Tess made it to her room with the feeling of heartbreak burning hot in her chest. It wasn’t the first time someone had tried to use her to get close to her wealthy, powerful brothers, but it definitely hurt more than it ever had before. She had thought Sebastian and Pierce were above that kind of petty money-grubbing behavior.

Deciding that she was in for a long night of crying, she went to her bathroom to remove her contacts before flopping on her bed and letting the tears flow.

Several minutes later, when the door to her room opened, she was expecting it to be Mo. She was surprised when both of her brothers sat down on the edge of her bed.

Trey lightly rubbed her back as she sobbed facedown into her pillow. “Maybe it’s not quite as bad as you think.” He tried to comfort her.

“What?!? Of all people, I would have thought you would be the most appalled about someone using me to get access to your money.” She leaned up to retrieve her thick glasses from the bedside table.

“Oh, I don’t like it one bit,” he confirmed, easing Tess’s fear that her over-protective brother might have been body-snatched. “I was on the verge of giving those two yahoos a piece of my mind with my fist when it dawned on me that they truly care about you and Mo.”

“What?” Tess was surprised that her brother didn’t seem to get it. “They sought us out at the gala and intentionally got to know us in an effort to somehow trick you two into bankrolling their struggling kingdom.” She spoke slowly as if her brothers weren’t two of the smartest men she knew. Despite their brilliance, they appeared to have fallen prey to Sebastian and Pierce’s tricks.

“Have either of these men mentioned anything about meeting us or suggested some way that we might financially bail them out?” Trevor asked logically.

“No,” Tess huffed, unwilling to forgive or forget. “But that was their plan,” she couldn’t believe that her brothers weren’t more irate about all of this. “They were using me… And Mo.” She added the last two words because she knew her brothers were just as protective of her best friend as they were Tess herself.

Annoyed by her brothers’ apparent lack of outrage over her treatment, Tess leaned around Trey to retrieve a tissue from her bedside stand. After she swiped her tears away and blew her nose, she used the palm of her hand to rub her nose in a circular motion. It was a habit she’d had since childhood that emerged whenever she was stressed.

Trey turned to his brother. “That’s not very princess-like, is it?”

Trevor shook his head and gave Tess the disgusted look he always presented her with when this particular mannerism surfaced. “Not at all,” he agreed.

“Well, I’m not going to be a princess, so it doesn’t matter,” Tess pouted, circling her nose with even more vigor, simply because she knew it annoyed them.

“Stop it,” Trey said with more kindness in his voice. He gently pulled her hand away from her face. “You’re going to make your nose all red. You don’t want to make amends with Sebastian like that.”

“Tess, the four-eyed princess, had a very red nose,” Trevor singsonged. At Tess’s fiery glare from behind her Coke-bottle-thick glasses, he was smart enough to look away––apparently realizing, through sibling magic, that he was on the verge of pushing her too far.

Choosing to ignore Trevor’s childish song, Tess said instead, “I’m not making amends with Sebastian. He was using me.” Her voice sounded as flat as her emotions felt.

Trey rubbed a finger over his chin, like he was deep in thought. “Hmm… If they were truly simply using you, wouldn’t Pierce have pursued you? Unless Mo’s family has some hidden wealth that we’ve never heard about.”

He knew that wasn’t true, so Tess didn’t even bother to acknowledge that possibility. “Pierce isn’t really the prince, though… Sebastian is. Perhaps they planned to do this big reveal at the last minute all along.” Tess knew it was a bit of a stretch to believe that, but she was too fired up with anger to let this go.

“If that’s the case, this was a seriously elaborate ruse,” Trevor weighed in. “How do you suppose they knew that super-important businessmen, like us, would drop everything and come here?”

Jumping in to add to that, Trey asked, “And why would they blow any chance they had of getting money from us by admitting their evil plan?”

Her brothers tried to sound perplexed, but Tess knew that were simply making a point. “Regardless… The fact is that they went after me because of you. They wanted to somehow trick you into bailing them out of their money problems. It’s infuriating!” She hated the idea of anyone trying to take advantage of her brothers––especially if they wanted to use her to do it.

“We are fairly business-savvy fellows,” Trey’s eyes sparkled at the gigantic understatement. “I haven’t been tricked out of any money in a very long time. Have you?” He turned to his brother.

“Nope,” Trey weighed in. “We are big boys, and we can take care of ourselves. Quite well, actually, so we don’t need our kid sister watching out for us.”

Tess knew that was true, but it didn’t do anything to lessen her hurt feelings. “I don’t like being used.”

“No one does, but perhaps there is more to it than just that,” Trey suggested. “You probably owe Sebastian a conversation and a chance to explain.”

When Tess looked into the eyes of both of her brothers, she could see that they were in agreement. She knew they had her best interest at heart, so her fury began to waver. “There’s nothing he could say to make it okay,” she told them stubbornly.

“And that’s fine,” Trey told her, before adding, “But you need to at least hear him out. Otherwise, you’ll always wonder.”

Tess couldn’t deny that they were right. Even as mad as she was, she was curious to hear how Sebastian could possibly defend his and Pierce’s actions.

“Go talk to him,” Trey encouraged her, after retrieving a fresh tissue and gently cleaning up her tear-streaked face.

“Maybe put in your contacts first,” Trevor suggested, only half-teasing.

Ignoring that and summoning her resolve, Tess nodded and stood to leave. On her way out, she heard Trevor quip to her back, “Don’t worry… we’ll guard our wallets.”

Tess was surprised to hear herself chuckle. Only her goofball brothers could make her laugh at a time like this. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to her room and went to find Sebastian to see what he had to say about his deplorable behavior.