She blinked and realized that the conversation had gone on without her. Dinner was long gone, the plates cleared and only the wine left behind. Meg picked up her glass to cover her embarrassment, hoping like hell they thought her blush was about zoning out and not picturing them all naked together. “Sorry, I was thinking of something else.”
Theo lounged in his chair on the other side of the table, a small smile pulling at the edges of his lips. “You’ve been distracted ever since we sat down to eat. Something weighing on your mind?”
You ass, you know exactly what’s weighing on my mind. This so-called punishment. She sipped her wine. “Should there be?”
“You’ve been going over all the possibilities for punishment Theo could have possibly cooked up in that big brain of his.” Galen stared her down with those dark, dark eyes, daring her to deny it.
Conversations with him were a game of chicken. Even when she knew she should back down or swerve, she couldn’t stop herself from rising to the bait. “I’m a grown ass woman. I will not bepunishedjust because I happened to overhear part of your conversation.”
“Hmmm.” Theo contemplated his wine glass as if it held all the mysteries of the universe. “It’s a game, princess. We all know how well you like to play when you’re inspired.” There was that smile again, the one that promised to fulfill all her darkest, filthiest fantasies. And, damn it, she knew he could do it, too. Theo pushed his chair back. “But never let it be said that we coerced you.” He finished off his wine and glanced at Galen, which was all the other man needed to push to his feet and follow Theo toward the doorway.
Meg stared. “What are you doing?”
Galen disappeared through the doorway, but his shadow darkened the wall just out of sight. Theo turned to face her. “You know what lies on the other side of punishment. If that’s something you want, we’ll be in the last bedroom at the end of the hallway.” He paused, blue eyes stripping her bare, laying all her sins on the table between them. Theo shrugged. “If that’s not something you want, then this ends here.”
“Ends?” She swallowed past her suddenly dry throat. Surely, he wasn’t saying what she thought he was saying.
“We’ll keep you safe, Meg. The money stays where it’s at, no strings attached. This?” He motioned to encompass both of them and Galen. “This is a separate thing. If you want it—us—then you have to make that call. No coercion. No seducing you out of your senses. You come into this with eyes wide open.”
“Theo…” She didn’t know what to say. It had been so easy before, when she didn’t know the extent of who he and Galen were, and later when she was so furious she told herself it didn’t matter anyways. Choosing this now meant something, and she couldn’t lie to herself and say it didn’t. “What if I change my mind?”
He didn’t look away. “Then you change your mind. I’m not demanding you sign a lifetime contract, princess. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. My life isn’t my own.”
It belonged to Thalania.
That right there should be enough to warn her off. She couldn’t have Theo in any permanent way, and Meg knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she couldn’t have Galen without Theo. He offered her something temporary, and if she couldn’t accept that, then she had no business going up to that room.
“Think about it. Be sure.” He turned without another word and walked away, Galen falling in half a step behind him.
Meg should clean the wine glasses and go up to the room where they’d left her bags. Not the one at the end of the hallway, though she rememberedthatroom well enough from their quick rush to clear the house. The obvious master bedroom in a mansion full of suites, the walk-in closet bigger than her entire apartment back home, the massive jacuzzi tub and even larger tiled shower with no fewer than five shower heads.
And the bed.
That bed was large enough to fit five people, situated on a massive wrought iron frame, each corner spiraling up as if attempting to kiss the arched ceiling. That bed was made for fucking.
There is the punishment to consider…
The warning lacked any weight, though. Meg drank her wine slowly, letting the truth settle over her. There had never been any decision to be made. Her destination was decided the second she chose to come with Theo and Galen. Facing that, acknowledging that, burned. If she had nothing else, she had her pride, and her pride demanded she ignore Theo’s offer and go to bed alone. Better to lay there and imagine all the dirty things they could be doing than submit to a punishment like she was a naughty child.
But was it really better?
No.
Last spring, she’d thought she’d only have one night with Galen and Theo and so she’d soaked up every minute with them, a starving woman at a feast she’d never be able to consume in a lifetime. This truth they chased—the one both were so sure would set Theo back on the throne—might have a conclusion in a day, a week, a month. Or it might stretch out for the next nine months as the clock ticked down to Edward Fitzcharles’s coronation.
Either way, was she really prepared to deprive them all of something they wanted for the sake of her pride?
Meg finished her wine. She washed all three of their glasses and set them in the drying rack. She walked upstairs and into her room and took the quickest shower of her life, not even pausing to enjoy the mosaic art tiled into the shower walls. After the briefest of considerations, she pulled on a short silk robe hanging on the back of the door. She might be doing this, but she wasn’t willing to show up naked as an offering.
Taking a deep breath, she padded down the hallway to the door Theo had indicated. She raised her hand to knock and then reconsidered. Meg twisted the handle and walked in.
Galen sat propped against the headboard, a tablet in his hand, wearing nothing but a pair of faded jeans. She spent a precious second visually tracing the scars that crisscrossed his chest. He glanced up and went still. “Theo.” Theo stepped out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. He didn’t say anything, both of them seemed to be waiting for something.
Waiting forher.
This was her last chance to bolt.
She straightened her shoulders and met each of their gazes in turn. “I’m ready for my punishment.”
