Chapter 4
Sleeping with Theo wasn’t a mistake. It was a goddamn catastrophe.
Meg didn’t even know how it happened. One second she was trying to keep from kicking him in the shin and the next she was riding his cock and crying out his name as she came.
The man had some kind of seduction magic and, as enjoyable as the last few hours had been, she was not here for it.
Worse in so many ways, now Galen was blocking the exit with his big sexy body, and she couldn’t help but remember the way he’d growled filthy words in her ear that branded her right down to her soul.
The only thing saving her from doing something truly regrettable was the fact that he looked just as pissed as she was.
Thankfully, the thunderous expression in his dark eyes was aimed squarely at Theo. “What did you do?”
Theo seemed to tire of lounging in bed and climbed to his feet.
It was everything Meg could do not to drink in the sight of him.
There were people who were handsome or pretty or beautiful…
and then there was Theo. His features should have been too sharp, his eyes too blue, his hair a little too mundane color of dark brown.
Apparently whatever god created him hadn’t gotten the memo.
In addition to being the most beautiful person in the room, he moved with a confidence that only someone born into it could pull off.
He grabbed another pair of lounge pants from the dresser. “She was short on tuition. Now she’s not.”
So few words to encompass the level of betrayal Meg couldn’t quite shake.
She was short on tuition. Now she’s not.
As if it really was no big deal, this bomb he’d dropped into her life.
She turned to Galen, needing him to understand just how many ways Theo had crossed the line, but his dark brows lowered and he glanced at her. “That’s it?”
That’s it. That’s it.
If she hadn’t already suspected Galen came from money, that would have confirmed it. No one who had ever been poor would need to ask that question, because they’d instantly know exactly how Theo had crossed the line. Meg pointed at him. “Get out of my way.”
He studied her as if debating the wisest course of action, but something must have shown on her face because he slid out of the doorway.
She turned to look at Theo. “If that night—if last night—meant anything to you at all, you’ll take the money back.
” Meg grabbed her bra and skirt on the floor next to the door and yanked it on.
She found her shirt in the hallway and her panties in the kitchen.
If there was anything quite as humiliating as having to grab up the clothes Theo had stripped from her like she was following some kind of sex breadcrumb trail, she didn’t know what it was. Neither of the men came out to see her off, which was just as well. She had nothing more to say to them.
Are you sure about that?
Yes, damn it, she was sure about that.
Meg dressed quickly and walked to the elevator.
She stared at the doors, willing herself to push the button and get the hell out of there.
From the first moment she met those two, she knew they were nothing but complicated.
Her bartender instincts had been right—they usually were—and now she was in up to her neck and sinking fast.
My tuition is paid. I can go to school this semester. I am that much closer to graduating.
But at what price?
Nothing came for free in this world. Even if she couldn’t see the strings, this gift had them attached.
All gifts had them attached. Meg worked too hard to get this far, only to be derailed now.
She didn’t know if she could force the college to refund the money without dropping out—not when she didn’t have the funds to replace that amount.
Two choices; Drop out, or take the money.
Her head pounded and her stomach twisted itself in knots. All of the stress she hadn’t been able to escape for months doubled between one breath and the next. Meg was well and truly trapped. No easy path lay before her, and there was no convenient right answer.
She knew what Cara would say. Take the money and give both the men her middle finger as she walked out of their life.
If they were stupid enough to drop that kind of money on her, it was their problem, not hers.
But Cara moved through the world in a way that defied Meg’s comprehension.
She loved her friend, but she didn’t understand how she could reason her way into anything.
Sometimes, she wished she could do the same.
“Meg.”
She’d hesitated too long, and now here was Galen, stalking down the hallway toward her. She held up a hand. “I’m leaving.”
“Not alone.”
Meg blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“You heard me.” Galen reached around her, his big arm brushing her back, and pressed the elevator button. “You’re playing in a game where you don’t know the rules and you don’t know the stakes. So, yeah, I’m not letting you walk out of here alone.”
If she squinted and tilted her head a little to the left, she could almost pretend he cared. “You can’t honestly think that someone is going to snatch me off the street in this neighborhood.”
Galen gave her a long look. “I get that you’re pissed about the money, but you shouldn’t have come back here.”
Wow, Galen, tell me how you really feel.
The worst part was that she couldn’t even be mad at him over it.
He was right. She shouldn’t have come back here.
Theo was like some giant sun moving through her life, and he drew her in despite herself.
The elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, the metal box feeling ten sizes too small once Galen moved in behind her.
Theo was big, but Galen was huge. He had the kind of body that would have been right at home on a Viking ship, pillaging villages and throwing a helpless maiden over each shoulder without breaking a sweat.
His dark hair was a little longer than when she’d seen him last—not quite military short anymore—and his dark eyes seemed to take in everything about every room he walked into.
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. ”