Page 55 of Gilded Desires

“Fuck, that was close.”

Gage takes her from Aziel and then I gather her in my arms next. We all take turns reassuring ourselves she’s safe. A few inches at a time we start to huddle together until there’s not much space between the three of us and her.

“My God, do you know how close you were to being taken from us?”

I pin her to my bare chest.

Her startled eyes meet ours. “What are you guys talking about? I wasn’t going for a swim. I’m not suicidal. Those waters look sketchy as fuck. And that storm…” She raises her finger to motion toward the dark clouds riding in over the horizon. “...it’s not safe. You think I didn’t know that?”

The fire in her eyes glimmers with irritation. She’s stunning even looking like she wants to kick us all in the balls for going caveman protector over her. She’ll just have to get used to it. Protecting her just became our number one priority.

“What are you doing out here with no clothes?”

The way her lips twitch has my cock jerking. Her eyes dart from Gage’s to his very naked body and then to mine and Aziel’s. I’ve gone from flat-out scared out of my skin to turned on just as quickly.

“Ditto. But you first.”

“Saving your ass if you’d jumped in.”

Her smile falls and I tuck her into me a little more earning a flash of irritation from Gage. “You’d risk yourselves to rescue me?”

“That you even have to ask is insulting.”

I spot a familiar look of irritation and hurt on Aziel’s face. If she’s not careful she’ll find herself on her knees, ass in the air, and him spanking her again.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly, dropping her eyes to his chest. Interesting. What is our little minx hiding? I’ve never seen Belle unable to hold our gazes. But tonight, she can’t seem to look the three of us in the eye.

I debate pushing her for answers, but time will do it for me. She’s not one to stay quiet for long, I’ve learned.

“I, um, have something to show you.” She takes my hand, then Aziel’s. “Coming?” she asks Gage, who follows behind us.

She leads us off the dock and closer to the back porch where a large blanket is set out in the short grass. There are smalllanterns I didn’t know we had dotting the perimeter of her makeshift bed with a few candles spread out.

I stop her with a pull and gather her in my arms. “Did you do this for us?”

That corner of her lip tilts up and she looks every bit as shy as she did the first day she walked into our lives. “I wanted you to come home to something pretty. I know you don’t have a lot of that in your lives with everything you handle with your jobs.”

I can’t live with the love I hear in her voice and not kiss her.

A crackle of energy pops and hisses between us. It’s as tangible as the heat of her skin and the feel of her lips on mine.

“Share, brother. I need to soothe my beast, too.”

Aziel gently takes our Belle and cradles the back of her head in the palm of his hand. He lays her down and spreads out beside her on the large blanket.

“I missed you,” she whispers to me as I take up the length of her other side. I want to breathe her life force in and hold it inside my chest. Carrying her with me everywhere I go would be a priceless gift. I turn her chin to face me. “Stay with us tonight.”

“I want to, but Gage doesn’t look happy.”

She holds a hand out and he takes it, pulls her off the blanket, and into his arms.

“Are you mad at me for something?”

“You scared me.” Gage drives his fingers into her hair and tilts her face to his. Holding her against his chest, our brother falls to his knees and joins Aziel and me on the blanket. He spreads our beautiful Belle out between us.

He takes either of her calves and places one in my care and the other in Aziel’s. “If something were to happen to you, the world might as well stop spinning.”

“You scared us all.”

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