“I don’t think I do,” she snapped. “How do you even know you want me? We’ve barely talked. Or is this just a man thing? George loves me while you just fuck me? Is that it?”
Her own words pained her, made her feel like she’d stabbed herself in the side with a knife.
George grabbed for her hand again and when her fingers were shielded in his, he squeezed them. “That’s not how it works. Edward knows plenty about you, Perry. I’ve told him a lot over the years.”
“Hearsay,” she said softly. “That doesn’t count as the real thing.”
“Maybe not, but I’m not suggesting we leap into anything here. I wasn’t even going to mention this for…” George sighed. “A long time but seeing you with Xavier quickened the timeline.”
“The timeline? You make this sound like you had it planned!”
“I did. I never thought you’d…” His jaw flexed, and she knew he was jealous of his cousin.
Jealous of what she and Xavier had done together last night.
“I like him,” she declared recklessly. Maybe it was churlish to say it now after he’d just declared his love for her and she’d declared her love for him, but it was the truth.
She did.
The way she and Xavier had interacted last night had been outside of her comfort zone. And she wasn’t even talking about sex.
On the terrace, in her bedroom... the conversations they’d had? She’d rarely felt that kind of comfort outside of her time with George.
Then, there was the inferno they’d created together in bed.
Said inferno had her jerking her chin up stubbornly. “If you’re saying Edward can have feelings for me over-damn-night, why can’t I have them for Xavier?”
George frowned. “Why are we even talking about that?”
“Because the man I slept with last night is outside in the other room, dammit. I wouldn’t have slept with him if I didn’t want him.” Granted, she’d been a little tipsy, a lot jet-lagged, and kind of pissed at George for dumping her to talk politics, but she had wanted Xavier.
There was no way a woman couldn’t want a man like Xavier.
She narrowed her eyes at Edward. “You know how crazy this sounds, don’t you?”
He nodded. Once.
“So why are you taking part? How did you even know to be here now? Did George call you before he came in?”
“No. Of course not. I overheard your conversation outside.”
Her eyes flared in distress. “People can hear us?”
“No. Only when you were shouting.”
She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or not. Their conversation, despite its crazy topic, had been enacted in a relatively calm manner.
No one would have overheard that much. It wasn’t like they’d had a screaming match.
“Still, you barged in. Why?”
“I didn’t intend to.” He ran a hand through his silky blond hair. Jesus, he was gorgeous. A slightly taller, lot more somber, and older George.
He was mature and sensible. That was what made this conversation so insane.
“I heard you yelling, came to see if you were okay, and then I saw Xavier.” His chin jerked up, mimicking her earlier posture.
“And what? Birds suddenly appeared, and you realized you wanted me?” she scoffed, jerked her thumb at George. “Just like Buster here?”
“You don’t know what possessiveness and jealousy does to a man,” George growled, turning to the side so he could face her better. “Fear of loss too.”
“George wants you, Perry,” Edward pointed out softly, his hands coming to rest on his trim hips which were perfectly visible in his gorgeously tailored jodhpurs. She almost wished he’d turn around so she could see his ass.
The man’s thighs were like tree trunks, and God help her, she wanted to climb him like she’d ascended the old oak in her childhood home in Tennessee.
Rolling her eyes at her own silliness, she murmured, “Apparently you want me too.”
His nod wasn’t as firm as George’s, but it was a nod nonetheless. “I’m intrigued.”
His words didn’t match up with his gesture. “Explain.”
“George never picked the women we shared,” Edward said softly, but his voice was gruff with discomfort. “That he picked you makes me wonder why you’re so special. It makes me want to learn how you tick so I can understand you better, as well as understand his reasoning.”
His logical response, in the face of such nuttiness, helped calm her down. He was being rational. She could appreciate that.
Cutting George a glance, she eyed his miserable face and knew that her feelings for him hadn’t gone anywhere because of the last twenty-four hours.
It put her in a spot she didn’t appreciate. If she didn’t agree to fuck Edward, was that it for her and George?
George was the one she wanted. Had always wanted. God, she loved him. With more love than she knew how to handle some nights.
But if he was saying he and Edward came together or not at all, then she didn’t want to say goodbye to Xavier.
If he was still hanging around, that is. The way they’d talked? They could be friends, and she wanted that. He’d been interesting, interested in her, and had made her laugh. What more could a woman ask for? Not only that, he was gorgeous and kind. Amusing and, more importantly, he had a trait that was her kryptonite.
He was curious.
Just like she was.
Loving George didn’t mean she couldn’t see the potential out of hanging around a man like Xavier.
It didn’t make her blind. If anything, the fact she could sense potential spoke loudly when George was sitting here, a hangdog expression on his chops, telling her he loved her. But that love kind of came with the desire to fuck her with his brother. It was conditional. At least, it seemed that way to her addled wits, and in her mind, love should never come with conditions.
She gnawed at her bottom lip.
What had he said earlier? Edward had been screwing a woman while she’d sucked George off? Was that what they wanted from her? She gulped. Could she do that? She wasn’t exactly experienced. How was she supposed to see herself in that role when she’d barely had an orgasm until last night?
“Say something, Perry,” George said softly.
“Can’t you just want to be in a relationship with me like a regular guy?”
George shrugged. “I do want that.”
“Yeah. You just want your brother in our bedroom.”
He cleared his throat, but there was a red tinge to his cheeks that surprised her. Just her saying it had his responses flaring hotly.
“Why?” she asked, curious as ever. “Why do you need that?”
Edward sighed, drawing her attention his way. “When a woman is being pleasured by two men, it’s easy to overwhelm her. To drive her to a brink she won’t experience alone.”
They were saying that what she’d had with Xavier last night was basically the tip of the iceberg?
Her eyes widened at the prospect.
“So, it’s not about your pleasure but mine?” Edward jerked his head in a yes. His eyes were dilated, and she could see he was reacting as strongly as George.
Suddenly, it became hard to breathe in the dressing room again. The small space was so clogged with pheromones, it was a wonder she wasn’t choking. What were they talking about though?
Overwhelming her with pleasure until what…? She was insensate?
Was that even possible?
Feeling her throat tighten, she whispered, “Why does it excite you so much?”
George caught her eye. “Can you tell me it isn’t arousing you?”
She hesitated for a long moment. “Your reactions are—” Perry broke off. “Oh.”
Edward cleared his throat. “I’d like to get to know you, Perry. See what George sees. I can feel the potential here. Can you tell me you don’t?”
She stared at him, saw the tension on his face and wanted to sigh at the sight of all tha
t male beauty being aimed her way. Should she be questioning her good luck? Or her sanity?
What woman could turn down two hotties when they wanted to arouse her so much she was nothing but a limp mess in bed?
And when those two hotties were princes? Wasn’t that like topping the cake with a crown, not just a cherry?
Was she insane to say, “Yes?”
Maybe she was. Maybe the fairies had come and stolen her brain cells after a night in Xavier’s bed.
She just knew that the way he looked at her, the way they both looked at her, was something she’d be a fool to discard. And Edward was right. That potential wasn’t something she could throw away.
Xavier included.
George and Edward approached their father’s study in tangent.
Though he’d spoken only to Edward, when George had discovered their father had cancelled the morning’s meetings, he’d wanted to join too.
Even if joining meant leaving Perry alone for a while.
Alone to think. To process. To change her mind.
Edward had waited outside George’s room while he went in to change into a pair of jeans and a tee.
A few minutes later, and he’d rejoined his brother, not exactly dressed to impress but with more decency than a bedsheet.
“What do you think this is about?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Edward told him, his ignorance genuine. George knew his older brother too well not to discern his lies; so he knew that Edward was truly unsure.
“Are you concerned?”
Edward hesitated, his stride faltering a second. “A little.”
“Are you concerned about Perry?”
Edward cut him a glance. “A lot.”
Nodding, he murmured, “Understandable. I was as surprised as she was when you came into her dressing room.” He cleared his throat. “What happened?”
“I saw Xavier.”
The simple answer was remarkably complicated. “Me too. I had a similar reaction.”
He’d meant it when he’d told Perry that his intention hadn’t been to share his predilections with her for a while. But Xavier’s presence in her bed had upped the ante, meaning he had to leapfrog ahead too fast, too soon.
It came as no surprise at all that Edward had felt the same pressure.
Perry might not be Edward’s type, but there wasn’t a man alive who would fail to be charmed by her utterly.
Especially since she was blind to those charms. She could have had a menagerie of men traipsing at her feet if she’d noticed them. But that was something Perry was incapable of doing.
Her head was in the clouds. Her work or her hobbies. Never on a man, and males, being the fragile creatures they were, soon withered and disappeared at her inattention. George, not being particularly fragile in nature, had persevered and had discovered the best friend a man could ever hope for wrapped up in the tiny curves of a pocket rocket from Tennessee.
He’d never intended to date her at first though. She wasn’t the one night-stand kind of woman, and when he’d arrived in America, with Edward’s rejection of any future trysts firmly in his head, one-night stands had all he’d been willing to entertain.
Then, friendship had blossomed over the years into a love so strong he’d known that he’d have to act on it.
“I don’t want you to hurt her, Edward,” George said softly, a few feet away from their father’s study. “You don’t have to do this. I’ll be with her without you. I just know she’ll make you happy, too.”
Though some brothers were jealous of one another, envious of the other’s possessions or such nonsense, that had never been an issue between the two of them.
Maybe because there was enough of an age gap for there to never have been any bitterness over parental affection. Or maybe because they knew the world outside these walls was filled with jackals, and that trusting someone who lived inside the circus was easier than anything else.
Either way, George had only ever wanted the best for Edward, and knew his brother felt the same.
Edward’s life was filled with more duty than George’s. More chores and tasks. There were more expectations, and he shared a burden with their father that George wasn’t expected to carry.
For that reason, he’d always wanted Edward to find his happiness where it could be found… it was why he was willing to share Perry.
The only woman he’d ever loved. And all because he knew she’d make them both happy.
A fanciful notion, perhaps, but not to him. It was a belief. Resolute and irrefutable in his mind.
“You know we’ll have to say she’s my partner, don’t you?”
Edward’s low voice caught George’s attention, but aside from a nod, he revealed no other emotion.
He wasn’t a fool. He’d known that when he’d made the suggestion. Still, his pride didn’t have to like it, even if he understood and accepted it.
“You’re okay with that?”
George heaved out a sigh. “What do you think? I’m not going to do cartwheels about it, Edward, but I know the score.”
His parents might pressure him to marry at some point, but an heir from him wasn’t as imperative as Edward’s need for a child and a wife.
He could live his life single if he so chose; parental disapproval aside, that is.
Edward couldn’t.
He had a duty to fulfil. A duty that, if things worked as well as George believed they could, Perry would share.
Edward shook his head. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this, George. Not when you love her.”
He told Edward the truth, knowing his brother could accept no less. “Because she can make us happy.”
“Happiness... you’ve always been obsessed with that.” He sighed wearily.
“And you’ve never been obsessed enough with it,” George immediately retorted. “What was that hideous decision to marry yourself to a woman like Arabella about? Punishment? We both knew from the start you’d be a disaster together.”
Edward’s jaw flexed. “Now isn’t the time to talk about my dead wife.”
“No? There’s never a time. She was your wife. In name only. She didn’t love you, and you didn’t love her. You could love Perry, Edward. She’s so easy to love.”
“Love has never been something I’m interested in.”
“You think I wasn’t the same? You think I didn’t believe love was bullshit?” George grunted. “I’ve seen more catty bullshit from courtiers than I ever believed possible. They wrecked any dreams I might have ever had for romance. But Perry changed all that. You’ll see once you get to know her.”
He was sure about that. Had absolute faith that Perry’s rather offbeat character would capture his brother’s heart.
And truth was, he hoped for nothing less than that.
Edward sighed. “We’ll talk about this later.”
George just shrugged. “Sure.”
Chapter Eight
The prospect of facing Xavier had been enough to make her feel nauseated. But, in the end, she hadn’t had to worry about it. There’d been a note left on her bed, a precise scrawl that spoke of a scientist as well as someone who’d been taught that neat penmanship was important.
One of my experiments almost exploded, Perry. I’m sorry to leave, but here’s my cell phone number. I look forward to hearing from you. Maybe we can talk about ethanol explosions the next time we meet up?
Of course, the prospect of that filled her with delight. She could talk to George about anything. Well, anything other than science. Still, was it wise to see Xavier?
Wise, no, but apparently she’d left her brain back in the States. Her wisdom too.
Not only had her best friend propositioned her with an offer that would probably make most porn stars blush, she’d actually accepted.
Questions about wisdom were definitely off the cards because here she was. Three days later, a coffee date arranged with the man who’d rocked her world two nights before.
S
he took a seat in the coffee shop where she’d been directed to sit.
Perry had arrived five minutes earlier than when they’d agreed and had found two bodyguards waiting to chauffeur her to the table they’d selected for their date.
Dead on the hour, Xavier arrived. He wore a baseball cap and shades, and actually managed to blend in rather well thanks to a ratty pair of jeans and a hoodie that made him look like a regular Joe.
When he strode in, he looked around. Not for her, but his bodyguards. Some kind of communication went down, but it was done through body language as his lips didn’t budge an inch, and he used that to discern her location at the back of the coffee shop in a booth that sheltered them pretty well from sight.
He saw her, and his lips curved into a smile that had butterflies dancing in her belly. She wasn’t sure what to do with her hands, so she laid them out on the table as she waited for him to approach.
“Hey,” she greeted.
His smile was warm. “Hey yourself.” He hovered at her side of the booth, leaned over and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
Before she could decide whether or not to move her head, to let him press a kiss to her lips or not, he’d already moved. Rounding the booth, he took a seat opposite her, sliding in in a way that pulled his hoodie taut against his lean length.
She’d touched that. All of him had been against her. His hard tautness had pushed her into the mattress, and his cock had been inside her, making her feel things no woman could ever forget.
Maybe he saw the heat in her eyes, because his smile turned wicked. “You’ll have to stop looking at me like that, Perry,” he chided softly, but his own gaze started to glint with wickedness too. “You’ll give me ideas.”
She licked suddenly dry lips. “Well, we wouldn’t want that.”
His grin was fleeting. “Minx.”
She’d never been a minx in her life, but she liked the fact he thought she was. Now, she just had to make sure she lived up to it.
“I didn’t expect to hear from you if I’m being honest,” he murmured after a waitress had popped up to take their orders.
His bluntness should have come as no surprise. They were scientists, after all. Dealing in cold, hard facts day in and day out. It changed people, having to live so frigidly with words.
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