Chapter 1 #2
“Wait. Fuck, Meg, just … wait.” He scrubbed a hand over his face and, for the first time since he appeared, she noticed the dark circles under his eyes.
As if maybe he hadn’t slept much since she’d seen him last. Doesn’t matter.
It can’t matter. He let his hand drop and pinned her with a look.
“Shit got complicated after we left New York, and we had to jump through some hoops until things calmed down. I wasn’t going to come back here or risk contacting you until I knew it was safe. ”
She splashed water onto the floor and got back to scrubbing. “Theo, I had fun that night. So much fun. But that’s all it was—fun. Your life is complicated. My life is complicated. There is such a disconnect between the two, it’s absurd.”
“Who the fuck cares about the disconnect? We connected. You and me and Galen.”
She couldn’t argue that, so she didn’t try.
This Theo was hard to deny, but she remembered all too well how he got when those blue eyes went calculating.
He’d been raised the Crown Prince of Thalania, which meant he’d been raised to lie from birth.
He wanted her, and he’d say whatever it took to claim her like some kind of trophy.
She was a girl who grew up in a trailer, and he was a guy who’d grown up in a palace.
There was no way he could see her as anything other than a trophy.
He sure as hell didn’t see her as an equal.
What could she say to get through to him? “Theo, what does that apartment cost you a month?”
His gaze went shuttered. “I don’t see how that matters.”
“That answers my question.” She laughed a little, the sound as broken and sad as the room they currently stood in.
“I’m a year away from getting my master’s degree and I can’t even pay my tuition no matter how hard I hustle.
I have no doubt that your problems are real and present and more than valid, but it’s like worrying about how to fly a rocket to the moon when I can’t even afford a car. We live in two different worlds.”
“Princess—”
“No.” Meg held up a hand, forestalling whatever argument he’d prepared.
“I’m not a princess any more than you’re a pauper.
And that’s okay, but let’s be honest right now.
You’re standing there wearing designer right down to your skin and I’m cleaning up someone else’s puke for barely more than minimum wage.
We’re too different, Theo. No matter how good the sex is, it would fall apart at some point, and it would fall apart ugly.
I’m choosing to keep the memory of that night a happy one without all the emotional baggage three people would bring to any relationship.
” She shook her head, barely believing the words out of her mouth.
Three people. Hot as hell in the bedroom for a single night, but in a relationship?
A recipe for disaster.
Theo sighed. “You’re not going to get anywhere the way you’re doing it.”
She blinked. “Actually—”
He was already moving. He snagged the mop from her hands and nudged her out of the way. He curled those perfect lips at the mess on the floor and muttered something about idiot drunks, but before she could say anything, he started scrubbing the floor with a vigor she hadn’t been able to muster.
Meg should stop him.
Any moment now, she’d step in, demand the mop back, and finish the job she started.
But the strange sight of Theo doing manual labor kept her rooted in place. What was he playing at? Meg didn’t know, and the not knowing twisted something up inside her. No matter what his goal in coming here, she was being reasonable, damn it.
Reason always prevailed.
He finished in half the time it would have taken her. Neither of them spoke as he carried the bucket to the utility sink and washed it out. What was there to say? No matter what plans Theo held when he showed up, this was goodbye. It had to be.
He dried his hands and turned to face her. “What else do you have to do before you lock up?”
“I’m nearly done.” She’d saved the worst task for last, which was just as well. The last thing Meg needed was him hovering while she tried to count out the till or something that required actual concentration. She cleared her throat. “You should leave.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
It wasn’t quite a denial of her command to get out, but it was clear he wouldn’t be going anywhere until he did exactly as he intended.
Meg set her jaw and went through the motions of closing up.
Theo’s presence shadowed her every step despite the fact he never moved from his spot near the back door.
It didn’t matter. She could feel him taking up more than his fair share of space, his energy too much for this dingy bar.
After double checking that the front door was locked and the Open sign was off, Meg headed for the back door.
She nearly missed a step. God, he was so gorgeous it actually hurt to look at him.
He wasn’t as brutally large as Galen, built more like a blade meant to slice and stab than a crushing war hammer.
But his white shirt still stretched across serious muscles in his shoulders and chest, and she knew from experience exactly how much strength he could bring to the table.
Stop that.
Stop thinking about that night.
Theo held the door open for her and she caught a whiff of his scent as she stepped past him.
It stopped her cold. Sandalwood and spice.
A combination she would associate with the best sex of her life until her dying breath.
Meg closed her eyes and inhaled, taking in every bit of him she could manage, a junkie in need of the smallest fix.
She couldn’t say yes to whatever he was proposing. It might start with dinner, but it wouldn’t end there. And wherever it ended would only result in her plans derailed, her heart shredded, and her life in shambles.
No, Meg couldn’t say yes.
She forced herself to open her eyes and keep moving. She locked the door behind her and headed for the street. Theo kept pace easily. “No car?”
Who drove in New York? Oh yeah, someone as rich as sin like Theo. “I take the subway.”
“The subway.” He said the words like talking about shit on the bottom of his shoe. “No. Absolutely not.” Theo fished a set of keys out of his jeans and pushed a button, making a car down the street chirp. Meg didn’t need to look at it to know it was expensive. Of course it was.
She clung to her patience with slippery fingers. “Goodnight, Theo.” If she got into the car with him, she had no idea where she’d end up. Not because Theo was some crazy murderer, but because Meg didn’t trust herself with him. Throw Galen into the mix and she was a goner.
No, her only option lay in running as far and as fast as she could.
“Meg.” There it was again, that hint of growl in her name.
He stepped closer, his presence overwhelming her despite there being a good foot between them.
“Meg, let me walk you to the subway station.” He reached out and tucked a flyaway strand behind her ear, his thumb brushing across her jaw as he withdrew.
That tiny touch had lightning dancing beneath her skin.
She wanted him. Good lord, she wanted him.
Meg was Pavlov’s dog panting for another taste.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She reached out without having any intention of moving and touched his bottom lip.
Meg dropped her hand immediately, the memory of his lips on other parts of her burning through her body.
What was she thinking? She had to get out of here and she had to do it now.
It took every bit of will she had to step back and then step back again. “Please don’t come here again.”
Theo studied her with those gorgeous blue eyes.
He seemed to see more than she had any intention of showing, and she held her breath as he considered.
Finally, he nodded. “Okay, princess. I won’t come back here again.
” He shifted closer and cupped her jaw. Even knowing she should shove him away, Meg couldn’t help leaning in, a flower seeking his warm sunlight.
His lips brushed hers, the contact so fleeting she was half sure she imagined it.
And then he was gone, releasing her from the trap of his touch and moving back. “You know where to find me should you change your mind.”
“That won’t happen.” It might happen.
“I guess we’ll see, won’t we?” He chuckled and headed for his car.
“Arrogant ass,” she muttered. Theo might be sin personified, but he was wrong on this note. She would not be seeking him out.
Meg headed for the subway, every step leaching out the spark of energy being in Theo’s presence had brought her.
By the time she made it home, she wasn’t a woman who’d caught the handsome prince’s eye.
She was just a graduate student with more debt than she knew what to do with and no magical solution for how to keep moving forward.
The door to her apartment was perpetually off its level, so she had to throw her shoulder into it to get it both opened and closed. The flimsy deadbolt wouldn’t keep out a mouse determined to break in, but she’d never had a problem with that sort of thing in the years she’d lived here.
A quick shower and she collapsed face-down in her bed. Normally, she worked too damn hard to be anything but completely exhausted at the end of her days and sleep came with little effort, but tonight her mind wouldn’t stop racing.
Impossible not to compare her shitty bed with the one in Theo and Galen’s apartment, the one that had fit all three of them with ease and felt like sleeping on a cloud.
Meg rolled over and cursed into her pillow.
Stop it, stop it, stop it. There are a thousand and one reasons why staying away from them is the only choice you have, and you know it.
Good sex is the only reason why saying yes would be great.
Good sex did not outweigh all the bad. It just didn’t.
She had to remember that.
Seconds ticked into minutes into hours as Meg watched the city lights play across her ceiling. She had a meeting in the morning to explore financial options with the college, and she needed not to be totally exhausted for it, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Damn Theo.
At six, she gave up and took a shower. As she got ready, she rehearsed what she’d say to the financial advisor.
They saw cases like hers all the time, and unfortunately the college wasn’t in the business of charity.
Meg’s financial aid had run dry last year, and she wasn’t in a position to petition for grants at this point.
She was up shit creek without a paddle, and that’s exactly what the financial guy would tell her when she sat down with him.
But she had to try.
Worst case, I take a hiatus and spend a year saving money and working my ass off and complete my degree next year.
It wasn’t the end of the world if she had to defer. It just felt that way.
She carefully applied her makeup—a low-key lipstick and eyeshadow meant to look like she wasn’t wearing anything at all—and dressed in her one good professional outfit.
A dress she’d rescued from her friend Cara’s donation pile and made adjustments to, and the heels she’d worn when she graduated high school.
They weren’t fancy, but the black pumps completed the look better than boots or flip-flops would.
An hour later, she knocked on the door and stepped into the office. “Mr. Taneka?”
“Come in, come in.” He didn’t look up from his computer as she approached the faded chairs situated in front of his desk.
They’d only met a few times over the course of her college career, but she was always struck by how small Mr. Taneka was.
Physically, he could only be termed delicate, but that impression didn’t last once he opened his mouth.
His voice was a deep bass and his attitude, frankly, sucked.
He was fewer than five years out from retirement, and his complete lack of give-a-damn was never more apparent than when she’d asked him for help.
Now, she was here to ask for it again, hopefully with a better outcome.
Meg had nowhere else to turn.
She watched the clock as he finished doing whatever he was doing on his computer. It could have been solitaire for all Meg knew. At ten minutes, she cleared her throat.
Mr. Taneka sighed. “You’re still here?”
“Well… yes.” She clasped her hands together and fought to keep her voice even and neutral. “We haven’t had our meeting yet, Mr. Taneka. Fall tuition is due this week and I’m hoping you have a solution that will help me keep from having to take time off.”
He sighed again, louder this time, and sat back. “Ms. Sanders, I don’t know why you’re wasting both our time.”
“Excuse me?” He’d been blunt before, but this was above and beyond. She pressed her lips together to keep from screaming in his face. What did he have to worry about? He had a cushy office job and his path through retirement and beyond was all but assured.
She didn’t have the luxury.
She didn’t have any luxury.
Mr. Taneka gave her a look like she’d escaped a mental ward to storm into his office and ruin his day. “What game are you playing, Ms. Sanders? Your tuition is paid in full.”
Meg blinked. “What? That’s impossible.”
“On the contrary, I have the information right here.” He turned the screen to face her. Sure enough, the balance owed was at zero.
Impossible.
She was two grand short yesterday. Meg wasn’t the type of person who just magically misplaced two thousand dollars. How could—
No.
No, he wouldn’t dare.
She cleared her throat. “Would it be possible to see the source of that payment?”
“Ms. Sa—”
“A name, Mr. Taneka. I just need a name. Please.”
Another of those long-suffering sighs. He clicked a few buttons. “A Mr. Theo Fitzcharles made the payment at five this morning.”
That son of a bitch.