Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Stay.
He clenched his jaw to keep the word inside. It wasn’t his place to offer that. Things between them worked now because they were perfectly equal. Going back to Thalania—taking Meg back to Thalania—would skew that. It had to. Even if he somehow convinced Meg to stay, to be with him publicly and with Theo privately… Theo would still marry someone else. They’d only be borrowing time against a future heartbreak.
It might be worth it.
“I was serious before, Galen.” She kept her voice pitched low. “You didn’t fail. You were working with the parameters of what you knew. Theo lived. I lived. We got out of there because of you.”
“It’s my job to keep him safe—to keep both of you safe.” A job he’d spent his life doing. Theo might think it was a debt long since paid, but even after all this time he didn’t understand how thoroughly he’d changed Galen’s life. Theo was loved by his parents, and when his mother died and his father remarried, he was loved by his step-mother as well. He never wanted for anything, emotional or otherwise.
Galen’s path to his teenage years differed greatly. His family had the money and power, but his home life was… less than ideal. He shook his head. “You’ve done enough. Though I suppose you could offer that sweet pussy up in the way of comfort.”
“Don’t do that.” She turned to face him, her hazel eyes large in her face. “I love the dirty talk and you know it, but don’t throw it between us like some kind of weapon because you’re done with the conversation.”
He sighed. “Look, I don’t do this shit.”
“This shit.” Meg gave a half smile. “Have conversations?”
“Relationship shit.” He ignored her surprise and kept going, well aware that Theo had drifted closer again. Things were easier between Theo and Meg. Their personalities complimented each other. Theo might drive her up the wall, but he’d pull her out of her shell the same way he coaxed Galen out of his. There was no resisting Theo when he set his mind to something. And Meg gave Theo a piece of something he’d never had access to before—normalcy. A woman who cared about him first, and his power and rank and country second.
For Galen and Meg, it was different. Fucking her was as easy as breathing. They fit. They fit even better with Theo in the mix. Conversations? Emotions? The rest of that shit? Not so easy.
But he hated the wounded look in her eyes when he shut her down, and he couldn’t seem to stop himself from trying to fix it, even knowing he’d likely make it worse. “Theo and I have been friends for so long, sometimes it feels like we’re two halves to a whole. We don’t have misunderstandings. We know each other as well as we know ourselves. Fuck yeah, we fight. We’re both stubborn bastards and that throws wrenches into the gears sometimes. It’s not effortless, but I know what Theo needs from me and vice-versa. This is different.”
“This is temporary.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that. Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
She didn’t seem to have an answer for that, so he kept going. “I won’t use sex as a weapon again.” He allowed himself a slow smile. “Though I meant what I said. I am going to take my frustrations out on your sweet pussy.”
She blushed a cute pink. “Yeah, I got the memo.” Meg turned to face Theo. “Are those shots?”
“Indeed.” He passed out one to each of them and raised his own. “We’re alive. A celebration is in order. Bourbon, good food, and fucking until dawn.”
Meg laughed. “That’s a toast I can support.”
They took their shots as one. Theo met Galen’s gaze and raised his eyebrows, and then turned to Meg. “Why don’t you grab that shower while I get food started?”
She looked between them and sighed. “If you needed time to talk, you could just say so.”
“We could,” Galen agreed. “But you have a nasty tendency to eavesdrop. It’s a terrible habit.”
This time, her smile was bright enough to light up the room. “You love it. What’s the point in devising all those ways to punish me if I never do anything to deserve said punishment?”
Theo chuckled. “She’s got you there.”
“Shower. Now.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.” She blew them both a kiss and strode to the only door in the interior. There was a spare bedroom and second bathroom downstairs, but no one had ever used them. They were an eventuality that Galen had planned for without ever following through on. He’d had Theo here. Why would he want to bring someone else?
Meg sure as fuck wouldn’t be using the spare bed.
They waited for the shower to start going before moving to the kitchen. Theo poured another set of shots and slid on toward him. “What if this wasn’t temporary?”