Chapter 16
Meg woke up wrapped around Theo. On his other side, Galen spooned him as if trying to protect Theo with his own body, even in sleep.
Both their expressions were relaxed. It didn’t exactly make them look innocent—nothing short of a miracle could do that—but it was as if they’d put down their respective burdens for a little while. They were lighter.
She wanted to bundle them up and keep them here forever. To say to hell with their respective obligations and responsibilities and to throw out her life plan and just be together and pursue their happiness.
I love them.
Meg’s breath caught in her chest, fluttering on panicked wings.
No, she couldn’t possibly love them. They hadn’t even been together three weeks.
People did not fall in love in three weeks.
Not even with funny, calculating, ambitious exiled princes.
Or with their grumpy, driven, protective bodyguards.
She could tell herself it was the sex clouding her judgment, but it would just waste precious time to circle back to the same conclusion.
Somewhere along the way, she’d gone and fallen for them both.
Maybe it was when Theo had carried her across an entire fucking field to get them to safety.
Or when he’d spoken about his parents, his country.
The exact moment didn’t matter, because he’d slipped beneath her defenses and compromised her heart.
With Galen, she could pinpoint the exact moment.
Yesterday. In the kitchen. With his concern for Theo palpable in the room. The softness beneath his spiky exterior.
God, she was so screwed.
She slipped out of bed and made a quick trip to the bathroom.
After doing her business, she splashed water onto her face and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
She didn’t look that different than she had three weeks ago.
A little more tanned, maybe. Her body all sorts of marked up with the evidence of amazing sex with two men.
She’d put on a little weight and had lost a little of the gaunt look she’d fallen into over the summer.
But she just looked like herself.
Like Meg.
She shook her head and slipped out of the bathroom.
Both men were still asleep, but even after the time away from New York, she wasn’t used to resting so much.
The last two weeks were different, because she’d been healing, but now that she felt better all around, restlessness stole through her.
Maybe hiding out here for the rest of our lives isn’t such a foolproof plan.
The house was set up in an upside-down U, with the kitchen and living area on one side and the bedroom on the other.
There were no doors between them, but it gave the illusion of privacy without sacrificing an inch of the view from the windows that stretched along the entire wall facing the Aegean Sea.
She padded into the kitchen and rustled around until she found the coffee. It took another few minutes to decipher the coffeemaker, but eventually Meg had it going. She stretched as the tantalizing scent drifted through the kitchen and smiled. Coffee makes everything better.
Meg turned to the windows and froze.
A man stood on the other side. He was tall—taller than both Galen and Theo—and dressed entirely in black from his shirt to his jeans to his boots.
Brown hair with the kind of bronzed skin that spoke of either hours spent in the sun or really excellent genetics.
A gnarled scar around his throat where it looked like someone tried to garrote him.
And he had a gun pointed directly at her chest.
She lifted her hands, but considering she was standing there naked as the day she was born, the gesture didn’t make sense.
He pointed at the sliding glass door, and she hesitated.
Was the glass bulletproof? It seemed like something Galen would have installed in a house he owned. He was paranoid like that.
But she couldn’t guarantee it.
If she let him in, he could kill them all.
If she didn’t let him in, he could shoot his way through the window and kill them all.
Her options sucked.
“Open the door, baby.”
She jumped. She couldn’t see Galen around the section of the wall separating the bedroom from the rest of the house, but apparently his spidey senses had tingled and he was awake.
Thank god. She inched to the door, painfully aware of the gun trained at her chest. She flipped the lock and scrambled back.
The gunman wasted no time. He stepped into the house and shut the door behind him, never once breaking eye contact with her. To his credit, he didn’t ogle her nakedness, but considering he’d just forced his way into the house at gunpoint, she wasn’t inclined to grant him any brownie points.
“That’s far enough, Kozlov.” Galen’s voice came from her right. He stepped out from behind the wall, his own gun trained on the stranger. He had found time to throw on a pair of pants. He passed her a robe he held in his free hand. “You good?”
She hurried to wrap it around her and tie the belt. “I’m fine.”
Kozlov gave them both a long look and held his hands up, making a show of putting the safety on his gun. “I’m just here to talk.”
“Then talk.” Without looking over, Galen snagged her arm and pulled her over to stand behind him, putting his body between her and this Kozlov.
Hands closed on her shoulders and then Theo was there, moving to stand next to Galen. “Isaac. Been a long time.”
Kozlov—Isaac—started to bow and seemed to realize Theo was no longer Crown Prince. “Your Highness.”
“Not anymore.”
Isaac eyed Galen’s gun. “Phillip sent me to bring you in. He claims there are attempts on your life and he’s worried about you.” He slowly holstered his gun. “Struck me as funny. If he cared so much, why the fuck did he exile you in the first place. So that got me to thinking.”
“You should never think, Kozlov. It’s bad for your health.” Galen showed no signs of putting his gun down. His big back blocked most of her view of Isaac, but she wasn’t willing to peek around him for a better look. Obviously, they had history.
“Now, Mikos, don’t be like that. You know damn well that I could have walked in here and taken all three of you out while you slept. I’m the one who set up the fucking security in the first place. You think I can’t get past it?”
Meg blinked. Huh. Well that’s a twist.
Galen cursed and let his gun fall to his side. “What are you doing here?”
“Like I said, Phillip gave me an order. I’m obeying.”
Theo snorted. “Maybe the letter, if not the spirit. Did he want me trussed up like a turkey or just the traditional black bag over my head?”
Meg slid between them just enough so that she could actually see what was going on.
Theo had his easy smile in place, but she knew him well enough to recognize it for the mask it was.
Galen just looked like he was ready to shoot Isaac in the head and toss him into the sea.
“I could really use some coffee.” She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until all three men looked at her.
She swallowed hard and refused to wilt. “This sounds like it’s going to be a conversation they need to pay attention to, and coffee helps. ”
Galen’s eyes flashed, but Theo nodded. “Coffee.” He motioned Isaac toward the table situated by the kitchen island. “You’ll forgive me if I ask you to put your weapons on the coffee table.”
“Of course.” Isaac strode to the coffee table and set his gun carefully onto it.
Followed by another gun that had been tucked into his boot.
And three knives he pulled from…somewhere.
Finally, he walked to the dining room table and took up a position with his back to the solid wall perpendicular to the glass one.
Meg hesitated, but Theo pressed his hand to the small of her back. “Show no fear, princess,” he murmured. “Chin up.”
She could do this. She could drink coffee while a man who’d pointed a gun at her told her two lovers…
whatever he’d come there to tell them. It wasn’t any stranger than being shot at or getting patched up in a cute little cottage in Germany or any of the other things that had happened to her since meeting Theo and Galen.
While she got mugs down from the cabinet, Theo sat in the seat directly across from Isaac.
Galen took up a position against the kitchen island, just far enough back that he was almost in Isaac’s blind spot.
Pinning him between them. He couldn’t possibly avoid attacks if they both came at him from that position.
Or maybe she’d seen too many action movies.
She brought coffee to the men and then retreated back into the kitchen.
If shit hit the fan, she could duck behind the heavy cabinets or bolt out the front door.
Though she doubted Isaac showed up here alone.
That would have been stupid, and he didn’t strike her a stupid man.
One in an impossible situation, most definitely, caught between his current monarch and the one he obviously had supported pre-exile.
There was history with Galen to consider, too.
Better to be quiet and still and let the men take point on this. It had the bonus of decreasing the chances of one of them ordering her away and then her having to eavesdrop yet again to keep up on the current situation. Meg leaned against the counter and sipped her coffee.
Theo leaned back, as regal as the king he almost was despite his surroundings. “You have my full attention.”
Theo studied Isaac as he drank his coffee. “Let me see if I have this straight. My uncle wants you to retrieve all three of us and return us to Thalania… for our supposed safety.”
Isaac flicked a glance to Galen. “That about sums it up.” He leaned forward with a suddenness that had Galen reaching for his gun, but Isaac’s eyes were only for Theo. “He’s not my king. Edward could be if given a chance, but he won’t have that chance with Phillip playing puppet master.”