Page 101 of The Betrothal

Alex was ignoring me. How could he be ignoring me?

It wasn’t in a ‘she doesn’t exist’ way, it was more ships passing in the night.

“Talk to him,” Seb whispered in my ear from his position behind me.

I was wrapped between his arms and legs on the sofa. The fire raged in the hearth, the trusty blankets tucked up over our legs and Ben sat opposite us, his feet extended, wedged amongst ours so no-one was left disconnected.

It was everything. And yet, Alex.

I looked at the darkening sky, waiting for the turn in the still cool weather and wedged myself deeper into Seb’s hold, tucking my foot under Ben’s trouser leg until our bare skin touched. His lips quirked while his attention remained on his book.

In the forty-eight hours since we’d been back, the men had barely left my side. Since they moved me into Ben’s room we now did everything together. Waking up in a tangle of limbs, I hadn’t showered alone, Seb had been begging for a bath together but no bath would be big enough for the three of us and I wouldn’t refuse either of them. I wanted them with me whenever they wanted to be.

Ben’s routine shifted, something Alex made sure to grumble about vocally. He stayed wherever Seb and I were now. Even when he did go outside to the workshop, Seb and I trailed him.

Another of Alex’s complaints was the lack of movement, but Seb simply shut him down with graphic descriptions of whatever we had been up to in – or indeed out of – the bedroom, earning him a snarl and a few choice words.

I turned a page and Seb tutted in my ear causing me to reverse the page turn and wait for his mumble to confirm that he was ready for the next.

I was a quicker reader and although he knew the book inside and out, he still couldn’t keep up.

“I’d been thinking about this one, Killer,” he murmured, slightly louder so Ben could hear. “Now I know Benji likes his workshop a specific way.”

Ben closed his book, looking up with an arched brow.

“And we’ve done a little play time in there. But all the bodice ripping in the outhouse between our beloved Viv and Rory had me thinking about doing some bodice ripping of our own? I’ve always been a fan of a role play?”

I snickered to hide the shudder brought on by the image.

“Maybe we find a stow-away in the barn and she’s deeply unloved and two frankly beautiful men worship her for a night?” His hands ran down my stomach. “Or, if we’re feeling a little more adventurous, we could go more in the direction of a sexy thief who is caught red-handed in the barn, so we have her repay a debt with her body?”

Ben was enraptured, a devilish smile playing over his features. Bloody Seb.

“Right.” I replaced my page marker and closed the book. “Straight off, you’re not ripping a single item of my clothing. I have like four tops.”

“Not to worry, I offer one of mine as a willing sacrifice,” he replied.

“Two, that’s sounding a little porn-trope heavy, wouldn’t you say?” I tried to infuse the lightest reprimand into my tone. “Very damsel in distress, heavy on the objectification?”

“Wow!” Seb turned me slightly for the full effect of his faux-shock. “Miss Blackthorne, are you saying you don’t enjoy our objectification?”

I raised my palm to cover the smile then schooled my features. “Not at all, I’m just wondering why I am the damsel or the thief in this scenario. Let’s share the objectification.”

“She has a point.” Ben’s foot softly grazed the skin of my leg.

“See?” I reached for Ben’s hand, entwining our fingers letting the connection to his body bleed into me, as if it were filling some well of affection or care.

“I understand.” Seb turned solemn. “I apologise, allow me to amend my recommendations.”

He cleared his throat dramatically.

“A naughty, if stunning, tall, dark and handsome man, with ensnaring green eyes and a smile that could leave you breathless, is found stowed away in the workshop. You aren’t sure if he’s hiding or stealing, but his beauty and his evident craving for you would be just too much to withstand and it all ends in a shirt-tearing, sweaty-bodied exploration of sexual desire.” Seb finished his description by rolling his tongue over his lip and the thread of amusement in his suggestion was lost.

“Sounds like Seb’s unearthing some mildly submissive tendencies,” Ben commented.

“I wouldn’t go that far, but I’ll happily accept a spanking if it’s one of you two administering it? I can switch for a while.” Seb dragged me back into his chest.

Alex took that moment to slam a thick set of paperwork onto the coffee table, a bottle of brandy and a glass followed placed much more carefully.