“I like to be prepared.” She waves that away and refocuses on me. “It’s rather brilliant of you to use sex to get both of them back in line. For such intelligent men, your pussy makes them into fools.”
Is it possible to die from mortification? I have a feeling I’m about to find out. “Sienna, that’s not what I’m doing.”
“How would I know what you’re doing when you won’t tell me?” She gives me a sly smile. “If you want to insist on playing coy, then I suppose I’ll have to keep projecting theories. My next one is—”
“Okay!” I glance at the bathroom door and lower my voice. The shower is still running, but I don’t want to tempt fate. “Okay. I’ll tell you, but you have to promise to calm Cordelia down and make her wait until this is over.”
“I promise nothing.”
“Sienna.”
She huffs out a sigh. “Fine. Tell me. I will calm down Cordelia. Though if I’m not satisfied with the answer, I make no promises about my actions.”
It’s as good a promise as I’m going to get. “I’m in Gaeton’s apartment with both of them. I promised them two weeks of submission in exchange for their return. And, uh, I have to pick one of them at the end of it and stick with that decision.”
“Two weeks of submission.” She says it in a musing kind of way and I can already see the wheels in her impressive brain turning. She brightens. “So, what you’re saying is that you agreed to a sex pact.”
“No, that is not what I’m saying.” That’s exactly what I’m saying.
She shakes her head. “Oh, Izzy, it might sound like a dream to have them both right now, but it’s just going to make the choice harder when it comes down to it. If you couldn’t choose before, how are you going to now?”
I don’t know. That’s one thing I very pointedly haven’t thought about. “I’ll figure it out when I get there.”
“Would you like me to make an algorithm based on their strengths and attributes?” She’s speaking faster, her mind already twelve steps ahead of this conversation. “I’ll need some key data from you in order to make it accurate. You have your phone on you, good, good, I’ll email you the questions. Get them back to me as quickly as possible and I’ll have a logical answer by the end of the week.”
“Sienna, no.”
“You say ‘Sienna, no,’ but all I’m hearing is ‘Sienna, yes.’ Trust me, Izzy. The heart might lie, but empirical evidence doesn’t.”
She’s going to do this, and if I don’t fill out the damn forms immediately, she’s going to pester me until I do. Desperate, I grab onto the only thing I can. “But you married David without any empirical evidence.”
She gives me a look like she pities me. “If you think I didn’t do a full ancestry DNA history in case I change my mind about procreating, a background check to rival what the FBI can come up with, and give him a three-night sex trial to ensure our sexual tastes line up—Izzy, do you even know me?”
There’s nothing else to say. I try and fail to paste a smile on my face. “Thank you, Sienna. An algorithm would be extremely helpful.”
“You’re just humoring me, but wait until you see it. It will help. I promise.” She glances over her shoulder. “I have to go. I’ll hold Cordelia off, but if you change your mind and need us to ride to the rescue, text or call. We’ll be there.”
“Thank you.” My throat is doing that horrible closing thing again. “I love you.”
“Love you, too.” She hangs up, leaving me alone once again with all the things that have gone wrong. I wish I could say they started last night, but the truth is that they started a long time ago, maybe back as far as the first time I met Gaeton and Beast.
My father kept his people separate from us, and for good reason. We were always protected in our family home, always had special security whenever we left the grounds, but they were carefully curated individuals. As such, I didn’t meet either Gaeton or Beast until they were promoted to generals five years ago. I still remember that ceremony my father insisted on, how proud of them he was. He looked at those two like they were the sons he never had. Not better than his daughters; simply different.
They were both on their best behavior, as shiny as new pennies, but there was an element of danger that drew me. And the way they looked at me … Beast like he wanted to eat me whole. Gaeton like he wanted to fall to his knees and worship me in the most sinful way possible.
I couldn’t have known then how that moment would turn into my attempting to date both of them for two agonizingly long years before it all went up in flames. I couldn’t have known that smiling at them, that flirting the tiniest amount, would set us on a path that ended with me here, alone in Gaeton’s bed while Beast and he do whatever they’re doing in his bathroom. Talking? Planning? Fucking?