoe on the floor and rolled off Rayne’s soggy socks. “She reminds me of you.”
Rayne made a dismissive noise in the back of his throat. “Zeph and I aren’t much alike. She’s bold and incredibly outspoken.”
Eno’s warm hand massaged one foot, heating the chilled skin and earning a little moan of pleasure from Rayne before he could catch it. “You’re bold in your own way. Only a bold man would walk away from a prince.” Rayne glared at Eno, but the bodyguard ignored him. “And you’re outspoken, but you just know how to phrase everything so that it sounds like your idea is the most logical and reasonable.”