Page 20 of Gilded Kisses
“What? What do you mean?” My brain races to catch up with I fear my heart already knows.
A finger beneath my chin turns my head until I am facing Luther. A muscle tics along his jawline and his bright blue eyes glimmer with the same pain I feel inside me.
I reach up and cup his face, drawing him into me. “What will it take for you to take me fully? We can leave the country after. We can go anywhere you want.”
Instead of answering me, the men I’ve loved since I could remember ease to their feet, taking me with them.
Luther comes in first, his large form hovering over me a moment before his lips find mine. Like he’s kissing me goodbye for a second time. Then Viper does the same, his pants already fixed while I look like a ravaged mess.
Viper eases the edges of my dress in place. “You were ours first but we have to let you go so you can find peace. Don’t look for us again. If you do, we won’t play nice. I don’t want to kill your family for the love we share.”
When it is Mirsha’s turn, I grip handfuls of his shirt and shake him with all I have.
“You can’t do this!” I hiss at him. Without saying a word, he straightens the top of my dress. Viper gathers a tuxedo jacket from the grass and drapes it over my shoulders.
“Viper is right. Go back to your father. Find a good man and let him love you. We have no claim over you. You deserve to be happy and not treated like a pariah.”
I wave his bitter words away. “You’re wrong, Mirsha.” I shake my head vehemently. “It won’t be like that.”
Mirsha fills my vision. “Your father won’t stop at ruining us. Which I am fine with. But he will see to it you are buried. That I will not tolerate. And since I can’t kill him, I will keep the peace.”
“Criminals with morals,” I hurl at his back. “A novelty.”
“Let us fade away from your life.”
But I love you, my heart weeps as I watch my godfathers walk away from me for a second time. I can’t force my eyes from their retreating backs until darkness swallows them whole.
I fist my hands at my sides and swallow the rage gurgling in the pit of my stomach.
I’ve never known the real extent of the pain that comes from our bond until this night.
Five
Aster
Idon’t know how long I’ve been asleep, but when I peel back my eyelids, it’s pitch-black. A storm rumbles overhead and slivers of white light flash along the edges of the blackout curtains. My gaze falls to the signed contracts on the table. Or at least where I left them.
After signing the leather book for Magnolia, she left. Instead of waiting to hear what they thought about me agreeing to sign and stay, I headed for the shower. An hour later there was dinner waiting for me, a clean T-shirt and a pair of silk black panties in a lingerie box with white tissue paper and a pretty gold seal. A nice touch they probably thought would earn them lots of brownie points. Viper, no doubt, foresaw me swinging the door open like some damsel in lust, falling into his waiting arms and kissing him madly.
The onlyfallingI did was into my pillow and now I have a major case of bed head. That will teach me to face plant with wet hair, but I didn’t care at the time. I didn’t even bother with the steak and salad dinner. I couldn’t. The idea my father is out therehunting me down with the help of Joseph and his merry band of fuck ups has me nauseous.
I have no job, little money and no escape plan now. I can’t contact Harlon. I know without a doubt my father is waiting for me to do just that.
I brush at the tangles of my hair with little hope. Abandoning the idea of fixing my mistake without a real brush, I reach for the light. When a bulb springs to life from the other side of the room, I jump. Gold instantly spills in all directions. I move my feet to hear the shuffle of cotton beneath the large comforter. I swear you can fit ten people shoulder to shoulder on this bed.
I swallow a gasp and try not to show just how freaky it is to find all three men around a table opposite the bed.
These men are cloaked in an aura of danger. It follows them everywhere they go and here, alone with them it seems to only grow. Yet I feel no danger, only protective energy, I realize.
I push back until the headboard is at my back.
“There’s nowhere to run, baby girl,” Mirsha warns seductively.
The rich sound of his masculine voice reaches for me. Caresses my senses.
I murmur a soft laugh. “Oh, I’m not running from you.” I’m making sure I have something solid behind me for when these beasts pounce.
I’m not a fortune teller, but I can read body language.