by Katee Robert
He really should have known this was going to happen.
She snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Stop staring at my tits and focus.”
“They’re nice tits.” He mostly said it to be an asshole, and she flushed a deep red that he kind of liked.
“You’re a pig. You’re both pigs. Overbearing asshole pigs.”
He’d suspected Meg had a temper, though to be fair, Theo had the ability to drive a saint to a screaming fit in less than an hour if he put his mind to it. Galen looked over her shoulder to his friend. “What did you do?”
“You don’t have to sound so accusing. She needed help. I provided said help. Now she’s acting like I snuck into her room and pissed on her foot.”
Meg’s lips moved as she silently echoed what he’d just said. She shut her eyes and Galen knew without a shadow of doubt that she was counting to ten. Maybe twenty. As much as he enjoyed Theo under most circumstances, this situation was half a breath from exploding in all their faces. He needed to get it defused and get Meg the fuck out of here before someone realized she was the same woman who’d been in their apartment last time they were in town.
It might already be too late.
4
Sleeping with Theo wasn’t a mistake. It was a goddamn catastrophe. Meg didn’t even know how it happened. One second she was trying to keep from kicking him in the shin and the next she was riding his cock and crying out his name as she came. The man had some kind of seduction magic and, as enjoyable as the last few hours had been, she was not here for it.
Worse in so many ways, now Galen was blocking the exit with his big sexy body, and she couldn’t help but remember the way he’d growled filthy words in her ear that branded her right down to her soul. The only thing saving her from doing something truly regrettable was the fact that he looked just as pissed as she was.
Thankfully, the thunderous expression in his dark eyes was aimed squarely at Theo. “What did you do?”
Theo seemed to tire of lounging in bed and climbed to his feet. It was everything Meg could do not to drink in the sight of him. There were people who were handsome or pretty or beautiful… and then there was Theo. His features should have been too sharp, his eyes too blue, his hair a little too mundane color of dark brown. Apparently whatever god created him hadn’t gotten the memo. In addition to being the most beautiful person in the room, he moved with a confidence that only someone born into it could pull off.
He grabbed another pair of lounge pants from the dresser. “She was short on tuition. Now she’s not.”
So few words to encompass the level of betrayal Meg couldn’t quite shake. She was short on tuition. Now she’s not. As if it really was no big deal, this bomb he’d dropped into her life. She turned to Galen, needing him to understand just how many ways Theo had crossed the line, but his dark brows lowered and he glanced at her. “That’s it?”
That’s it. That’s it.
If she hadn’t already suspected Galen came from money, that would have confirmed it. No one who had ever been poor would need to ask that question, because they’d instantly know exactly how Theo had crossed the line. Meg pointed at him. “Get out of my way.”
He studied her as if debating the wisest course of action, but something must have shown on her face because he slid out of the doorway. She turned to look at Theo. “If that night—if last night—meant anything to you at all, you’ll take the money back.” Meg grabbed her bra and skirt on the floor next to the door and yanked it on. She found her shirt in the hallway and her panties in the kitchen.
If there was anything quite as humiliating as having to grab up the clothes Theo had stripped from her like she was following some kind of sex breadcrumb trail, she didn’t know what it was. Neither of the men came out to see her off, which was just as well. She had nothing more to say to them.
Are you sure about that?
Yes, damn it, she was sure about that.
Meg dressed quickly and walked to the elevator. She stared at the doors, willing herself to push the button and get the hell out of there. From the first moment she met those two, she knew they were nothing but complicated. Her bartender instincts had been right—they usually were—and now she was in up to her neck and sinking fast.
My tuition is paid. I can go to school this semester. I am that much closer to graduating.
But at what price?
Nothing came for free in this world. Even if she couldn’t see the strings, this gift had them attached. All gifts had them attached. Meg worked too hard to get this far, only to be derailed now. She didn’t know if she could force the college to refund the money without dropping out—not when she didn’t have the funds to replace that amount.
Two choices; Drop out, or take the money.
Her head pounded and her stomach twisted itself in knots. All of the stress she hadn’t been able to escape for months doubled between one breath and the next. Meg was well and truly trapped. No easy path lay before her, and there was no convenient right answer.
She knew what Cara would say. Take the money and give both the men her middle finger as she walked out of their life. If they were stupid enough to drop that kind of money on her, it was their problem, not hers. But Cara moved through the world in a way that defied Meg’s comprehension. She loved her friend, but she didn’t understand how she could reason her way into anything.
Sometimes, she wished she could do the same.
“Meg.”
She’d hesitated too long, and now here was Galen, stalking down the hallway toward her. She held up a hand. “I’m leaving.”
“Not alone.”
Meg blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You heard me.” Galen reached around her, his big arm brushing her back, and pressed the elevator button. “You’re playing in a game where you don’t know the rules and you don’t know the stakes. So, yeah, I’m not letting you walk out of here alone.”
If she squinted and tilted her head a little to the left, she could almost pretend he cared. “You can’t honestly think that someone is going to snatch me off the street in this neighborhood.”
Galen gave her a long look. “I get that you’re pissed about the money, but you shouldn’t have come back here.”
Wow, Galen, tell me how you really feel.
The worst part was that she couldn’t even be mad at him over it. He was right. She shouldn’t have come back here. Theo was like some giant sun moving through her life, and he drew her in despite herself. The elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, the metal box feeling ten sizes too small once Galen moved in behind her. Theo was big, but Galen was huge. He had the kind of body that would have been right at home on a Viking ship, pillaging villages and throwing a helpless maiden over each shoulder without breaking a sweat. His dark hair was a little longer than when she’d seen him last—not quite military short anymore—and his dark eyes seemed to take in everything about every room he walked into.
The elevator shuddered into motion, but it barely had a chance to drop before Galen pushed the emergency stop button. He turned to her as if he trapped people in elevators every day. “We need to have a conversation.”
Meg slid back a step even as part of her buzzed at the thrill being this close to this man. What the hell was wrong with her? First Theo, and now Galen? Before, she could chalk the whole thing up to being intoxicated by the idea of both of them together. Now? Now, she didn’t have that luxury.
The sad truth? She wanted them. Both of them. Together and separately.
If one thing hasn’t changed over the years, your taste in men is still shit.
Just like your mama.
She shoved the thought away and tried to focus on Galen. “Hurry it up, then. I have places to be.”
His lips quirked, and if he was anyone else, she would have accused him of being amused at her pissy attitude. But he wasn’t anyone else. He was Galen. “I’ll keep it brief.” He glanced up and she followed his gaze to a tiny camera situated in
the corner of the elevator. Meg hadn’t even noticed it before. Galen growled and grabbed her shoulders, turning her so that his back was to the camera and his big body blocked out the sight of it—and its sight of her, she’d bet.
She should have slapped his hands away. Anything was better than feeling the heat of his palms against her bare shoulders. If Theo was the sun, then Galen was the tide. He was just as liable to drown her as Theo was to burn her up, but hell if she didn’t want to give it a try. Stop it, Meg.
He released her before she could do something stupid, but he didn’t step back. “You can’t come back here. Ever.”
“Tell Theo—”
“I am not Theo’s errand boy, Meg. I’m not telling Theo shit.” He glared. “I am telling you that you can’t come back here. I don’t give a fuck if you’ve got a chip in your shoulder bigger than England or that you’re pissed about a measly two grand. Get over it.”
“Get over it,” she repeated. “That’s really easy for you to say. You—”
He covered her mouth with his hand and stepped closer. “Don’t waste both our time with that bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about your pride or Theo’s impulsiveness or any of that other bullshit. What I do give a fuck about is keeping him alive and safe.” He hesitated for the briefest of seconds. “And, damn it, I’ll feel bad if something happens to you because you’re seen associating with us.”
“Can’t have that,” she mumbled against his palm.
“Theo is untouchable right now. I’m a pain in people’s asses, but between not wanting to piss Theo off into doing something like staging a coup, and not wanting to piss my family off in case I might come back into the fold, I’m as close to untouchable as a person can get, too. You are not. You can be hurt. You can be used as a pawn, with or without your consent. Go back to your safe life, Meg. Take the money. You need it more than Theo does, and if you stopped letting your pride have the wheel, you’d realize that.”
Slowly, his words penetrated the fury rattling around in her brain. Meg grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away from her mouth. This wasn’t about the money at all. This was Galen… protecting her? “You can’t seriously think that someone in Thalania would consider my fucking you means I’m important enough to use as a weapon against you.”
Something like concern flickered through his dark gaze. No, that was definitely concern. Holy crap, Galen actually cared. She didn’t know what to do with that information. It shouldn’t matter. This was the end, for better or worse, no matter what door she’d let herself believe she left open with Theo last night. They were too different and it would never work. Galen, at least, seemed to understand that. “Galen—”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what our enemies think. If you know who Theo is, then you know why you can’t be with him.”
She threw up her hands, her frustration needing a physical outlet. “No shit I can’t be with him. I don’t even want to be with him.”
“That’s not what it looked like when I walked in fifteen minutes ago. It looked like you were more than happy to be in his bed, and being in his bed means being in his life.”
It was like they were playing two very different board games and trying to explain the rules, and then getting more and more irritated when the other person didn’t understand what the hell they were talking about. Meg shook her head. “I don’t know how many times I have to say this to get through to you and him or anyone else paying attention at this point: I don’t want anything. Theo is the one who showed up at my bar asking for dinner. I turned him down. Then the bastard went behind my back and paid my tuition. I came here to get him to take the money back. The sex just happened.”
“Just happened,” he echoed. His expression iced over, snuffing out what little concern he’d let through. “Well, you had better make damn sure it never just happens again. I mean it, Meg. This has to be the end of it. This isn’t about wants or any of that bullshit right now. This is about reality. And the reality is that Theo is meant for a future that doesn’t include you.”
The way her stomach dropped had nothing to do with feeling rejected, and everything to do with being fed up dancing to a tune set by others. Or that’s what Meg told herself as she leaned around Galen and punched the button to get the elevator moving again. “Don’t worry, asshole. I’m more than capable of protecting myself. I’ve been doing it all my life.”
Theo stepped out of the shower to find Galen glaring at him. “I know.”
“Do you? Because sometimes I think you need the goddamn sense knocked into you.” Galen yanked his shirt off and fuck if it didn’t take Theo’s breath away even after all these years. He watched his friend strip and step into the still steaming shower to turn on the water, visually tracing the scars creating a path down his back and over his ass to his thighs. Galen hated those scars, but Theo saw them for what they were—evidence that all the bullshit back home hadn’t beaten him. That his father hadn’t beaten him.
That nothing would beat him.
Theo would make sure of it.
He wrapped his towel around his waist and leaned against the bathroom counter. He could try to distract his friend with fucking, but the reality was they needed to have this conversation. Ugly truths were more the rule than the exception these days, and he had no doubt Galen’s recent visit home fell into that category. “What did you father want?”
“The usual. Me, home, dancing to whatever tune he sets.” He said it so calmly, as if seeing his father didn’t bother him in the least, as if facing down the man who made the first sixteen years of his life a living hell was just a normal occurrence.
Theo knew better than to push through the hard exterior to the pain beneath. If Galen wanted to get into it, he would. If he didn’t, then Theo wouldn’t push. No matter how much he wanted to.
Galen ducked under the water and rinsed his hair. “And he wants me to marry Cami.”
Pain lanced through Theo, a draft horse kick to the chest. “Cami is sixteen-fucking-years-old.” His baby sister should be protected and coddled until she hit eighteen, and even then, marrying her off to anyone not of her choosing was out of the goddamn question. “What the hell is Phillip thinking?”
Galen finished washing himself, rinsed, and turned off the water. He’d always been like that—showering in under five minutes. Every move he made was efficient to the extreme.
Even when he fucked.
When they were teenagers, after all the shit had gone down and Galen was living in the palace with him, Theo used to watch him when he thought Galen wasn’t looking. But then, Galen was always looking. Nearly two decades as friends who were often more and the mutual attraction had nowhere near burnt itself out.
Galen dragged the towel over his body and tossed it aside. “You’ve got that look about you, Theo.” He shook his head, his short dark hair standing on end from the rough toweling. “Should have known fucking Meg all night wouldn’t be enough to take the edge off.”
“It wasn’t the last time.” That was the crux of it. One night with Meg wasn’t enough. Two nights with Meg hadn’t even begun to scratch the itch. He wanted more. Galen and Meg wanted more, too, though both were determined to ignore that for their own reasons. Theo had no problem being the one to get them all in a room together, no matter how much the other two dragged their feet, because once they were alone, chemistry would do the rest. Every touch lay another piece of foundation he had every intention of capitalizing on.
Galen disappeared into the bedroom and came back wearing nothing but a pair of shorts. “It will be this time. You know better than to pull this shit, Theo. You’re not some horny teenager who can’t keep it in his pants. The stakes are real.”
They were, but Galen didn’t make a habit of lecturing Theo like he was a wayward child. The truth dawned. Galen was jealous. He would have noticed it sooner, but it was a foreign state for his friend. When nothing else was sure in their life, they were sure of each other. It didn’t matter if they dated other
people, they always circled back to each other, a connection that went deeper than all the surface shit of fucking and infatuation.
Theo crossed his arms over his chest and watched Galen brush his teeth. “Are you more pissed that she fucked me or that I fucked her?”
Galen rinsed his mouth and set his toothbrush carefully back in the holder. He didn’t look over, bracing his hands on the counter as if he would rip it off the cabinet and throw it across the room. It might be marble, but Theo had no doubt he could do it. Galen sighed and straightened. “Both, you asshole. I’m jealous of both of you.” He ran his hand over his face. “You’re not going to leave her alone.”
“You wouldn’t if you allowed yourself to be the slightest bit selfish.”
“Why bother when you’re being selfish enough for all three of us?” Galen stalked closer, until they were nearly chest to chest, and grabbed Theo’s chin. “She doesn’t want Prince Charming and she sure as fuck doesn’t want the baggage we bring to the table. Leave her alone, Theo, or I swear to your dead father that I’ll knock you the fuck out, toss you on a plane, and dump you as far from New York as possible.”
He’d do it, too.
Galen saw them as unequal—as himself forever in Theo’s debt. He’d repaid the imaginary debt a thousand times over, but it still drove him in a way Theo couldn’t talk him out of. If he thought he could protect Theo from himself, he’d do it in a heartbeat.
Theo leaned forward, and Galen allowed it. He kissed his friend softly on the lips. “I’ll leave her alone, Galen. She made her opinion of me pretty damn clear.”
Galen released his chin and gripped the back of his neck, bringing them forehead to forehead. “You stupid son of a bitch. Why the fuck did you pay her tuition?”