just me, maybe it would feel different, but it’s not just me. I have Beast and I have Gaeton and, if things are beyond complicated between us, I still trust them to guide me through. “Yes.”
“Good.” He leads me out into the main room where Gaeton is waiting for us. “We have something for you.”
Gaeton’s the one who opens the large square box before me. The smile he had for Tink is nowhere in evidence now. I want to apologize, but words aren’t enough anymore. Maybe they never were.
To distract myself, I look down and go still. The solid black collar is plain enough, but the carefully crafted rose in the center needs no other ornamentation. I reach out tentatively and brush my finger against the red petals. They’re all jewels, cut into a perfect rendition of my favorite flower.
“This tells everyone in the Underworld that you’re ours.” Gaeton holds perfectly still. “Will you take it?”
“Yes.” I don’t have a choice, but that’s not why anticipation thrills through my blood. This marks them as mine as much as it marks me as theirs. I want that marking. I want the world to know that I am connected to these two men. That I am owned by them. A primitive, uncomfortable feeling, but I refuse to shy away from it. The last couple days haven’t been easy by any means, but the harshness of our words and actions have been a strange sort of balm for my soul.
This is that nebulous thing I always craved but could never define. The element missing from both my relationships with them.
Beast takes the box from Gaeton. “Put it on her.”
Seeing the delicate collar in his big hands does something for me. I press my lips together and hold perfectly still has he lifts my hair off my neck and fastens the collar around my neck. His fingers linger against my nape for the barest second. “Too tight?”
“No.”
He steps back, depriving me of his solidness at my back. I close my eyes for a long moment to try to get control of my emotions. I feel like an exposed nerve right now. No matter how close we get, Gaeton keeps holding himself at a distance.
I don’t know if he can ever truly forgive me.
I don’t know if I can pick him if forgiveness isn’t on the table, even if it’s a forgiveness I don’t deserve.
When I open my eyes, it’s to find Beast watching me. I catch him completely unfiltered for an entire breath, the longing on his face potent enough to rock me back on my heels. I don’t know if he’s looking at me or at Gaeton at my back. Before I can figure it out, he locks himself down again, his expression carved in ice just like it always is. “Let’s go.”
The trip to the Underworld is no less strange this time around, albeit in a different way. Beast leads us past the beautiful front desk guy, with Gaeton half a step behind me. Through the towering door and into the carefully dim lounge. I start to look around, but Gaeton’s quiet “eyes forward, Isabelle” jerks my gaze to the center of Beast’s back. I promised I’d follow their lead, and this is the barest of an order. It’d be foolish to disobey over something so mundane.
We end up in a booth in the middle of the section, with me between the two men. Beast and Gaeton exchange a look, and Beast slips away before Gaeton has a chance to say anything. The big man glares, but remains at my side. I smooth my hands down the slick fabric of my dress. “Have I done something to piss you off in the last twelve hours?”
“What?” He finally looks at me, really looks at me. “Why would you say that?”
I lift my brows. “Really, Gaeton? Can you think of anything you’ve done that might lead me to this conclusion?”
He flushes a little and leans back, some of the tension bleeding out of his body. “I suppose since we demand honesty from you, offering anything less in return is a shitty thing to do.”
“I suppose so.” I find myself holding my breath. If we were good at communicating before, maybe we wouldn’t have left a trail of trauma behind us to get to this place. If we have any hope at a future, we have to be able to talk. “Can you just tell me this—is there any chance of you forgiving me?”
Shock widens