“Fun.” I raise my brows. “I don’t know how much more fun I can take from you two.”
“Lies.” She turns and starts for the bathroom. “I’m sure you’ll rise to the occasion should we find the opportunity.” She disappears through the door and, a few moments later, the shower starts.
I look at Shiloh. “Are you okay?”
“Of course. I’m always okay.” She shoves the coffee mug onto the nightstand and stands.
I don’t mean to react. My body just does it on its own, my hand snapping out and closing around her wrist as she goes to move past me. “Shiloh.” I tow her closer slowly, keeping my grip light enough that she could break free easily. Since I’m sitting on the bed, our positions put her breasts right at eye level, but I hold her gaze intentionally. “Talk to me. Is this about what happened last night?”
For a moment, I think she’ll push me away, both physically and emotionally, but she sighs. “I know the overprotective thing is part of who you are, and I am making my peace with the fact that it’s Monroe as well, but I could really do without you egging each other on to go to battle over something that happened a very long time ago.” Her gaze goes shuttered.
It takes me a beat to understand. She’s not upset about the sex. She’s feeling off because her past was brought up and how we reacted. Relief makes me a little light-headed. I don’t know what the fuck I would do if she regretted things.
I tug on her wrist again, and she slides down to straddle me as if we’ve been this comfortable with each other for years instead of a single night. My cock gives a twinge, but I ignore it. “I thought you wanted us to get along.”
“I do, but I didn’t intend have you gang up on me.”
I carefully coast my hands up her arms and across her shoulders, stopping just short of cupping her jaw the way I want to. She might be focusing on one part of things, but I have to know the truth. “Do you regret what happened last night?”
Shiloh hesitates but finally sighs. “No. I wouldn’t be sitting here naked in your lap if I regretted it.”
“I could do without the reminder.” I give her a look when she laughs. Some of the heaviness she seemed to be carrying dissipates with that happy sound. “This conversation is too important to get distracted in the middle.”
“Every conversation is important with you.”
I don’t know if I can look into that comment even a little, so I ignore it. “You have been my friend since we met. You are important to me. I don’t regret anything that’s happened between us, but you are my friend first, and I don’t want to do anything to endanger that. I can’t stand the thought of losing you.” Now it’s my turn to hesitate. “But last night was pretty damn perfect. If you’re on the same page, if you’re willing to try for more, I would really like to.”
“Oh, Broderick.” She feathers her fingers through my hair. “What about Monroe?”
“What about Monroe?” The question feels wrong, as if I’m doing her a disservice. Monroe and I have been working together beautifully since we decided to seduce Shiloh together, but that’s only a small percentage of the time she’s been my Bride. We haven’t talked about the future, haven’t talked about anything but Shiloh, and plans to keep Monroe alive.
“I don’t know if we work without her.”
I open my mouth to argue but have to stop. I don’t want to lie to Shiloh, and I’m not certain it would be the truth to say we definitively do work without Monroe in the picture, egging us on. “There’s only one way to find out.”
“I suppose.” She shifts against me a little, but her expression is contemplative, not seductive. “What if Monroe stayed?”
“Shiloh.” I take her face in my hands. “She’s an Amazon. She’s not for either of us. Not permanently.”
She wraps her hands around my wrists and lowers my hands from her face. “Her being an Amazon makes her not for you.”
I don’t miss the way she puts distance between us with both words and actions. “Not just an Amazon, Shiloh. She’s the Amazon heir. She’s going to be queen. Even if this were some fairy tale where we all fall happily in love, she won’t stay.”
“And you won’t go.”
Again, she’s excluding herself from this theoretical future. I don’t want to ask the question, but I need to know the answer. “Would you? If she asked you to, would you go with her?”
“I don’t know.”
It’s not the clear rejection of the idea that I want, and fuck, that hurts. “You really care about her that much?” More than me?
“I don’t know,” she repeats. Shiloh eases off my lap and turns for the bathroom. “Being in Sabine Valley has been more challenging than I expected. I just… I don’t know, Broderick. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.”
“I won’t ask you for anything but the truth,” I manage.
She gives me a bittersweet smile. “Liar. You want everything.”
“Of course I want everything. I love you.” The words are out before I can call them back, but suddenly I don’t want to call them back. We’ve danced around each other for so fucking long. Maybe it’s time to just clear the air properly. It’s not like we can do more damage to our friendship after having sex last night. “I’ve loved you for years, Shiloh. I respected our friendship too much to endanger it, and you never indicated that you were interested in more than friendship, so I kept my feelings to myself.”
“Maybe I’m not interested in more than friendship.”
I snort. “You were coming
