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“Whatever it is, you can tell us,” Xavier says, going for encouraging. “I know we’re asking a lot of you, and we want you to be comfortable.”
Neither of the other two back him up on that, but they don’t contradict him either. So that’s… something.
“Well, it’s about what married people do. You know… sex and stuff. If we’re supposed to be married, are you going to expect…”
Xavier shakes his head. “Nope. That’s not part of the deal. We’re not expecting you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
“It’s a business arrangement,” Dominic adds, folding his arms. “We’re not in the habit of fucking our business partners.”
A slightly hysterical laugh slips out of me at the thought of the three of them in some kind of orgy with the heads of other tech companies.
I shut down that line of thinking before I can spend too much time dwelling on sex and the three of them in the same context.It’s dangerous when their scents are already flooding the room so much and Xavier at least is this close. I can’t start imagining what they would look like with no clothes on, hot and sweaty and?—
No. Get it to together, Penelope.
“There will need to be some touching in public at events,” Dominic continues, and I force myself to listen. “To sell the idea that we’re really a married unit. Nothing more than hand holding, or a kiss or two. Chaste. Maybe one of us will put a hand at the small of your back for the cameras to ‘conveniently’ get a picture of. But it won’t go further.”
My heart skips a beat at the thought of Dominic’s hand on my back. I already know what it feels like touching my face, warm and solid, and I know it would feel the same at the small of my back. Heat seeping through my clothes, his fingers brushing against a place where I’m secretly very sensitive.
“There will be no kissing, even in public for show, from me,” Tristan says, and that snaps me out of my thoughts. His voice is as unaffected as ever, but there’s a firmness to the way he says it. “On our wedding day, we’ll kiss, but nothing more than that.”
“When it’s just us, there won’t be any pressure of expectations,” Xavier tells me. “So you don’t have to worry.”
I nod, forcing a smile. It’s what I wanted, the guarantee that they aren’t going to use this arrangement to try to force me into anything, but there’s a small part of me that feels a bit stung that they agreed to it so easily.
It’s stupid that it feels like a rejection, when I’m the one who brought it up in the first place. But looking at the three of them, I get it. They’re gorgeous and powerful and rich. Each one of them has a presence about them that could turn the head of everyone in the room, Omegas, Betas, and other Alphas alike. I am probably not the type of woman they go for. They’re pickingme because I’m the safe option. I’ll probably be easy to let go of in a year’s time. They probably don’t find me attractive at all.
And that’s fine. I push the feeling aside forcefully, not letting myself dwell on it. It’s fine. It’s for the best. The last thing I need is for sex and feelings and other messy entanglements to get wrapped up in this arrangement.
It’s only for a year, and then I can get back to my life and trying to build it up the way I want to. Trying to regain some of the things I’ve lost.
Agreeing to be their wife for a year will only help with that.
I take a deep breath, still a little in disbelief that I’m going to agree to this. “I’ll do it. But I have one more condition.”
“You’re good at negotiating,” Xavier teases. “Let us hear it.”
“No bonding and no bites,” I say. “Nothing that would make this more complicated. We get married for a year, and then we all walk away. Okay?”
There’s a moment where the three of them look to each other again, and it’s funny that their issue is that they can’t get along. Because when they want to present a united front, they’re very good at it.
None of them say a word to each other, but I can almost feel the ripple of agreement that passes through them, like it’s a physical thing.
Clearly, they’re all on the same page.
Xavier sticks out his hand to me, a bright grin on his handsome face. “Penelope Dalton, you have a deal.”
I reach out and take his hand, ignoring the thrill of heat that flashes through me when his fingers touch mine.
We shake on it, and just like that, the agreement between the four of us is sealed.
Chapter 9
Tristan
A few days after we agree with Penelope to do this marriage, I am in the back of my car with Jonas driving. Jonas handles getting us to wherever it is that Penelope lives, and I stare out the window, lost in thought.
As much as I’m someone who generally likes to handle things alone these days, I can admit that the merger between three companies into one was a smart move. It changed the landscape of the tech world in one fell swoop and gave Dominic, Xavier, and myself more power and leverage than we would have had separately. For all we can’t seem to stop butting heads, it’s still for the best to work through it.