Page 12 of Gilded Kisses
Clues of his past hide among his words.
If there was anything I could count on growing up, it was the life lessons they made sure I took to heart. Mother focused on her club friends and Father only had patience for my brothers. It was my godfathers who helped me understand the risks of the world I was born into.
They made sure I saw men as scum, which I always found ironic given their gender.
Viper’s favorite to drill in over old movies and popcorn on Saturday nights: Boys with mafia daddies wanted to use me. I see the truth in that with my mother and my father. She hadthe money, and he had the name. Now she relies on him for everything.
Luther’s feelings were simple to follow: If a man can’t share his feelings, he doesn’t deserve any back.
Looking back, I can see why my father made them my godfathers. I can’t imagine he ever thought the care they showered me with could turn into more.
But Mirsha’s warning always left me heartbroken. He insisted I guard my heart and the body and no one could ever hurt you.
I smile to myself. It was long too late for that lesson by the time I finally learned it, but at the time he didn’t know I already loved them with all my being.
“Didn’t I teach you to guard yourself above all others?” Mirsha bites out, causing my chest to tighten.
“You know how he gets, baby.” The edges of Viper’s lips coil into a dangerous smile. “Tell the man what he wants to hear.”
I might have chosen this dress for exactly what Mirsha is accusing me of. Trouble. One tug and the hem will easily rise to reveal just how dripping wet these older men make me. And then they can punish me for it.
“You—” My voice breaks and I start again. “You did. And it’s true. I owe much of my knowledge to you. But if you want me to fear you, or think you will physically hurt me, that will never happen.” I pause, wet my lips that have grown dry from my heavy breathing. “And don’t ask me to continue ignoring all these feelings running rampant inside me,” I plead with a mix of emotions in my voice. Fear of rejection is a nasty bitch with claws.
Come on Aster. Be strong.
His grip on me loosens a fraction, and he caresses my pulse point with the pad of his thumb. “You have no idea what you are asking for from us. Your father is a man with deep pockets and a lot of connections. He saved our lives, and we saved his. Taking his daughter would make us the scum we always told you to avoid.”
“You regret what we shared before?” My heart is already fragile. One more blow and it will never repair.
Mirsha scrapes a hand down his face. “We should have stayed away, brothers. This is wrong.” Mirsha lifts his gaze from me to look toward Luther and Viper.
I can’t bear to think of them so far away.
“Wrong or not doesn’t change the facts. It doesn’t make anything inside any of us go away.”
It seems they all consider my words. Silence fills the surrounding space.
Luther stands beside Viper, and it’s his intense gaze I feel the most. Like he’s peeling back the layers of my emotions to dig for the truth buried in my heart.
“You hurt, don’t you, sweetness,” he offers in a deep rough voice.
Viper reaches out and curls the ends of my hair between his fingers. He breathes out roughly. “Tell us, baby. Do you hurt if we get too far away? Does it hurt at night when you dream?” His voice rasps, low pitched. His words wind forbiddingly into the night air, not to be uttered in the light of day.
“She feels the same torture we do, brother.”
Mirsha’s dark, husky voice moves over my senses like velvet across warm silk. Smooth, flowing and the most erotic sound I’ve heard.
“I do, and I don’t know how to control it. It’s this brutal, unrelenting hunger. A bond that won’t break no matter how far you get from me.”
The throbbing between my legs deepens and every inch of me tries to touch as much of Mirsha as possible.
I turn my face up to his and we stay like that staring into each other’s eyes. The sounds of crickets, low voices and leaves rustling all bury themselves in my memory.
“We've been here before.”
His rumble of agreement is more of a husky growl than words. “Déjà vu,” he murmurs roughly.
I sense Luther and Viper quietly retreat, leaving me in Mirsha’s care.