“Sounds like you need a hobby.”
He moved toward her, backing her against the door and bracketing her in with his hands on either side of her head. “Sounds like you didn’t learn your lesson before.”
“My lesson was not to eavesdrop. No one ever said anything about having a,gasp, opinion.” She flattened a hand against her chest and gave him her best damsel in distress look. “Should I go sit over there next to Theo so you can babysit us properly? Maybe you can get us an adult-sized playpen to keep us from getting into trouble since apparently you’re the only one here who is responsible for the lot of us.”
He cursed long and hard, the gruff tone doing delicious things to her body. “You’re impossible.”
“Only because you know I have a point.” She leaned forward and planted her hands on his chest. Meg couldn’t change Galen, no matter how much she wished she could relieve him of the burden he carried—one just as heavy as Theo’s. She couldn’t take it from him, but maybe she could convince him to lay it down for a few hours.
She gave him a soft smile. “You won’t believe me that you’re not super human, and I guess that’s something we have to live with. But this is your place and your territory and we’re safe here. Put down the burden for a little while.”
“Don’t coddle me, Meg. I don’t like it.”
She rolled her eyes. “God forbid you actually be human.” She reached up and cupped his jaw. “Show me your house, Galen. Please?” She wanted to get another look at the man beneath the harsh exterior, the one he kept offering tantalizing glimpses of.
And once he relaxed, she’d work on areallyeffective way of distracting him.
14
Galen followed Theo and Meg into the house. It had been years since he was here last. Before Theo’s father got sick. Before the world came crashing down around them. They used to make an effort to visit once a quarter, to unplug and spend some time recharging where their every move wasn’t scrutinized.
He stood in the entranceway and let the memories wash over him. Eating with Theo around the small kitchen island. Scrolling through the endless selection of movies on the massive television in the living room before they decided they were their own best entertainment. Spending days wrapped up in each other on the bed situated in the other half of the loft. Fucking in the shower, the pool, against the windows that stretched the entire length of the back of the house.
Theo moved unerringly to the liquor cabinet tucked in the corner of the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of bourbon. As he began setting out three glasses, Galen turned to watch Meg.
The open floor plan was really more suited for a loft than a house, but he’d always liked the smallness of it. Everything in Thalania had been opulent and over-sized, a race to themost ridiculous display of wealth. Theo participated by virtue of his birth, though his heart wasn’t in it. Galen just flat out didn’t play. But being surrounded by people with those kind of priorities wore a person down. This was more home than his various houses in Thalania because it washisin a way that was independent of his role for his country and his future king.
Meg moved around the house as if in a daze, her eyes growing bigger by the second. He tried to see things from her perspective, but there was nothing particularly special about this place, aside from the location. Maybe the pool. It was just a house, albeit one that mattered to him.
“Oh, Galen.” Her soft words washed over him like the morning mist. “This is wonderful.”
“I designed it.” He didn’t mean to say the words. He just opened his mouth and they emerged fully formed. “For me and Theo. It’s our place.” He hesitated, and then cursed himself for hesitating. Galen walked up to stand next to her where she stood looking out over the pool and the Aegean Sea. From certain angles, the infinity pool looked like it actually merged with the sea itself. He watched her face in the reflection in the glass. “It could be your place, too.”
A true sanctuary for the three of them.
She gave him a smile weighed down by sadness. “I think we both know that I’ll never make it back again, but I appreciate the thought. It feels like magic here.” She wrapped her arms around herself, the movement mostly unhindered despite the bandage still wrapping her arm. The physical reminder of how badly he’d fucked up. “This whole experience has been like magic. I keep thinking I’ve stepped through a mirror or climbed into a wardrobe. I don’t know how I’m supposed to go back to reality after this.” The last was said so low, he had no doubt she hadn’t meant to voice it.
Stay.
He clenched his jaw to keep the word inside. It wasn’t his place to offer that. Things between them worked now because they were perfectly equal. Going back to Thalania—takingMegback to Thalania—would skew that. It had to. Even if he somehow convinced Meg to stay, to be with him publicly and with Theo privately… Theo would still marry someone else. They’d only be borrowing time against a future heartbreak.
It might be worth it.
“I was serious before, Galen.” She kept her voice pitched low. “You didn’t fail. You were working with the parameters of what you knew. Theo lived. I lived. We got out of there because of you.”
“It’s my job to keep him safe—to keep both of you safe.” A job he’d spent his life doing. Theo might think it was a debt long since paid, but even after all this time he didn’t understand how thoroughly he’d changed Galen’s life. Theo was loved by his parents, and when his mother died and his father remarried, he was loved by his step-mother as well. He never wanted for anything, emotional or otherwise.
Galen’s path to his teenage years differed greatly. His family had the money and power, but his home life was… less than ideal. He shook his head. “You’ve done enough. Though I suppose you could offer that sweet pussy up in the way of comfort.”
“Don’t do that.” She turned to face him, her hazel eyes large in her face. “I love the dirty talk and you know it, but don’t throw it between us like some kind of weapon because you’re done with the conversation.”
He sighed. “Look, I don’t do this shit.”
“This shit.” Meg gave a half smile. “Have conversations?”
“Relationship shit.” He ignored her surprise and kept going, well aware that Theo had drifted closer again. Things were easier between Theo and Meg. Their personalities complimented eachother. Theo might drive her up the wall, but he’d pull her out of her shell the same way he coaxed Galen out of his. There was no resisting Theo when he set his mind to something. And Meg gave Theo a piece of something he’d never had access to before—normalcy. A woman who cared abouthimfirst, and his power and rank and country second.
For Galen and Meg, it was different. Fucking her was as easy as breathing. They fit. They fit even better with Theo in the mix. Conversations? Emotions? The rest of that shit? Not so easy.
