Page 46 of Glass Omega

“Pet, do you like that idea?” Edison’s purr was smooth and warm, like what I assumed a very good bottle of whiskey wouldtaste like going down my throat. Not that I’d ever actually drunk whiskey—or much of any other alcohol before. Spending your twenty-first birthday at the tail end of your last chemo treatment tended to put a damper on getting shiftfaced drunk.

I didn’t want to admit to Edison or Rhodes that the thought of the two of them together was turning me on, so instead I just buried my face in Edison’s neck and hid entirely.

“I need to go and handle security for the rest of the party going on outside,” Rhodes’ voice was strangled as he spoke.

I felt Edison huff a silent laugh at the other man. “Fine, suit yourself.”

Together we listened to Rhodes’ retreating footsteps and I waited until they’d faded completely before leaning back to get a good look at my new husband’s face. “Why did you do that?”

“Why did I do what, pet?” We crossed through the greenhouse which felt warm and muggy thanks to how hot the day had been. Moisture clung to my already flushed skin, doing little to soothe the heat that had been building ever since Edison swept me off of my feet.

“Why did you invite Rhodes upstairs with us?” I’d been putting off really thinking about the kiss I saw earlier, and now it was all I could think of. “Did you just want to kiss him some more and not me?”

Edison stumbled on the steps up to my room, nearly sending the both of us careening down them.

“What on earth would make you feel like I didn’t want to kiss you?” Edison’s gold eyes were wide as if I was the craziest woman he’d ever met.

Because I caught you kissing a man in the hallway?

My question was asked only in my head, but my face must have shown it because the alpha let out a huge sigh and finished climbing the stairs, pushing his shoulder against the door of my bedroom to open it and stepping inside.

“I guess I should tell you about Rhodes—” He paused as he got his first good look at the space.

At the center of the room was my nest which I’d painstakingly put together at my old omega teacher’s insistence. Apparently, my usual set up wasn’t good enough for my wedding night even though, at the time, I was firmly on the side of Edison not touching me until my heat.

No. My teacher insisted that I needed a bridal nest, made of only the best and softest chiffon. The same chiffon that matched the material of my wedding dress.

Making nests still wasn’t my strong suit, but over the past few weeks I liked to think that I made do and the structure in front of us was no different. I’d utilized the four posts of the bed and the top railing to make a cozy cave that was big enough for an alpha to get inside of it with me.

Or two,my nasty little brain whispered as I waited for Edison to speak again.

This morning when I’d gotten up and decided to bite the bullet and build the bridal nest, I still wasn’t considering invitinganyoneinto it, let alone two men.

That was, at least, until Edison kissed me in the garden after the ceremony. I could still feel the way his lips had rasped against mine and the hunger in his dark, blown-pupil eyes. Then I’d watched him devour Rhodes with the same kind of hunger, his expression an invitation into a world I had no clue how to navigate. I was a damn goner after all of that.

“You were telling me about Rhodes?” I finally prodded, giving him a gentle tap so that he would put me down on my own two feet again.

Instead Edison deposited me onto the little settee that sat against one of the tall windows and began to fiddle with the buckles of my heels as he started to speak again.

“Rhodes and I met when we were nine. He was the son of one of my father’s men and because we were in the same age group my father thought it would be a good idea for us to become subordinates.”

“Not friends?” I cut in to ask.

Edison’s chuckle was sardonic as he shook his head. “Father didn’t believe infriends, pet.”

Finally managing to free one of my feet from the death trap Oona called a shoe, Edison gave my foot a gentle squeeze, working his fingers over the red sore spots with a finesse that nearly made me moan out loud.

“We grew up together and did everything together. School, college, all of it.”

“And did you always love each other?”

My question seemed to throw the alpha off as he struggled with the buckle of my other shoe.

“Love?” Edison asked with a scoff, black brows drawing together. “Pet, what Rhodes and I do isn’t love. It’s a necessity.”

“How so?” I understood needing me to an extent. I could give birth to heirs at the very least, but what use would kissing and sleeping with his closest…subordinatehave?

“A few years ago I slept with women pretty freely,” Edison began and I had to shove down the sudden, irrational wave of jealousy his words gave me. It made no sense whatsoever to feel this way as my only claim on the man in front of me was thanks to the ring on my finger.