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)
Before.
She knew them now.
Theo moved to stand opposite her, just out of reach. “Spanking, princess? Don’t be so pedestrian.”
She looked at him for a second like she might actually try to follow through on her threat, and Galen tensed in response. But just like that, the rage melted away, replaced some irritation. She pointed at Galen. “Don’t pick me up again.”
“Don’t eavesdrop on conversations you’re not invited into.”
She glared, turning that accusatory finger on Theo. “And you—no punishing. What the hell is wrong with you?”
Theo gave a slow smile that had Galen’s pulse picking up. He knew what that expression meant. Meg was playing right into his hands, and he had her exactly where he wanted her. “There’s a reward at the end, so I think you’ll find the punishment is more than worthwhile.”
She blinked. The moment spun out between the three of them, ripe with possibility. Galen should have said something, done something, to put an end to it, but when it came right down to it, he was a selfish bastard. He’d always been one. In the months since the exile, he’d only seen Theo put down his weight of responsibility twice—both times when he was inside Meg. She did something for Theo that Galen was incapable of. Theo looked at Galen, and he saw endless reminders of home. Of what they’d lost. Of the price he’d paid for being caught flat-footed.
Meg was outside it all.
Or at least she had been.
Theo let the silence spin on and on, and then he stepped forward and patted Meg’s knee. “Later, princess. No need to make a decision now. Let’s eat.”
Meg’s body was a traitor. Or maybe Theo was a sorcerer. Or perhaps it was that Galen infected her with lust with just his touch. More likely, it was a combination of all three.
Her eavesdropping hadn’t netted her any worthwhile information. Theo’s cousin seemed untrustworthy, and there was something about a clinic being burned down and records lost, but without context clues, it might as well have been in Latin for all she understood it. And then Galen tossing her over his shoulder and Theo talking of punishment…
Meg prized herself as a smart woman. She wouldn’t have made it to where she was in life without brains and drive and being too stubborn to back down even when the going got hard. The going started hard. It was just life, and she didn’t know when to quit—or at least that was what her mother accused when she got a good drunk going. Girl, you don’t know when to quit. One of these days, life is going to kick you right good in the teeth and then you’ll be sitting where I am now, drinking away your pain.
No.
Never.
Meg stared at her glass of wine. Falling into bed—back into bed—with Theo and Galen was a mistake. It had to be. Their strings had already entangled her and tipped everything she knew as truth on its head. They might feel a little bad that she was paying the consequences of their mutual pleasure, but she didn’t get the feeling that either of them would do anything different.
Would you?
That wasn’t fair.
But then, life wasn’t fair. She knew that all too intimately.
She was here. They were here. The danger lurked in the shadows around them and showed no signs of dissipating anytime soon. She’d refused their offer to set her up somewhere until this all blew over, refused to sit on her hands while important things in her life were decided without her presence.
What more could she possibly lose by throwing sex back into the mix?
More than you can possibly imagine.
“Meg?”
She blinked and realized that the conversation had gone on without her. Dinner was long gone, the plates cleared and only the wine left behind. Meg picked up her glass to cover her embarrassment, hoping like hell they thought her blush was about zoning out and not picturing them all naked together. “Sorry, I was thinking of something else.”
Theo lounged in his chair on the other side of the table, a small smile pulling at the edges of his lips. “You’ve been distracted ever since we sat down to eat. Something weighing on your mind?”
You ass, you know exactly what’s weighing on my mind. This so-called punishment. She sipped her wine. “Should there be?”
“You’ve been going over all the possibilities for punishment Theo could have possibly cooked up in that big brain of his.” Galen stared her down with those dark, dark eyes, daring her to deny it.
Conversations with him were a game of chicken. Even when she knew she should back down or swerve, she couldn’t stop herself from rising to the bait. “I’m a grown ass woman. I will not be punished just because I happened to overhear part of your conversation.”
“Hmmm.” Theo contemplated his wine glass as if it held all the mysteries of the universe. “It’s a game, princess. We all know how well you like to play when you’re inspired.” There was that smile again, the one that promised to fulfill all her darkest, filthiest fantasies. And, damn it, she knew he could do it, too. Theo pushed his chair back. “But never let it be said that we coerced you.” He finished off his wine and glanced at Galen, which was all the other man needed to push to his feet and follow Theo toward the doorway.