“We’re friends.” He shrugs, and then gives me a bright grin. “And don’t thank me until you’ve seen my wife’s bill.” The way he says wife speaks volumes, and I have to stifle a surge of jealousy. Even when he and Tink were dancing around each other, there was only the two of them figuring things out. Hook never had to compete for her heart, and he sure as fuck didn’t have to compete with someone as perfect as Beast.
We wait until they leave to go looking for Isabelle. I’m not at all surprised to find her curled up in my bed, but the sight still rocks me back on my heels. It feels so fucking fleeting, a dream I’m afraid to sink into for fear that I’ll wake up alone.
“You’re up,” Beast murmurs and shifts past me to haul the bags into the bathroom.
I don’t know if I should appreciate his bowing out of this moment or be suspicious because he’s so confident that he’s not greedy for every second of experience with her. In the end, it doesn’t matter. I kick off my shoes and climb onto the bed to settle next to her. She’s not under the comforter; instead, she’s wrapped up in one of the throw blankets from the living room. I trace my finger down her temple and over her jaw. “Isabelle.”
Her eyes flutter open, and the happiness I find there takes my breath away. She smiles and stretches like a cat. “Hi.”
“Hey.”
Isabelle wiggles closer, tucking herself against me, and my heart gives a dull thud as I pull her into my arms. This isn’t forever, but my goddamn fucking chest isn’t listening. It feels so right to hold her like this while she surfaces from her nap.
She nuzzles my chest. “Tink is scary.”
That surprises a chuckle out of me. “Yeah, she’s definitely that.” She’s also become one of my closest friends over the last year. She caught me in the midst of my spiral after losing Isabelle, and kicked my ass until I figured my shit out.
“You know she would have gotten me out if I asked? I thought she was your friend.”
“She is.” It should piss me off that Tink would go around me like that, but it feels strangely good. There was a time when she wouldn’t have even considered making that offer. “But just because she’s my friend, doesn’t mean she’s giving me carte blanche to act like a monster.”
“You’re not a monster.” She wraps her arms around me and hitches a leg over my hip. It’s not sexual, exactly; more like she wants to be as close as she possibly can be. “You do monstrous things sometimes, but you’re not a monster. Neither of you are.”
There it is again. The reminder that I’ll never be her one and only. I tense, waiting for the slap of pain that knowledge always brings, but there’s only a settling deep inside me. I don’t know what it means. Maybe I’m just resigned to the truth now.
She leans back enough to meet my gaze. “Gaeton, I—”
Something akin to panic shorts out my brain at the possibilities of what she might say next. “We got all the shit on Tink’s list, and Hook made dinner. Figure we should eat and then get ready. Glad you got a nap, since tonight’s going to be a long one. Let’s eat and get moving.”
A small furrow appears between her brows, but she finally nods. “Okay.”
When I agreed to this, I didn’t think for a second that I would win. Even with all the truths coming out to play, my opinion hasn’t changed. Why would she choose me when she can have him? Beast might make me want to punch a hole in a wall half the time, but he’s a brilliant general and an even better Dom. Now that he’s off his leash, I can’t imagine a scenario where Isabelle chooses me over him. I just don’t see it.
Fuck, I’m not sure I would choose me over him.
I climb out of bed before that knowledge sinks beneath my skin and tears me down. We have this time. It has to be enough. I have to be okay with watching them fall back in love, with knowing that there’s no way Beast will let her go again, with living the rest of my life almost within touching distance of the future I want more than anything.
I don’t know what Beast sees on my face when we walk into the main room, but he frowns. “We’ll talk after dinner, while Isabelle gets ready.”
It should be as simple as planning out the kink for the night, but one of the downsides of working with an excellent Dom is that they’re equally excellent at reading people. We have to be during a scene. Communication is vital to everyone having a good time, but it’s also vital to be able to course correct if a submissive isn’t one hundred percent there with you and isn’t able or willing to spell it out.