Would she sit in the box, front and center, and make this real?
Or would she spit on everything I’d built?
Every time someone asked how I got her, I wanted to answer; I didn’t get her. I took her.
But the truth was worse.
Because now? She had me.
And if she didn’t show?
Someone was going to bleed.
After we’d stuffed our faces like medieval warlords, Gideon slapped the check down like he owned the place and tossed me his keys.
“You’re driving,” he muttered, already stretching his arms behind his head like some overfed lion ready to nap.
I didn’t argue. The post-practice, post-pancake crash was hitting me hard too.
His condo was barely ten minutes away—some ridiculous penthouse with floor-to-ceiling windows and a fridge stocked entirely by the team’s nutritionist and Gideon’s latest fling. I didn’t care. I beelined for the leather couch and kicked my shoes off. Gideon dropped onto the matching chair, sprawling like a man who’d never known a consequence.
“Gonna sleep like the dead,” he mumbled, throwing one arm over his face.
I closed my eyes too.
Silence stretched.
But Gideon? He never let silence breathe too long.
“You ever think you’d be the married one first?” he asked, voice drowsy but laced with interest. “Like, what the hell happened there, man?”
I cracked one eye open. “She happened.”
He chuckled. “You always had a God complex, Hades, but this? Whole new level.”
“She’s mine. That’s it.”
His smirk curved just enough for me to see it from the couch. “Yeah, yeah. Possessive. Caveman. Alpha bullshit. But let me make one thing clear…”
He paused dramatically. I didn’t bite.
“…I will never get roped into that. Not unless the woman is Belle Reiss in lace and begging.”
I huffed. “You’re halfway to obsessed with that girl.”
“Please.” He scoffed. “Belle’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. I’d ruin entire bloodlines for a night with her. But commitment? Nah. She’s too soft for someone like me.”
I turned my head, eyes narrowing. “That soft would bury you, and you’d like it.”
He gave a lazy grin. “Maybe. But only if she’s crying my name and swearing I’m the only sin she wants to keep committing.”
I rolled my eyes, but something about the way he said her name—Belle—didn’t sound casual. It sounded like a dare. Like a secret he hadn’t told even himself yet.
“She’d slit your throat in your sleep if you broke her heart.”
“And I’d die smiling.”
I didn’t say it, but I knew.
