“It was meant to be a surprise, pet, though I’m pretty sure that’s ruined now,” Edison replied drily, his hand sliding down the skin of my bare back as he gave me a gentle push into the room.
I shivered at his touch, my eyes moving to take in what looked to be the penthouse suite of the hotel. It was a cavernous space with no walls to hide the large sunken tub or the standing shower to one side.
Against the opposite side was a small kitchenette, a round leather sectional, and a firepit style table that was already lit causing the broken up bits of glass underneath the flame to sparkle.
But all of those things paled in comparison to the beautiful, massive bed that sat on a pedestal in the center of the space, like a shining crown jewel.
The combination of the gorgeous suite and Edison’s fingers on my back was almost enough to make me forget all about what had just occurred downstairs.
Almost.
Stepping away from Edison’s touch, I rounded on both men who looked almost sheepish as I pinned them with a stare.
“So,” I began, crossing my arms over my chest. “Who is going to tell me what happened with Yulia four years ago?”
Edison’s gold eyes shifted up to my face, seeming to take in the stiff set of my shoulders and my stubborn expression before he finally sighed in surrender. “All right, but can we at the very least sit down?”
I wanted to deny his request out of sheer pettiness, but truthfully my feet were aching in the heels Oona had picked and my legs were shaking with the effort to keep standing.
Rounding on said heel, I turned and stomped towards the sectional, only limping a little bit as I threw myself into the corner seat of the plush leather surface and waited for the two men to join me.
Edison settled in across from me and Rhodes surprised me by sitting next to me and reaching for my feet and pulling them into his lap, his fingers deftly undoing the buckles to release them from their strappy prison.
Despite my anger, I shot him a look of gratitude as a near moan of relief left my mouth at the release of pressure.
Down the bond, I could feel Edison’s lust rise at the noise and I felt my own start to stir to meet him halfway, my inner omega practically begging me to forget all about Yulia and whatever past she may have had with my alpha.
The past is in the past, a little voice whispered in my ear as my gaze shifted between Rhodes whose thumb was rubbing absentminded circles on the indent on my feet, soothing them, and Edison who looked as if he wanted to leap across the space at me.
But I wanted to know. I needed to know.
How many times had they had sex? Had he loved her?
I was under no impression that my husband had been celibate before he met me—that would be silly and naive—but nonetheless I didn’t like the reminder of it sneering in my face.
Omegas were territorial, and while I was still adjusting to life as a healthy one, that was never a part of the instincts that had faded with the chemo.
I’d always been protective over my physical things, and now that I wore Edison’s mark on my neck that had extended to him.
No one but me was allowed to touch him.
Well, me and Rhodes. That was a given, though I had yet to see what that actually entailed and now to find out that had been on the agenda tonight before Yulia had ruined things only made me angrier.
Edison, probably feeling me push my need for him down underneath a fresh wash of outrage, leaned forward and put a hand over mine. “I want to start out by saying that there is no one other than you and Rhodes. There never has been, you understand that, right?”
I nodded slowly. I’d come to learn that Edison felt more for me now than one would feel for an arranged marriage partner. He still hadn’t uttered the words I wanted to hear, and in turn I had kept my own feelings to myself, but I could feel it down the bond when he wasn’t paying close attention to it.
Ardent affection, the swell of warmth whenever our eyes met across the breakfast table in the morning, the unintelligible whispering in my ear as he was knotted inside of me followed by a wash of pure contentment through the bond.
When he’d looked at Yulia earlier, there had been none of that. Only disinterested disgust.
Edison continued on, saying the words I’d been dreading ever since we’d stepped onto the elevator. “Yulia was one of the bed partners that I used when I needed to let off some steam. She was… one of my favorites I suppose you could say. She was quiet and calm and never asked stupid questions. She understood her role because she’d grown up with the Russians before marrying into the Keane clan as a part of a trade deal ten years ago. Her first husband died pretty quickly, so as a Keane widow she was technically under our protection.”
An audible snort left me at his words.
Yeah, you protected her really well with your dick, my mind hissed nastily and I jerked in shock at the pure vitriol of it.
“So what happened?” I asked, shaking away the meaner part of my personality. “If she was calm and quiet, why didn’t you marry her instead?”
When we got married, Edison told me I was the perfect choice because I wasn’t from the Keane family. Neither was Yulia.
Edison’s nose scrunched as he shot me an incredulous look. “Why would I ever marry her?”
He made it sound so ridiculous that I had to look away, my cheeks warming as I said nothing and waited for him to continue.
“No, Yulia was never going to be marriage material, pet, she’s too connected with the five families for me to ever even consider her—not that I ever did consider her that is.”
“So, why ever end having sex with her at all?” I asked, jealousy leaking into my voice.
Edison’s lips pulled up into a wry smile. “Well, it’s hard to maintain a sexual relationship with someone who shoots you in your chest during sex.”
In all of the craziness of the past twenty minutes, I’d forgotten all about the reason Edison had stopped sleeping with women in the first place.
Edison’s earlier words echoed through my head as all of the dots finally connected. ‘I’ll finish what I started four years ago.’
I gaped at him, my mouth hanging open with shock. “She’s the one who shot you?”
He nodded, running a hand through his dark hair before tugging his bowtie off and shrugging out of his jacket, talking as he worked the buttons of his shirt. “Yes. An assassination attempt—one of my first I’ll admit as most people can’t get that close to me. I wasn’t the head of the Keane family yet, though I had taken on more responsibilities with my father’s failing health. I still haven’t figured out exactly who put her up to it and up until our engagement party I was under the impression that she had been sent away to live in one of the Keane properties across the country until she showed up married to Liam.”
