Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
The elevator shuddered into motion, but it barely had a chance to drop before Galen pushed the emergency stop button. He turned to her as if he trapped people in elevators every day. “We need to have a conversation.”
Meg slid back a step even as part of her buzzed at the thrill being this close to this man. What the hell was wrong with her? First Theo, and now Galen? Before, she could chalk the whole thing up to being intoxicated by the idea of both of them together. Now? Now, she didn’t have that luxury.
The sad truth? She wanted them. Both of them. Together and separately.
If one thing hasn’t changed over the years, your taste in men is still shit.
Just like your mama.
She shoved the thought away and tried to focus on Galen. “Hurry it up, then. I have places to be.”
His lips quirked, and if he was anyone else, she would have accused him of being amused at her pissy attitude. But he wasn’t anyone else. He was Galen. “I’ll keep it brief.” He glanced up and she followed his gaze to a tiny camera situated in the corner of the elevator. Meg hadn’t even noticed it before. Galen growled and grabbed her shoulders, turning her so that his back was to the camera and his big body blocked out the sight of it—and its sight of her, she’d bet.
She should have slapped his hands away. Anything was better than feeling the heat of his palms against her bare shoulders. If Theo was the sun, then Galen was the tide. He was just as liable to drown her as Theo was to burn her up, but hell if she didn’t want to give it a try. Stop it, Meg.
He released her before she could do something stupid, but he didn’t step back. “You can’t come back here. Ever.”
“Tell Theo—”
“I am not Theo’s errand boy, Meg. I’m not telling Theo shit.” He glared. “I am telling you that you can’t come back here. I don’t give a fuck if you’ve got a chip in your shoulder bigger than England or that you’re pissed about a measly two grand. Get over it.”
“Get over it,” she repeated. “That’s really easy for you to say. You—”
He covered her mouth with his hand and stepped closer. “Don’t waste both our time with that bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about your pride or Theo’s impulsiveness or any of that other bullshit. What I do give a fuck about is keeping him alive and safe.” He hesitated for the briefest of seconds. “And, damn it, I’ll feel bad if something happens to you because you’re seen associating with us.”
“Can’t have that,” she mumbled against his palm.
“Theo is untouchable right now. I’m a pain in people’s asses, but between not wanting to piss Theo off into doing something like staging a coup, and not wanting to piss my family off in case I might come back into the fold, I’m as close to untouchable as a person can get, too. You are not. You can be hurt. You can be used as a pawn, with or without your consent. Go back to your safe life, Meg. Take the money. You need it more than Theo does, and if you stopped letting your pride have the wheel, you’d realize that.”
Slowly, his words penetrated the fury rattling around in her brain. Meg grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away from her mouth. This wasn’t about the money at all. This was Galen… protecting her? “You can’t seriously think that someone in Thalania would consider my fucking you means I’m important enough to use as a weapon against you.”
Something like concern flickered through his dark gaze. No, that was definitely concern. Holy crap, Galen actually cared. She didn’t know what to do with that information. It shouldn’t matter. This was the end, for better or worse, no matter what door she’d let herself believe she left open with Theo last night. They were too different and it would never work. Galen, at least, seemed to understand that. “Galen—”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what our enemies think. If you know who Theo is, then you know why you can’t be with him.”
She threw up her hands, her frustration needing a physical outlet. “No shit I can’t be with him. I don’t even want to be with him.”
“That’s not what it looked like when I walked in fifteen minutes ago. It looked like you were more than happy to be in his bed, and being in his bed means being in his life.”
It was like they were playing two very different board games and trying to explain the rules, and then getting more and more irritated when the other person didn’t understand what the hell they were talking about. Meg shook her head. “I don’t know how many times I have to say this to get through to you and him or anyone else paying attention at this point: I don’t want anything. Theo is the one who showed up at my bar asking for dinner. I turned him down. Then the bastard went behind my back and paid my tuition. I came here to get him to take the money back. The sex just happened.”