Edison could smell it too. I knew by the way his nostrils flared when he held his hand out to me and how his dark pupils seemed to expand even more as he drew a finger down my spine, making me shiver.
By the time we made it outside, I’d managed to regain control over myself, but now that my body was pressed against his chest as he carried me out of the reception I could feel it starting again.
But the harassment from the older men wasn’t over yet. “Make sure you get those sheets ready for the presentation in the morning!”
I grimaced at that. Oona had explained the wedding night to me and while Edison said he wouldn’t touch me without my permission, there were certain things that were tradition in the Keane clan.
The presentation of a virgin bride’s sheets the morning after the wedding was one of them.
“What would happen if I wasn’t a virgin and there wasn’t any blood?” I muttered my question quietly enough so that only Edison could hear me.
“Then I’d make it look bloody, pet.”
“Even for such an archaic tradition? I didn’t take you for someone who followed those by the letter.” Edison actually seemed to buck against the very idea of tradition, and if the way the older generation treated him was any indication, they hated him for it.
“I hate it, yes,” Edison’s fingers tightened on my waist as we stepped inside of the very same hallway where I’d watched him kiss Rhodes only a few hours earlier. “But for some things, it’s worth not having to deal with the headache of those men in my office in the morning if we don’t.”
Leaning back, I examined his resigned expression, my eyes tracing the tightness of his jaw underneath as he spoke. “But aren’t you the boss? Why does it matter what they think?”
Edison let out a bark of laughter which vibrated pleasantly through me as we headed in the direction of the east wing. “You’re going to be so good for my ego, Perrie Keane, I hope you know that.”
After twenty-two years of being known as Peregrine Chandler, the new last name sent warm tingles through me that had nothing to do with the way his hands felt under my back and legs.
“And what do you think about Perrie’s words, Rhodes?” Edison called to our silent shadow and I looked back just in time to see his confident steps stutter ever so slightly before he finally seemed to give in and hurry his pace until he was walking with us.
“I think…” Rhodes began slowly, dark eyes glancing at me and then Edison, “That if your ego grows any bigger we’re going to have trouble fitting you through doorways.”
A surprised snort slipped out of me before I could catch it and my face warmed even as Edison continued to laugh at the jab given by his… right hand man? Lover? Best friend?
I wasn’t quite sure what label to put on them anymore.
“How can that be when I have you here to deflate me whenever I need a good reality check?”
The two shared an intimate chuckle and for a brief moment I felt like an interloper despite being the bride.
They had so much history together. History that I probably would never know about because they had to keep their relationship a secret.
We’d reached the hallway of glass windows that led into the greenhouse and I felt Edison’s steps slow before he stopped entirely. “You coming in with us?”
Sucking in a sharp breath of surprise, I gaped at Edison and his offer seemed to completely take Rhodes off guard as well because his dark eyes widened before he glanced over at me.
Him offering to let another man, one that he was romantically involved with, join in on what was essentially our first night as a married couple should have made me inexplicably angry.
Some other omega bride may have clawed his eyes out.
But instead, my brain decided to conjure the image of the two of them pressing in on either side of me and what their skin would feel like sliding against my own.
My face flushed as moisture seemed to leak out of me at an alarming rate. During all of my lessons with the ancient omega teacher they’d brought in, she’d never told me how to stop this part of my biology and only spoke of it in the most clinical of ways. In fact, she’d avoided the topic of slick entirely, the bitch.
Both of their gazes sharpened as my scent welled up in between us.
“Pet, do you like that idea?” Edison’s purr was smooth and warm, like what I assumed a very good bottle of whiskey would taste like going down my throat. Not that I’d ever actually drunk whiskey—or much of any other alcohol before. Spending your twenty-first birthday at the tail end of your last chemo treatment tended to put a damper on getting shiftfaced drunk.
I didn’t want to admit to Edison or Rhodes that the thought of the two of them together was turning me on, so instead I just buried my face in Edison’s neck and hid entirely.
“I need to go and handle security for the rest of the party going on outside,” Rhodes’ voice was strangled as he spoke.
I felt Edison huff a silent laugh at the other man. “Fine, suit yourself.”
Together we listened to Rhodes’ retreating footsteps and I waited until they’d faded completely before leaning back to get a good look at my new husband’s face. “Why did you do that?”
“Why did I do what, pet?” We crossed through the greenhouse which felt warm and muggy thanks to how hot the day had been. Moisture clung to my already flushed skin, doing little to soothe the heat that had been building ever since Edison swept me off of my feet.
“Why did you invite Rhodes upstairs with us?” I’d been putting off really thinking about the kiss I saw earlier, and now it was all I could think of. “Did you just want to kiss him some more and not me?”
Edison stumbled on the steps up to my room, nearly sending the both of us careening down them.
“What on earth would make you feel like I didn’t want to kiss you?” Edison’s gold eyes were wide as if I was the craziest woman he’d ever met.
Because I caught you kissing a man in the hallway?
My question was asked only in my head, but my face must have shown it because the alpha let out a huge sigh and finished climbing the stairs, pushing his shoulder against the door of my bedroom to open it and stepping inside.
“I guess I should tell you about Rhodes—” He paused as he got his first good look at the space.
At the center of the room was my nest which I’d painstakingly put together at my old omega teacher’s insistence. Apparently, my usual set up wasn’t good enough for my wedding night even though, at the time, I was firmly on the side of Edison not touching me until my heat.
No. My teacher insisted that I needed a bridal nest, made of only the best and softest chiffon. The same chiffon that matched the material of my wedding dress.
