“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 evenwantto 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’twantanything. 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 neverjust happensagain. 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 steppedout 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 ifit 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 toanyonenot 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.Twonights 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 wasjealous. 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?”
