Free The Lion's Shared Bride by Bonnie Burrows Page A

that the two men would respect her boundaries, and that she could trust them both. If you could roll them up into one guy instead of two, I couldn’t possibly come up with a reason not to do it, she thought.
    The crux of the issue, as it occurred to her in the aftermath of yet another orgasm with Soren, was that Nina couldn’t quite believe that two men could share a woman the way that they proposed without getting in each other’s way, and without jealousy coming into play. “Let’s be real for a moment,” she said, turning completely onto her side in Soren’s bed. “You and Aedan are both really masculine men. In a good way, I mean.”
    Soren chuckled. “Yes, that’s true enough.” Nina reached out, almost unbidden, and found herself brushing a strand of Soren’s short, spiky hair off of his sweat-drenched forehead. She shivered at the memory of him inside of her. They had already had sex twice, and it was only the afternoon. Nina was more than a little alarmed at how good it had felt, every bit as good as it had felt with Aedan, though the two men had slightly different styles when it came to seduction and lovemaking.
    “And neither of you is interested in the other one, right?”
    Soren nodded quickly. “Yeah, no, we’re not bi. It’s not a homophobia thing, we’re just not into guys.” Nina took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
    “So how exactly is this going to work? I mean, love triangles are kind of—well, they’re a trope. It never ends well.”
    Soren shrugged. “We know what we’re getting into. Keep in mind, we knew we were going to do this before you did. We’ve hashed out some rules about it that are just between us.”
    Nina pressed her lips together. The fact that Soren and Aedan had apparently discussed their arrangement between them didn’t exactly surprise her, but some part of her vanity was offended that it seemed to have all been decided before she had even arrived.
    “What if I end up loving one of you more?” She turned over onto her stomach. Her legs felt like the bones inside of them were made of jelly, and her arms were still less than real to her. If nothing else, I will be the most sexually pleased woman on the damn planet.
    Soren shrugged. “That’ll be a shame for whichever of us doesn’t make the grade, but as long as you’re doing your part to keep us both happy, neither one of us can exactly complain about it.” He looked at her for a long moment and Nina saw a flash of something she couldn’t quite identify flickering through his eyes. “I think you’ll be surprised though. Off the top of your head, right now, which one of us do you like better?”
    Nina frowned. The question was impossible. She hadn’t known either of them long enough to form a definitive preference. On top of that, Nina couldn’t actually say that one man or the other had been less trustworthy, or more confidence-inspiring than the other. They were very different—but in some way, Soren and Aedan’s personalities were complementary.
    “You’re both jerks,” she said playfully. “I mean, you trick me into meeting one of you without knowing there’s another one waiting in the wings, you practically keep me captive, and you’re apparently planning on spending the entire weekend making it impossible for me to actually dislike either of you.”
    Soren laughed. “Well, we did warn you that we were going to try and convince you. I don’t remember you giving the stipulation that we had to make you miserable in the process.”
    Nina rolled her eyes. “But it’s not going to be like this if and when I decide to go along with your plan. I mean… you’re not going to spend every waking minute catering to my needs and desires. You both have lives.”
    Soren leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips. “One of your desires—or, if you’re going to be honest, one of your needs—is probably to have some time to yourself, right? Your own personal space, a little independence? So