And then he’d nearly been killed by a woman while she was in bed with him—one he’d briefly toyed with the idea of marrying before she put two bullets in his shoulder.
Me and Edison had come together naturally afterwards out of fear of another attack when he was vulnerable. But we’d never talked about the implications of the shift in our relationship.
I just figured it was mutually beneficial for us. Edison got to scratch the itch of having another body and I got to be closer to him in ways that I always assumed would never happen.
Four years later and we’d settled into a routine. By day I was his second-in-command and by night? By night he fucked me until I saw stars and prayed to the gods for absolution.
Perrie coming into the picture had been an unwelcome surprise at first. A usurper ready to take away Edison’s affection and attention and an unknown in the perfect little world that I’d created around me.
But then she’d seemingly charmed everyone in the house—including me.
Keane men don’t have packs. How else could the head of the family be sure to produce a bunch of golden eyed babies otherwise? It was archaic, even if it made sense in terms of inheritance.
But bloodline purity was the least of my problems right now. Keane men don’t have packs.
The words were on my mind as I stood up abruptly from my seat, making the legs of the chair screech on the warm hardwood floor.
“Apologize to her, Rhodes,” Edison called after me as I turned to leave. “You may be stubborn now, but judging by the way your nostrils flare every time she passes by, you’re going to regret being such an ass later on.”
I ignored him, my thoughts a tangled muddy mess as I made my way to change into my workout clothing.
Perrie may be skipping out on training, but I had some shit to work through and there was no better way to do that than sparring with the other security members at the mansion.
I could already hear their groans of dismay and it brought my first smile of the day to my face.
Ten
“You can’t ignore Rhodes forever, pet,” Edison whispered to me, his mouth close to my ear as the car we were in left the estate.
It was the night before our wedding and we were meeting the branch families for the rehearsal dinner.
At least, everyone was calling it the rehearsal dinner.
But I knew better.
I knew it was a chance for the family to judge their leader’s chosen bride. The one who—only a few short weeks ago—had walked down the aisle to marry an Amante pack.
“I’m not ignoring Rhodes.” I turned away from him, ignoring the way his warm hand felt on the small of my bare back. The shimmering silver dress Oona had put me in was relatively conservative in the front, coming up into a clean mock-neck that highlighted my shoulders, but in the back it dropped low and exposed most of the pale skin of my back, stopping just before my bottom.
Edison had been more… touchy over the past couple of days. Holding my hand when we walked places together in the estate, brushing my hair behind my ear when I helped him take care of the plants in the greenhouse, and more.
It made my skin buzz with the memory of his words on that first day during our negotiations.
Edison told me that I would want him to touch me by the time my heat finally rolled around, but I never could have imagined the way my skin would start to buzz at even the anticipation of physical contact.
“Really? Is that why you made him ride in the car behind us?” Edison didn’t sound angry—more amused than anything at my refusal to ride in the same vehicle as Mr. Tall-Dark-And-Why-Shouldn’t-I-Care.
I would never admit it out loud, but his words had hurt more than I could ever begin to explain.
Which was completely stupid.
I didn’t even know Rhodes McCreary and it wasn’t like he was the one I was marrying tomorrow.
So why had his flippant answer to my question about why he cared about me pushing myself while swimming laps that morning hurt my feelings so resoundingly?
I could still taste his rich chocolate scent, mingled with chlorine from the pool, on my tongue and it confused every nerve ending my body possessed.
It was a perfect pair to Edison’s vanilla, almost as if they were meant to go together.
And yet Rhodes built up a boundary, drawing a line in the sand.
You’re going to be Edison’s wife, why shouldn’t I care?
The memory of it was quickly starting to sour my mood again.
Shifting away from the flat of Edison’s palm, I pressed myself up against the door of the car and stared out at the approaching lights of the city as we crossed over the bridge to enter it. “He can ride with us on the way home.”
“Oh, come now, pet, I wasn’t trying to upset you,” Edison insisted, but he didn’t close in the space I’d created between us.
No, Edison was nothing if not polite when it came to physical touch. Almost mind-numbingly so.
I never considered myself much of a sexual being—it was kind of hard to do so when you’re scrawny, losing your hair, and sick from chemo and radiation—but in just a few short weeks Edison had seemed to flip on all of the switches that I hadn’t even known I possessed.
Like a switchboard operator on Broadway, the man knew exactly what to do to charm and make me utterly melt.
And we hadn’t even kissed yet.
