“Answer the damned question,” he snapped. “How many?”
Jethro glowered back at him. “None. ”
He turned back to Keiley. “When he’s gone, will you let another stranger in your bed? One I’m not certain how far to trust with my wife rather than a lover? Don’t you think you’ll sense that discomfort?”
“As Jethro said, what the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“Connection and bonding,” Mac snapped back at them both. “Sometimes it takes three to make a whole. There’s only one man I trust enough to hold you without me, and that’s Jethro. And I know Jethro. He was half in love with you when I met you and too damned stupid to do anything about it. This way, we all get what we want and we’re damned happy with it. ”
“Happy with it because it’s what you decree?” Keiley yelled back.
“Hell, yes!” That one shut her up. She stared back at him, her lips parted in shock, her eyes wide with it. “I’m sick to death of denying what I am. And by God, you try telling me you’ll ever let any other man in your bed with us!”
“And what about Jethro?” she cried out. “Don’t you think he deserves a woman who loves him? Just him?”
“Is that what you want, Jethro?” Mac asked him.
“I have what I want,” Jethro answered softly.
“What about me?” She was seething now, like a volcano ready to blow. “Do you think I want to live my life putting up with two fucking pricks rather than one? Well, you have another damned think coming, you son of a bitch. At this moment, I’ll be damned if I’ll let either one of you back in my fucking bed. ”
Damn, he was in trouble now. She wasn’t just screaming, but her face was flushed, her eyes a chocolate brown, and she was cussing. A lot. Keiley wasn’t much of a cusser until she was ready to brain some idiot male who had finally pushed her patience to the limit. Even Jethro was watching her warily now.
“You could have tried discussing this with me first,” Jethro muttered.
“Wouldn’t have been as effective. ” Mac shrugged, keeping his eyes on Keiley as she stared between them as though observing some strange, alien set of creatures.
“I’m married to a crazy man,” Keiley muttered, shaking her head as she continued to stare at him in dumbfounded confusion. “Mac, have you lost your mind somewhere in the cow shit lately?” Her voice sliced through the air like a razor.
His lips twitched. She was at her most confrontational, her most defiant.
“Not lately,” he assured her.
“Somewhere in the past, then, and I didn’t notice it?” she asked with false sweetness.
His eyes narrowed on her further as he heard the anger in her tone, her confusion.
Keiley glanced at Jethro. This time, he was the one leaning lazily against the wall, watching the exchange thoughtfully. But Jethro’s thoughtful expression was a bit more menacing than Mac’s.
Keiley breathed in deeply, smoothed her hands down her dress, then stared back at her husband as confusion swamped anger and left her helpless before the regret she saw in his eyes.
“Why, Mac?” she finally whispered. “Why in God’s name would you want me to love another man?”
“Because it completes all of us,” he answered her gently. “Because it’s the only way I can be certain that no part of the past remains inside me. It’s the only way Jethro can fully give himself. And it gives you a balance, a freedom you wouldn’t have otherwise. Because without it, I wake up shaking with the thought of what I could do to both of us. Without it, Jethro would continue on the same damned path he returned to when I left. Not giving a damned damn about life, one way or the other, because the balance is gone. ”
“And you think you can just make this decision for us on your own?” She shook her head, staring back at Jethro as he lowered his head, his expression rueful as he shook his head slowly.
“Do you love her, Jethro?” Mac didn’t take his eyes off her.
Jethro’s head jerked up, and Keiley saw it. She saw the emotions raging through him, things she hadn’t wanted to see before.
“If he left tomorrow, Keiley, would you cry?”
“That’s not love, Mac,” she whispered, shaking her head herself now. “That’s not love. And I’m not playing this game with you. Not anymore. ”
She turned and walked out of the bedroom, moving slowly, aware of the two men following her, their expressions counterpoints to each other.
Counterpoints. Balances. A team in a way Keiley had never imagined and couldn’t fully understand.