Chapter 35: The New Proposal
The golden light of late afternoon felt thick as honey, pouring across Suki’s black marble floors and painting the three tangled bodies on her oversized bed. Aidan woke to the smell of expensive linen, sex, and Suki’s jasmine shampoo. His body was a single, deep ache of satisfaction. Catriona was curled into his left side, her auburn hair fanned across his chest. Suki lay on his right, propped up on one elbow, her free hand resting flat on his stomach. She was already awake, her striking green eyes watching him, serious and clear.
The silence was comfortable, but it buzzed with the unspoken words from the night before. The two million. The offer. Suki’s sleepy murmur about the kidnapping scene.
Catriona stirred, nuzzling into his shoulder. “Mmm. What time is it?”
“Four,” Suki said, her voice quiet but steady.
“God. We slept the day away.” Catriona stretched, the sheet falling to her waist. She glanced at Suki, then at Aidan’s face. Her playful smile faded into something more observational. “Okay. The quiet is getting loud. What’s happening?”
Suki took a breath. Her fingers pressed slightly into Aidan’s skin. “I want to make this permanent.”
Catriona went still. “The content? Because last night was—”
“Not just the content.” Suki interrupted, her gaze unwavering. “This. I want to move in. With you. Both of you.”
The words hung in the sunlit air. Aidan felt Catriona’s body tense against his. He could only stare at Suki, at the vulnerable determination in her eyes.
“Move in,” Catriona repeated, flatly.
“Into our tiny bungalow?” Aidan managed, his voice gravelly with sleep. “Suki, you live in a marble palace.”
“I’ll sell it,” she said, as if discussing a used car. “The market’s good. We’ll buy a bigger place. A house with a yard. Space for a proper studio. For… all of it.” She looked between them. “I’m not trying to replace you, Cat. Or insert myself. I want to be part of what you already have. A triad. For real.”
Aidan’s mind, still sluggish, tried to latch onto the practicalities. Selling. Buying. A studio. It was a five-year plan tossed onto the rumpled sheets of a post-coital bed.
Catriona was silent for a long, terrifying minute. She sat up slowly, pulling the sheet with her. She studied Suki’s face, then looked down at Aidan. He saw the calculations happening behind her eyes—the logistics, the social explanations, the sheer audacity of it. He saw the flicker of fear, quickly smothered. And then he saw the thrill ignite.
He reached out, his hand finding Suki’s where it rested on his stomach. He laced his fingers with hers, his thumb tracing her knuckles. It was an answer before he had the words.
Catriona watched that small connection. A slow smile spread across her face, starting in her eyes. It was the same triumphant, possessive smile from the night before, but softer now. More awed.
“My husband,” she said, her voice a husky whisper. “My best friend. And me. Under one fucking roof.” She shook her head, a laugh bubbling out of her. “Our parents will have actual aneurysms.”
“We don’t tell them,” Suki said quickly, a flash of her old anxiety showing. “Not… the specifics. We just say we’re roommates. Investing in property together.”
“Roommates,” Catriona snorted, leaning over Aidan to get closer to Suki. “Right. With the very friendly sleeping arrangements.” Her expression sobered. “You’re sure? This isn’t just the champagne and the orgasm talking?”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” Suki said, and the raw honesty in it left no room for doubt. “I’m tired of being alone in this apartment. I’m tired of calculating every touch for the camera. I want… this.” She squeezed Aidan’s hand. “I want the messy, boring, real part. The morning breath and the laundry and the silent understanding. With both of you.”
Catriona looked at Aidan. “And you? You’re just going to lie there and let us plan your life?”
He pulled Suki’s hand to his lips, kissed her knuckles. Then he reached up and curled his hand around the back of Catriona’s neck, drawing her down for a soft, slow kiss. “Yeah,” he murmured against her mouth. “Seems like it.”
Catriona’s smile returned, brilliant and wicked. She shifted her focus back to Suki, her gaze dropping to her friend’s lips. “Okay then,” she breathed. And she closed the distance, kissing Suki deeply.
It was different from the hungry, frenzied kisses of the night before. This was a seal. A promise. Aidan watched, a strange, profound warmth flooding his chest as his wife claimed his lover, as Suki melted into it, a soft sigh escaping her.
When they parted, Catriona rested her forehead against Suki’s. “Let’s do it,” she said, simple and final.
The decision, momentous as it was, dissolved into the practical. They lay there as the sun slid lower, weaving a new future with their words. Suki would list her condo next week. They’d look for a place with a finished basement for a studio, maybe in the quieter suburbs. Aidan, still caught in the surreal drift of it all, mentioned the two million.
“It’s for a year-long contract,” he said, the weight of the number feeling heavier in the daylight. “Four shoots. They want an answer.”
Catriona and Suki exchanged a look—a silent, rapid conversation he couldn’t decipher.
“Take it,” they said in unison, then laughed.
“But,” Catriona added, rolling onto her back and staring at the ceiling. “We negotiate. We tell Sloane and Thea we’re a package deal now. For that kidnapping scene, or whatever else they dream up. They want you, they get both of us. The chemistry’s better. The story’s hotter.”
Suki grinned, a real, unguarded flash of joy. “I already have ideas for the content we can make there. Behind-the-scenes. The ‘home life’ of their star performer. It’ll fucking print money.”
Aidan listened to them, this beautiful, terrifying committee now in charge of his life and his body. The fear was there, a cold thread in his gut. But it was outmatched by a dizzying sense of expansion. He was no longer a lone satellite; he was at the center of a new, daring gravity.
Later, as the room dimmed to blue twilight, Suki got up and poured the remnants of last night’s champagne into three flutes. She walked back to the bed, naked and unconcerned, and handed them each a glass.
“To the future,” she said.
They clinked glasses over Aidan’s chest. The champagne was flat and warm, but it tasted like a beginning.
Catriona set her glass down and slid under the sheets, her head finding its place on his shoulder again. Suki did the same on his other side, her long leg hooking over his. They fitted themselves around him, a puzzle completed.
“Start packing tomorrow,” Catriona murmured into his skin, already half asleep again.
“Mmm-hmm,” Suki agreed, her breath evening out.
Aidan lay awake in the gathering dark, feeling their weights, their warmth, their steady breaths. The city skyline twinkled beyond the windows, a world of ordinary lives. His was no longer one of them. He closed his eyes, and for the first time since returning from the villa, the silence in his head was finally, completely quiet.