Theirs for the Night Page 6
Meg reached the bedroom door and paused. Was she really going to sneak out like a thief after last night? Awkward morning-after conversations or not, she should at least say goodbye to the guys. Last night had been beyond fun, and souring it with her cowardice was a shitty thing to do.
She headed back to the nightstand and pulled the top drawer open. There were the usual knickknacks and random shit in it, but nestled near the bottom was a small pad of paper and a marker. Before she could talk herself out of it, Meg scrawled her number across the first page and ripped it out. She folded it in half and set it on top of the pillow.
If they call—and that’s a big if—it doesn’t mean I have to answer.
Satisfied she’d left things on the right note, so to speak, she slipped out of the bedroom and padded down the hallway. Voices stopped her before she made it halfway to the door. Theo and Galen spoke softly, but the volume didn’t detract from the intensity of the conversation.
She should just leave.
Nothing good ever came from eavesdropping.
Meg shifted her shoes to her other hand and crept closer to the mostly-closed door. Through the crack, she could see a desk and computer. The office. She frowned and focused on what the men were arguing about.
“I swear I will knock you fucking senseless and throw you in a trunk before I let you endanger yourself because you’re thinking with your cock instead of your head.”
Movement through the small slice of the room she could see. Theo dropped into the office chair, putting his profile in her view. Unlike last night when he’d been dressed casually, this morning he wore a suit that fit as if it had been made for him. Expensive. Really expensive.
Meg knew they had money, of course. Someone didn’t live in an apartment overlooking Central Park without some serious heft to their bank account. But that suit drove reality right through her post-coital bliss.
They were from different worlds.
Whatever issues he and Galen had—were currently having—he wasn’t going without. He wasn’t hungry and worried about where his next meal would come from. He wasn’t working sixty hours a week and going to school another twenty just to get by.
Theo crossed his arms over his chest. “No one is coming for us, Galen. If they were, it would have happened months ago, before I left Thalania in the first place. Phillip’s grip might be absolute in our country, but it’s sure as fuck not as far-reaching as you seem to think.”
“I’m not worried about his reach.” Galen cursed long and hard, sounded like he wanted nothing more than to throttle his friend. “As long as you’re alive, you’re a threat. You know that, so stop acting like you don’t. He might be willing to play nice until Edward gets on the throne, but the second they put the crown on your brother’s head, it’s over. He’ll send one of his people to dispose of you quietly and you’ll become just another unsolved legend. The missing prince of Thalania.”
The missing prince of Thalania.
Meg sagged against the wall, her mouth moving as she tried to draw in breath. She knew about Thalania. Everyone knew about Thalania—even people who didn’t spend their entire life filling a world map with pins for the places they wanted to escape to.
The tiny little kingdom was nestled in eastern Europe and had the good fortune of never having been conquered by its powerhouse neighbors. From the way the media talked about it when it came up, one would think it was a land of milk and honey. A paradise that supported itself from within and kept strict trading alliances with a handful of other countries. One still ruled by a royal family that could trace its lineage back to the country’s founding.
Theo…
Meg rubbed her chest. Oh my god. If Theo was the man Galen seemed to be indicating, he was none other than Theodore Fitzcharles III. Former crown prince of Thalania.
I have to get out of here.
It was one thing to play at the idea of having an affair with a pair of rich men who seemed to come and go from the city as they pleased. It was entirely another to dabble with royalty—even former royalty. It was sheer dumb luck that there hadn’t been a horde of press haunting the club last night to see her leave with them. The last thing she needed was her name attached that kind of dumpster fire.
The party boy prince who had somehow managed to lose his throne and devastate his country in the process.
Meg didn’t have the details—Thalania was on her list of places she wanted to go someday, but it wasn’t high on the list—but even she knew that he’d been banished in disgrace. Knowing what she did about the atrocities committed by people with that kind of power and money, she wasn’t interested in finding out what Theo had done to earn his punishment.
She had to leave, and she had to leave now.
She hesitated, casting a look back at the bedroom where her number lay on the pillow, about as innocent as a bomb ready to go off on her haphazardly balanced life. I’ll change my number if he can’t take a hint. That’s easier than walking back into that bedroom.
With one last peek through the gap in the door, she traced Theo’s profile with her gaze. He really was beautiful in the way of fallen angels. But a fallen angel was just a prettier name for a demon, and Meg had more than her fair share of demons in her life already. She couldn’t afford another one—another two.
No matter how wonderful it felt when they made her come.
She touched the door, a silent goodbye, and walked down the hallway and out the front door. It hurt. Even though she knew it was the right call, her chest felt tight and her stomach twisted itself in knots. Meg slipped her heels on and took the elevator down to the main floor. By the time the doors opened, she had herself together. Whatever path Theo and Galen were on, she wished them the best—but they would damn well continue on without her. One night was all that was promised, and one night had been more than fulfilled.
She’d miss them, though.
After spending a night in bed with a prince and his bodyguard, how could a normal guy compare?
Theo exhaled the second he heard the front door shut softly behind Meg. “She’s gone. Are you fucking happy?”
Galen stalked to the computer and pulled up the security cameras of the building. They had access by virtue of owning the penthouse suite. They watched in silence as she took the elevator down and walked out through the lobby with her head held high. Theo didn’t relax until she hailed a cab and slipped into the backseat.
For all his attempting to convince Galen that the danger wasn’t actively pointed in their direction, Theo had no intention of playing fast and loose with the lives of people around him. Just because he was more or less untouchable for the next year didn’t mean his monster of an uncle wouldn’t paint a target on anyone Phillip decided had come to matter too much to Theo.
One night shouldn’t be enough to gain his uncle’s attention.
More most definitely would, no matter how careful they were.
“You’re right.” He cursed. “Is that what you wanted to hear? You’re fucking right.”
Galen watched him with an unreadable look on his face. At least, it would be unreadable to anyone else. His displeasure was there in the tightness of his jaw and the steely expression in his dark eyes. “I liked her, too, Theo.”
That admission deflated the last of his anger. He wasn’t really pissed at Galen. The entire situation was beyond fucked, and it wasn’t unfucking itself anytime soon. Right now, his options numbered at two—run or hide. Neither sat well with Theo. He preferred to meet his problems head-on and deal with them permanently.
It wasn’t in the cards this time.
Not with his two younger half-siblings in the mix. Their uncle wouldn’t hurt Edward. He needed an heir to sit on the throne and, even if he could dispose of Theo easily enough, taking out all three of the Fitzcharles siblings would raise suspicion.
But their little sister Camilla didn’t have the same protection.
And in a year, neither would Theo.
He pinched the bridge o
f his nose. Last night had been a revelation in a way he wasn’t prepared to deal with. He and Galen had shared women before, but that was before. Before their lives were turned upside-down and shaken until they were unrecognizable. Back then, it had been all fun and games and bullshit.
Meg hadn’t known who he and Galen were. She hadn’t recognized him, hadn’t made the connection between Theo and Theodore Fitzcharles III.
It felt good to just be Theo.
It felt like maybe he might be able to make a life with the ashes of everything he’d ever known burning down around him.
Galen was right, though. To indulge himself—to indulge both of them—with Meg was to endanger her. Theo might be a bastard, but he wouldn’t drag an innocent woman under with him just because she made him feel good. Whatever problems Meg faced were of a much more mundane nature than princes and crowns and assassins in the night. He wouldn’t change that, not for anything.
He let his hand drop. “We need to get moving.”
“Yeah.” Galen pushed away from the computer and headed for the door. “I’ll get the bags.” He hesitated in the doorway. “We’ll find a way through this, Theo. I won’t let the bastard win. Not again.”
Theo nodded. There was nothing else to do. They had an impossible battle in front of them, and there was no way to get through it without casualties. Meg wouldn’t be one of them, and that had to be enough for him.
He didn’t want it to be.
Theo headed back into the bedroom. He stopped just inside the door and stared at the bed, memories from last night imposing themselves over the white sheets. Meg’s moans, her cocky smile, her laughter.
Damn it, Galen, I like her, too.
Even if his didn’t have a country-load of baggage he was carting around, Meg had made her preferences pretty damn clear when she snuck out without saying goodbye. Maybe he’d pushed too hard about having dinner, but Theo didn’t believe in playing games when he saw something he wanted.
He wanted Meg.
They both did.
He started to turn for the door and paused at the sight of a folded piece of paper on the pillow. He crossed the distance in two large steps and picked it up. A number scrawled across the paper, written in the pen he kept in the nightstand.
An invitation.
A slow smile drew his lips up. So she hadn’t wanted to leave the door fully closed on a possible future dinner…and more. Theo slipped the paper into his pocket and took one last look around the room. Regardless of what he wanted when it came to Meg, they had to leave the city for a few weeks while they ran down one of Galen’s seemingly endless leads. One of them would carve a path home. It had to.
But when they got back to the city…
Theo ran his thumb over the folds of the paper. An honorable man would leave Meg alone. He’d take last night for what it was and move on with his life. He wouldn’t call her, and he sure as fuck wouldn’t see her again.
Theo turned for the door. Maybe he really was that much of a bastard after all, because he had no intention of leaving Meg alone. He’d handle the danger for both of them—for all three of them.
“Game on, princess.”
Coming Soon
Theo, Meg, and Galen’s story will continue in Fall 2018 with FOREVER THEIRS! Order Now!
Afterword
Thank you so much for reading THEIRS FOR TONIGHT!
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Acknowledgments
This book was something special right from the beginning, and it’s process—from the first hint of a story idea, to the actual writing process, owes thanks to many people.
Thank you to Marissa Vann and Maria Bender McConnaughy for playing along with my musings about what a normal girl dating a prince would look like. Meg isn’t going to run off with the butler, and Theo is nowhere near as extra as Richard was, but you helped get this idea off the ground and running!
Big thanks and hugs to my beta readers, Andie J. Christopher, Jan Meredith, and Crystal Perkins. You helped me give this book a little extra something, and your enthusiasm was the best! I’m so glad you love this trio as much as I do!
Thank you to Piper J. Drake, Åsa Maria Bradley, and Lauren Hawkeye Murray for listening to me muse about this story for months before finally pulling the trigger on writing it. You know I have to talk something to death before I take that first step, and you gave me the pushes I needed to get moving!
Thank you to the Rabble for being so freaking excited about this idea, even before you knew any of the details. Writing a ménage story was on my bucket list for a really long time, and your reactions to my teasers has made it totally worthwhile and an amazing experience! I promise I’ll be torturing all of us with more teasers for the next book soon!
Big thank you and lots of love to Tim. You know what you did. Kisses!
About the Author
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. Her 2015 title, The Marriage Contract, was a RITA finalist, and RT Book Reviews named it 'a compulsively readable book with just the right amount of suspense and tension." When not writing sexy contemporary and romantic suspense, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her children, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.
www.kateerobert.com
Also by Katee Robert
The Kings Series
Book 1: The Last King
Book 2: The Fearless King
The Hidden Sins Series
Book 1: The Devil’s Daughter
Book 2: The Hunting Grounds
Book 3: The Surviving Girls
The Make Me Series
Book 1: Make Me Want
Book 2: Make Me Crave
The O’Malley Series
Book 1: The Marriage Contract
Book 2: The Wedding Pact
Book 3: An Indecent Proposal
Book 4: Forbidden Promises
Book 5: Undercover Attraction
Book 6: The Bastard’s Bargain
The Hot in Hollywood Series
Book 1: Ties that Bind
Book 2: Animal Attraction
The Foolproof Love Series
Book 1: A Foolproof Love
Book 2: Fool Me Once
Book 3: A Fool for You
Out of Uniform Series
Book 1: In Bed with Mr. Wrong
Book 1.5: His to Keep
Book 2: Falling for His Best Friend
Book 3: His Lover to Protect
Book 3.5: His to Take
Serve Series
Book 1: Mistaken by Fate
Book 2: Betting on Fate
Book 3: Protecting Fate
Come Undone Series
Book 1: Wrong Bed, Right Guy
Book 2: Chasing Mrs. Right
Book 3: Two Wrongs, One Right
Book 3.5: Seducing Mr. Right
Other Books
Seducing the Bridesmaid
Meeting His Match
Prom Queen
Katee Robert, Theirs for the Night
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