by Katee Robert
She’s wrong, of course. Or, rather, she doesn’t have the full story. It’s easy to paint me villainous shades for the production, but it takes two to tango—or three, in this case. We did not come to this place on my power alone.
But that’s none of Megaera’s business.
I channel my middle sister, Sienna, and stare Megaera down. It still doesn’t feel natural, but I’ve been taught how to move amongst big players from the time I first learned how to walk. This woman is powerful, but she’s just one of many. Ultimately, she holds no power over me. In theory. “If we’re done here …”
“Step carefully, sweetheart.” She waves me out the door, and I have to concentrate to keep my gait even and unhurried.
In the short time I was closeted up with Megaera, the lounge has gained a number of people. Couples and throuples and people who seem content to talk and ignore the promise of sex in the air. Or maybe it’s not sex. It’s power, the kind sometimes exchanged only for a night, sometimes for a lifetime.
I feel like I’m dying of thirst and someone just shoved me into an ocean. Water everywhere, but none of it for my drinking. All of these people are off-limits to me. They aren’t why I’m here.
A couple moves toward the bar, clearing my line of sight to the booth nearest the door back to the playroom. I get a sense of a massive white man, and then he leans forward into the meager light cast over the table. Dark hair that’s gone a little shaggy from need of a haircut. Shoulders that will fill any doorway. A surprisingly generous mouth on a face that looks carved from the side of a mountain. He’s got freckles, too, though I can’t pick them out across this distance.
Gaeton meets my gaze across the room. His dark eyes widen for the barest moment before he locks it all down. There was a time when he didn’t try to hide himself from me, but I’ve long since burned that bridge. I don’t deserve his kindness, or that hint of vulnerability that belies his size and strength. He could take me apart at the seams, but he always handled me as if I were made of spun glass.
No longer.
He starts to stand, but goes still halfway through the motion, his attention landing on something over my right shoulder. Or, rather, someone. The air shifts in the room, filling with the promise of violence. Just like that, I know who’s behind me.
My entire body clenches as Beast’s rough voice sounds in my ear. “Hello, Isabelle.”
Chapter 2
Isabelle
I twist to see Beast and, as always, his beauty takes my breath away. He looks like the prince in a fairy tale, all sculpted cheekbones and sensual lips. His short dark hair is perfectly styled, and he’s wearing his customary jeans and T-shirt. It should make him look underdressed—everyone else in the room is wearing suits and dresses—but Beast simply looks at home in his skin.
One would never know he’s one of the deadliest people on my father’s payroll.
My breath catches and pain lances my chest. Not my father’s payroll. Not any longer. Not ever again. He’s gone and there’s nothing in heaven or hell that will bring him back again.
Something flickers in Beast’s blue eyes, something almost like concern, before he goes icy cold. “What are you doing here, Isabelle?”
I can see Gaeton climbing slowly to his feet out of the corner of my eye. I keep my body slightly turned toward him, an invitation I desperately need him to take me up on. I need both these men in a room, and I can’t do that if Gaeton thinks I showed up here with Beast.
I lick my lips, and Beast’s attention follows the movement. “I came for you.” I glance at Gaeton, now striding toward us with long steps. “Both of you.”
Gaeton stops just out of reach. I’m painfully aware of a number of eyes on us. We have the attention of the room. If they shun me now …
My sisters will pay the price. Our territory will pay the price.
I shove down my pride, shove it deep and lock it away. There is no place for it here. I can’t demand anything, can’t expect them to fall in line. They hold all the power in this interaction and pretending otherwise will only result in ruin. Instead, I let my voice quiver the tiniest bit. I’m not even faking, not really. I’m simply letting my control lapse a small fraction of an inch. “I just want to talk. Please.”
Gaeton and Beast exchange a look filled with so much animosity, I have to fight not to take a step back. Beast shrugs. Gaeton gives himself the smallest shake and looks around, seeming to register that we have an audience. “You have five minutes.”
“More like two,” Beast murmurs.
Not enough time, but I’ll make it work. I don’t have another choice. “Okay.”
Gaeton turns on his heel and stalks to the door leading deeper into the club. I follow, having to work to keep pace with him in my high heels. I can feel Beast at my back, but he makes no move to walk next to me. Impossible not to feel like a prisoner being marched to her execution. These men would never, ever hurt me … Or at least that used to be true. I don’t know what’s true anymore. The world stopped making sense when my father died.
It doesn’t matter. Whatever their price, I’ll pay it to ensure my family remains safe.
The door leads into a large room. There are scatterings of couches grouped together in a way designed to encourage socializing and in between those spaces are all manner of kinky equipment. Spanking benches. Suspension racks. St. Andrew’s Crosses. Things I recognize from my internet searches, but can’t remember the names of off the top of my head.
“Eyes forward, Isabelle.”
I snap my gaze to Gaeton’s back and, just as quickly, ignore the command. There is a man with medium-brown skin flogging a plus-sized white woman while another man kneels between her spread thighs, his face buried in her pussy. My skin goes hot and tight at the sight, and then goes even hotter when I recognize her. It’s Tink, my clothing designer and now the wife to Hook, one of the other territory leaders. Now that I recognize her, I realize I recognize him, too. Oh gods. She’s completely helpless, completely on display. Even as part of me cringes at the vulnerability, a small corner of my mind it writhing in jealousy of her experience.
Gaeton leads us out of the room and down a hallway lined with doors. He chooses one seemingly at random, but when we enter the room, it appears to be a generic study. Steeped in understated elegance, but normal in every way that matters. But then I notice the panel on the wall near the door and the cameras situated to ensure no corner of the room is hidden. Not so normal, after all.
Gaeton kicks one of the chairs in front of the desk so it is angled to see the entire room and drops into it. The man doesn’t know how to sit without sprawling, and even with fury darkening his expression, this is no exception.
Beast shuts the door and moves to lean against the desk, unconsciously mirroring the same position Megaera took when I spoke to her. He crosses his arms over his chest and watches me. Waiting.
Gaeton has no such patience. “What the hell are you doing here, Isabelle?”
Now’s the time to lay out my argument, but the words dry up in their presence. I lick my lips again, and give him the same answer I gave Beast. “I’m here for you. For both of you.”
Gaeton doesn’t look impressed. “Yeah, I don’t think so. We tried that and it blew up in our faces. I’m not doing it again.”
If I don’t talk fast, they’ll pack me up and send me on my way and this will all be for nothing. Failure is not an option. It can’t be. “Come back to the territory. Resume your positions. We need you.”
Beast raises an eyebrow, but it’s Gaeton’s cruel laughter that echoes through the room. “I should have known this is all power and games. It always was with you.” He leans forward and braces his elbows on his big thighs. “I don’t pretend to speak for this asshole, but there’s nothing in that territory for me now.”
Nothing.
Including me.
It shouldn’t hurt so much to be rejected by a man who already dumped me, but it does. Sweet gods, it does. I turn to Beast, but I mig
ht as well seek solace from a glacier for all the warmth he gives me. Hopelessness rises in my chest, threatening to send me to my knees. I can’t fail. I can’t. My bottom lip quivers the tiniest bit before I shut my reaction down. “Please.”
Beast studies me a long moment. His lips slowly curve, the barest hint of a cruel smile. I’ve seen that expression on his face before, always preceding him delivering one of my father’s punishments to someone who crossed him. “Get on your knees, Isabelle. If you’re going to beg, do it properly.”
Gaeton flinches like the other man struck him. “What the fuck, Beast?”
Beast doesn’t look away from me. It feels like the intensity of his gaze is a weight across my shoulders and chest, driving me slowly, inexorably, to my knees. “You heard me. How bad do you want us back?”
“You don’t speak for me,” Gaeton rumbles.
I already left my pride at the door. I can’t afford the luxury of it when I’m bargaining for the lives of so many. In the end, it’s far simpler than I could have dreamed to give in to Beast’s gravity and sink to my knees. The carpet is surprisingly soft against my bare skin and I shiver. “Are you happy now? Please come back.”
Beast rises and moves slowly around me. It’s a struggle not to twist to keep him in sight. Instead, I focus on Gaeton, on the way he watches us so closely, his gaze jumping from me to Beast. “What are you up to, you bastard?”
Beast digs his hand into my hair and tugs sharply, bowing my back and drawing a gasp from my lips. In all our time together, he was always devastatingly gentle, until I thought I’d go out of my mind and scream in his face to touch me. Pain flickers to pleasure and back again, and I have to bite back a moan. I stare up into his beautiful face, but he’s not looking at me. He’s looking at Gaeton. “I propose a bargain.”
“You’re out of your fucking mind.”
“Gaeton.” Beast says it almost gently. “Look at her.” He gives my hair another sharp tug. This time, I can’t stop the moan. My body doesn’t feel like my own. My skin is too tight, my nipples pebbling and my pussy clenching with an ache only one thing can assuage. What is he doing to me?
“Get your fucking hand off her.” Gaeton’s voice is low and strangled. “Now.”
Beast releases me in an instant and I slump forward, barely catching myself before I crumple into a ball on the floor. Dazed, I touch the smarting spot on my scalp. I should be furious he dared handle me like that, but all I can focus on is how much I need. I straighten back to kneel with some effort. “What are your terms?”
“No.”
Beast ignores Gaeton and resumes his position leaning on the desk. “The three of us for a limited duration. At the end, you make a choice once and for all. Him or me. Regardless of your decision, we will both stay in the territory and resume our roles.”
“You want me to pick?” My inability to choose is what caused this catastrophe to begin with. I strive for calm, to stop myself from shoving to my feet and demanding answers. “And then what? We date? You get your bragging rights and dump me? What?”
“Worry about that when we get there.” There it is again, his cruel little smile. “For the duration of this little bargain, you will pay penance, little Isabelle.”
I shiver. “What does that mean?”
“It means that you played us to your heart’s content for years on end. Now it’s our turn.” He turns to Gaeton. “You’re furious about how things fell out.”
“Yeah.” The word seems almost forced out of him.
Even as I remind myself I don’t have any power here, I can’t stay silent. “That’s not fair. You two are the ones who proposed the idea to date me at the same time.” And I was fool enough to agree to it, thinking it a wonderful way to have my cake and eat it, too. I should have known that if I couldn’t pick one of them before we dated, I certainly wouldn’t be able to once we were in the throes of a relationship.
“We played by her rules and cut off pieces of ourselves to be worthy of her.” Beast turns those eerie blue eyes back to me. “Now we drag her down into the dirt with us.”
Gaeton folds his hands together and seems to be actually considering it. “Explain what the fuck you mean when you say ‘us.’”
“We top her together.”
My gaze jumps back and forth between them. Surely they’re not saying … “Together.”
Gaeton doesn’t look at me. “Careful there, Beast. Might start to think you’re sweet on me.”
Beast doesn’t blink. “It’s an efficient use of time and effort.” He’s on the move again, but this time he circles Gaeton, coming to a stop behind the big man’s chair. He leans down, not touching Gaeton, but near enough that I catch my breath at the sight of him so close to the bigger man. His rough voice is pure sin. “Think of every depraved thing you’ve wanted to do to that sexy little body. All the times you held back. All the fantasies you kept locked down.”
They’re both looking at me like a pair of wolves who happened across a lamb in the forest. I can’t stop another shiver. I came here with the intention of walking out with both of them. I didn’t bargain on this. Any of it.
But we need them too much for me to walk away. I clear my throat. “State your terms in explicit detail.”
Beast still hasn’t moved back from Gaeton. “Gaeton and I dominate you. We fuck you. We are your gods and masters for the duration of two weeks. You will have a safe word and will use it when necessary, but otherwise will obey our every whim. At the end of the timeline, when we’ve balanced the scales, you will make a decision and stand by it.”
The loss of power is staggering. They want me trapped and helpless. A safe word, yes, but we all know I have no choice in this. If I say no and walk out of here without them, there’s a very large chance that my territory will fall. Cordelia is ruthless and a good leader, but the loss of our father and his two top generals at the same time is too high a cost. Already our enemies nip at our borders, testing us. We need Gaeton and Beast back, and we need them back now. “What will you do to me?”
“Anything we want.”
“And after?”
Beast’s expression doesn’t change. “After you choose, you honor that choice in the way you should have from the beginning. Your very own happily-ever-after. Isn’t that what all princesses dream of?”
Maybe other princesses. Not me. My dream was always to be free. I feel like I’m watching that future swirl the drain as we speak.
I’d known it would come to this, even if I wasn’t willing to admit it to myself. There is always the next power struggle, always the next crisis. My father didn’t need me to play a vital role in territory politics, but my sisters do. If I’m in a relationship with one of our most powerful generals, we won’t be able to flit away at a moment’s notice. I’m not sure we’ll be able to travel at all, not when his absence can make the difference between victory and defeat in any given skirmish.
I knew I would have to compromise when I agreed to talk to these men. I didn’t realize I’d have to sacrifice everything.
Gaeton shoves to his feet. With me still on my knees, the difference in our sizes is so pronounced, I might as well be kneeling at the base of a mountain. He seems to realize the same thing and stops short as if he’s afraid he’ll trample me with one wrong step. “I didn’t agree to anything.”
“But you will.” Beast still hasn’t moved. “You want to know the answer as much as I do.” The answer on who I’d choose. I’d like to know that answer, too. If making a choice between these men was so easy, I would have done it years ago and saved us all the heartache.
Gaeton doesn’t deny it. “There has to be a better way.”
Beast shrugs. “We’ve participated in scenes together over the last year. Consider the next two weeks one long scene.”
They’ve participated in scenes together? The jealousy wrapped around my heart digs its thorns in deeper. It’s not even necessarily the fact that they fucked other people—or were intimate, since I know enough abou
t kink to know that it doesn’t necessarily mean sex. It’s that they let others experience parts of themselves that they always held back from me. I got the sweet, vanilla sex. The making love. The term makes me cringe.
Gaeton looks down at me, his dark eyes stormy. “You aren’t doing this because you want us—either of us. You’re doing this because of your family. Out of loyalty.”
I open my mouth, but Beast beats me there. “No lies, Isabelle.” His growling voice turns my name into a threat and a promise.
I clasp my hands in my lap so neither of them will see me shake. “It doesn’t matter why I’m doing this.”
“It might not matter to him.” Gaeton shoves his hands into his pockets and glowers. “It sure as fuck matters to me.”
My throat tries to close. I wish I could go back in time and change things, but I tried to change things on my own and look where that left me. Alone. Free, but at what cost? I swallow hard. “I want you. I want both of you. That never changed, even if everything else did.” When he doesn’t move, I force myself to continue. “But yes, the reason for this timing is because of my sisters.” Gaeton looks away and I rush on. “The second you left, the Sea Witch started pressing our borders. I don’t know if we can hold without you.”
“Ursa won’t risk a full-on attack.”
I wish I had his confidence. I give a bitter laugh. “Not a month ago, she wouldn’t. My sister might have been my father’s right hand for a decade, but to everyone in Carver City, she’s untried. Muriel gives them pause, but the fact that Cordelia lost both of you so quickly after my father’s death?” There it is again, that horrible knowledge in the base of my chest. The loss that I don’t think I’ll ever recover from.
My father wasn’t a good man. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But he loved me and my sisters to distraction. He protected us and cherished us and was a good father in every way that counted.
“I miss him, too.” Gaeton reaches down and runs a gentle finger across my cheekbone. I’m horrified to see it come away wet. I hadn’t even realized I was crying. He turns back to Beast and sucks his finger into his mouth. A challenge, but the other man simply waits. Finally, Gaeton nods. “I accept. Two weeks. We exchange topping her. You don’t get to top me.”