Page 59 of Priceless
“Should I stop?”
“No.” The word snapped out so quickly I was afraid of the reaction. But it only made him smile and tuck me closer. The way I laid across his lap… I didn’t think I ever wanted to move again.
“No one’s ever purred for me,” I told him.
The sound stuttered for a second from his surprise. Then it came back even louder. “No one?”
“No.”
“Not even your father?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. But I don’t remember if he did. He’s been gone a long time.”
“Fuck, sweetheart. I would have done it sooner.”
Laughing, I looked up at him. “When would you have had a chance?”
“Any time I’ve been in a room with you. I would have purred at the reception. Anywhere and everywhere, baby.”
“Here, princess.” Micah’s voice came from somewhere behind me, and suddenly a banana appeared in front of my face.
I couldn’t stop the giggle. “What’s that for?”
“Everett told me to give it to you and tell you to eat it because the food is going to take a while to get here.”
“I think he just wants to see me eat a banana.” But I sat up with Cameron’s help and peeled it.
Everett strode in, his walk still holding the same power even though he was barefoot and bare chested with sweats on. I?—
My mind had completely short-circuited at the sight of him without a shirt. Holy shit. It was hard to think any thoughts. And the ones I had were all good about him, and none of them good about me. I didn’t want to eat in front of him now. Not while I was in frumpy clothes and buried in a blanket like someone who hadn’t moved from the couch in days.
There were tattoos and I couldn’t even focus on what they were cause my brain was screaming abs! Shoulders! Forearms!
He raised an eyebrow. “I do want to see you eat a banana. And not only because I’ll be thinking about your mouth as you do it.” Looking at Micah and then Cameron, the next words were a growl. “They put fucking locks on the kitchen cabinets this week.”
I looked down, focusing very hard on breaking the banana into pieces and taking a bite. My energy immediately perked up. Funny how actually eating could do that.
Cameron and Micah were staring at me, but I couldn’t meet their eyes. And it was Cameron who pulled me closer to him on the couch again. “Anything we can do to get out of this deal, Rett? I don’t want to give that asshole anything.”
“No, you can’t go back on it,” I said. “Please.”
They all looked at me now. Frowning. But not angry. Micah made the connection first. “Why did you agree to marry us? I assumed it was to get away from them.”
“It was.” I swallowed. “But not only that. The trust my parents left me…” My throat burned. It still hurt to speak about without feeling the deep sense of betrayal. “It doesn’t pay out until I turn thirty-five. But they agreed to do it in a year if I said yes.”
He looked devastated. “So they forced you?”
“No.” I hadn’t been forced. It didn’t feel that way, and now that I was getting to know them, I was glad. “No, they didn’t force me. But I did make him sign papers so he couldn’t change his mind later. I have copies, and I gave copies to Trinity and Isolde.”
Cameron laughed. “Should have been a lawyer, sweetheart.”
But Micah still watched me carefully. Coming over, he knelt in front of me, hands running up my thighs beneath the blanket. “As long as you weren’t forced. Because that was our one stipulation. We wanted to marry you, but you had to say yes willingly.”
“I’m willing,” I said. “Did I agree because of the trust? Yes. But you needed to get married for one reason. I just happened to need it for a different one.” For a second, I looked down. “But I’m glad it’s you.”
He smiled then. “I can work with that.”
The way his hands were on my legs, even through the fabric of my yoga pants, made me aware of how close he was to… everything.
