Page 34 of Gilded Touches

I hold my hand up and unclench my fist to show the diamonds. “Quick question, do you guys know of any good fences?”

The laughter they release soothes my soul and tells me I am right where I need to be. I don’t know if it was my father who guided me to them from the other side knowing I needed help or if fate placed me in their booth tonight. Does it really matter? I learned a lesson over the past few hours.

The enemy isn’t always who you think it is. Sometimesyouare your worst enemy.

It’s okay to ask for help and the biggest one of all is you can’t steal from the Ambrose brothers. They’ll get their revenge andwhat they take from you will always be more than you knew you had to give.

In my case, they took my heart and I don’t think I ever want it back.

Epilogue

Luna, six months later

“You have a shield around your heart and I’ve wanted to shatter it into pieces from the first night we met.” Voss links his hands together at the base of my back and pulls me in until our bodies are fully flush from breasts to knees. It’s my favorite place to be. His hard arousal presses into my midriff and is a sinful tease of what is coming. But his words are just as alluring.

“Mm,” I moan. “You know how I love a man with a smooth tongue.”

He places a kiss to the tip of my nose before moving to my neck. I cradle him close allowing myself to be in the moment and not worry all the time. There is no need to rush to one of my shitty jobs. There’s no need to panic-call the hospital over a due bill or worry about the ones on the way in the coming months. I push my fingers through his soft hair, our body heat twining together.

“Please go on, lover. What would you do after you break this shield you speak of? Would my heart be safe in your care? Or are you a roguish brute who wants to ravish me and then fade intothe sunset?” I know what he is going to say, but there is a selfish part of me that needs to hear the words.

Voss’ warm laugh is low and rumbles over my senses. “No, my jungle flower. I’ll never grow tired of ravishing you. When all those jagged edges are broken and fallen away, I want to wrap my love around your heart and make you whole again. Protected. You’ll never be alone again for as long as I live.”

“We, brother.Wewant to make you whole again. And for as long aswelive.”

Shayne leaves me in Voss’s arms as he comes to stand at my right. He silently lowers his lips to mine, never taking his eyes off me. Our breath mingles. His touch to my cheek is gentle and completely contrasts the ferocious hunger in his eyes.

To my left Jasper reaches over and stops the elevator mid-lift to the thirty-seventh floor of the Centennial.

I turn my eyes to him to find his usual scowl nowhere in sight. In its place is a look of love and awe. The night I stole their diamonds I set all of us on a new path. We spent that night in their apartment a few floors below The Gilded Key Society talking and making love until long after sunrise.

I told them everything about me and my sister and they told me everything my father said about us. I spent a lot of time thinking my father loved me and my sister, but wished he could have had sons. Apparently, I was wrong. He wanted his girls to be as far away from the life he led as possible.

He wanted to give us normal lives and worked endlessly to make that happen. Sadly, he didn’t have the chance before he was taken away from us all.

“Make no mistake, my little moon. You’ve given us something we didn’t know we were missing. You’ve entrusted us with your body. If you give us your heart, I will personally pick each jagged piece of that shield off the floor and one by one put it back together with so much love it will blend with your blood and with every beat of your heart you will feel the devotion and love I have for you.”

“Thatwehave for you,” Shayne interjects.

“All of us want to be the ones to love you, protect you and cherish you.”

Shayne and Voss hold me in their arms and brush at the tears their words caused.

“Don’t cry, baby.” Voss kisses a falling teardrop away.

“They are only tears of happiness. I promise.”

They each pull rings out of their pockets.

“What’s this?” My heart beats erratically when Jasper is the first to take my left hand. He goes to one knee and the others follow.

“Are those the loose diamonds? I thought you sold them?”

“We had a better idea.”

That is Shayne. He holds his ring up and the others do the same. I mean it when I say these three share a brain link.

“Will you marry us? I can’t think of my life without you in it.”

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