Chapter 305: The Easy Part
Katherine waited until Cassandra had settled against Martin again before removing her hand from his lap. She linked both arms behind his neck and relaxed against him, remaining close while giving him room to think.
"That brings me to my conditions," she said. "I haven’t agreed to join Alexandra’s plan, but I know what would make me refuse."
Cassandra raised her head. "What would?"
"Being treated as part of a package instead of Martin’s partner. I want time with him that belongs to us, not an audience for every date and a group discussion whenever I need him." Katherine’s fingers moved idly through the hair at the nape of his neck. "I also won’t stay in an arrangement where saying no becomes a betrayal, or where someone uses Martin’s attention to punish another woman."
Martin nodded. "That’s fair."
"It had better be, because those conditions apply to you too. You don’t get to collect agreements from several women and then hide behind the word harem whenever caring for them becomes inconvenient."
Katherine held his gaze without smiling. Martin resisted the urge to reassure her too quickly.
"Wanting all of you is the easy part," he said. "I like the idea. I’d be lying if I pretended I didn’t. What scares me is what happens after it stops feeling new. I don’t want anyone wondering whether she only gets whatever time and affection I have left."
Katherine watched him in silence, so he continued.
"I don’t know yet whether I can make several relationships work. If I hurt one of you, though, I won’t tell you this is what you agreed to and expect that to fix it. Alexandra’s rules can’t do the work for me."
Katherine studied him for a moment. "That doesn’t prove you’ll succeed."
"No," Martin admitted.
Her arms tightened slightly around his neck. "It does make me more willing to find out."
Martin’s shoulders relaxed. Cassandra remained quiet beside him.
After a while, she asked Katherine, "Why are you willing to consider it at all? You could pursue Martin without accepting any arrangement with the rest of us."
Katherine looked toward the windows, where the lights of the city stretched far below the penthouse. She took her time before answering.
"I want my own relationship with him. I want my own firsts, private time, and the right to ask for him when I need him. Sometimes I’ll be jealous, and sometimes I’ll want him entirely to myself. I don’t plan to apologize merely for feeling that way."
Her gaze returned to Cassandra before shifting to Martin.
"I also love Alexandra. If she can share him without slowly making herself miserable, I’d rather find a place beside both of them than force Martin to decide which sister he has to hurt. Maybe that’s selfish too. I want the man, my sister, and the chance to keep both."
"If she can share him," Martin repeated. Katherine’s hesitation had been slight, but he knew her well enough to hear it.
"We don’t know yet." Her fingers stilled against his neck. "Alexandra can prepare rules for every danger she imagines, but none of us knows how she’ll feel when this exists outside a conversation. Wanting the idea isn’t the same as living with it."
Cassandra’s brows drew together. For once, Katherine had spoken plainly about a fear she couldn’t ease for her sister instead of hiding it behind a joke.
"You’ve spent more time considering what this might cost Alexandra than what you could gain from it," Cassandra said.
"Of course I have. Alex gives everything to the people she loves, and she can convince herself to endure almost anything if she thinks it protects them. I need to know she’s sharing because she wants this life, not because she’s terrified Martin will choose someone else."
Martin thought of Alexandra clinging to him after Kumoe nearly died in the Beastslayer fight and of the courage it had taken for her to admit what she wanted. The fear remained beneath all her careful rules, and they would have to keep facing it together.
"Then we keep checking in with her," he said. "We don’t wait until something goes wrong, and she has to be allowed to change her answer."
Katherine nodded, but Cassandra lowered her head onto Martin’s shoulder.
"I had already started building a future around him," she said quietly. "I simply neglected to tell him."
Martin thought of the guest bedroom she had offered him and all the plans she had made for Night Espresso, Forest Hidden, and the people he cared about. She had begun making room for him in her future long before she admitted how much she wanted him there.
"You made those plans for all of us," he said.
"Then I removed myself before anyone had the chance to object."
"You’re still here now."
Cassandra’s fingers laced more firmly through his, and she remained silent long enough that Martin did not expect an answer. Then she whispered, "Yes, I am."
Katherine leaned down and kissed the mark she had left on the right side of Martin’s neck. "Selfishness may have accomplished one useful thing tonight. Martin wanted you to stay, and you finally let yourself stay."
Her lips brushed his skin once more before she added, "I also got the seat I wanted, so my theory remains completely unbiased."
Cassandra gave her a tired look. "You almost managed to be sincere."
Katherine smiled, but for once she let the teasing end there.
Cassandra lowered her gaze to their joined hands.
"There is one concern," she said at last.
Katherine lifted an eyebrow. "About Alexandra’s plan?"
"About Martin and me." Cassandra sat straighter without releasing his hand. Enough of her usual composure had returned that she sounded ready to raise the matter across a conference table. "If we ever married, would you hate me for asking you to sign a prenuptial agreement that kept our personal assets separate?"
Katherine went still on Martin’s lap.
Martin stared at Cassandra, unsure whether he had heard her correctly.
"That’s your only concern?" they asked together.