Page 13 of Room Seven

With tears of his own, he moves to the side and offers his friend room to have a moment with me.

Viper’s weight is a delicious pressure I didn’t realize I needed in my life.

“Your tears are so sweet, but for all the wrong reasons,” he whispers for me alone. “Just like our first kiss.”

He rests his forehead against mine, the sheets of his hair falling to either side of my face. Like this, it’s just us. “Please forgive me for not having more control around you.”

I curl my fingers through his long hair. “Like our first kiss. I remember you not being able to control yourself that night either. Did you ever tell them about that kiss?” I ask quietly between us.

He rubs the tips of our noses together. “Our secret forever, beautiful baby.”

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?”

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. Then Viper does the same, his pants fixed while I look like a ravaged mess. Viper eases the edges of my dress in place. “Marked and claimed. Let time decide when we can be together.”

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.

“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.”

“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. 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. 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 pain until this night.

Three

Aster, three dumpster fire years later

That whole line Viper fed me about letting time decide when we could be together was a straight out fat juicy lie. The only thing time did was make me sour toward the male species and land me as a glorified greeter.

Let’s start over. Hi. My name is Aster Constantine. The smartass chick in my family who no one has a clue what to do with. And since this fucking invisible crown on my head won’t fall off, I am stuck under my father’s fat, controlling thumb. And my cousin’s. Only he’s nicer about it.

So what’s my job description? You’ll love this.

In the bowels of Chicago, I serve as a gatekeeper for my family’s murderers-are-us club.

Yay.

Not really.

It’s not the surroundings that make the job insufferable, it’s the hardass people with no people skills that make my life misery. One more person jerks their chin at me and says, “Hey you, take my coat” and I will take my new switch blade to their fancy fur coat.

I look to the heavens for about the fifth time in the last hour of my shift. All I find is someone needs to replace some light bulbs in the freaking chandelier. Again.

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