“You don’t have to?—”
“We do,” King said firmly. “We should’ve trusted you.”
Lachlan nodded beside him. “Fear makes people do stupid shit. Even us. Hell,especiallyus.”
“We treated you like you haven’t spent years at our sides as our loyal brother and friend, and that was wrong,” Lucien added.
“Theo…I built Libertine on loyalty,” King said. “And then I went and doubted yours. I’m not proud of that.”
“None of us are,” Benoit interjected.
I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Even when Shep’s hand squeezed my thigh in support under the table.
I swallowed and looked down at the scars on my wrist and forearm and shook my head.
“No, I…I get why you doubted me. I was reckless. Unavailable. Distracted. And yeah, I held myself apart from you and kept a secret. But I never turned on any of you. I would never.”
“Can you forgive us?” Lucien asked softly.
“Can you forgiveme?” I countered.
King lifted his wine glass. “To Theo. Still one of ours.”
One by one, my brothers and Shep joined King in his toast, and I realized my hand was shaking as I lifted my glass. Again Shep squeezed my thigh, a soft smile on his face.
We were good. All of us.
Well, that might be stretching it if I was reading Alessio’s tight smile right. He still looked like a man dealing with internal demons none of us knew of. We’d need to keep an eye on that. But for now I was happy to bask in the camaraderie I’d missed with my brothers. The ease of being around people who knew me almost as well as I knew myself.
“So,” Lucien said, a twinkle in his eye, “should I let Kai know there’ll be another royal wedding in his future soon?”
I scoffed and lifted my glass to him in mock salute. “Here’s an idea: how about you stop giving us shit and give that poor boy the wedding he so desperately deserves?”
Shep chuckled. “I do seem to remember the hearts in Kai’s eyes as he looked on wistfully at Jean’s wedding, wondering whenhisprince would make an honest man out of him.”
“Okay, okay, I deserve that. But for your information?—”
“Oh,oui,” Benoit said, propping his chin on his hands and batting his lashes. “Tell us your plans. I just know they’ll be romantic.”
“Can he tell us while we eat?” Lachlan complained, and when King gave the go-ahead, we all removed the silver domes over our meals. “Lamb roast? Damn, Theo, you should put King in the doghouse more often.”
“He didn’t put me there,” King said, as one by one we started reaching for the salt and pepper, mint jelly, and gravy. “I put myself there. A nice dinner is the least I could do.”
“Don’t think that means we’ve forgotten what you were going to say,mon cher,” Benoit said to Lucien, as he topped up his glass with some red wine. “Tell us all how you’re going to sweep that sweet man of yours off his feet.”
As Lucien launched into detail about the plans he had in store for Kai, I was happy to relax into the conversation and for the first time—in alongtime—not be the center of it.
It was nice to finally enjoy a meal with my friends and not worry that one of them thought I was betraying the group. Even better was sitting at this table with Shep at my side, able to touch and look at him whenever I wanted without hiding just how fucking good he made me feel.
Damn, how did I get so lucky? I’d somehow managed to make Shepard O’Neil Winchester the third fall in love with me.Me.The most chaotic, reckless pain in the ass he knew. Guess he just needed a challenge.
The thought made me smirk, and he must’ve caught it out the corner of his eye, because he turned to face me.
“What’s that grin about?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Shep leaned over and pressed his mouth against mine, then whispered, “Sure you don’t.”
