Page 37 of Room Seven

I did. I do. “The last time I was here, I thought my life was complete. All I had to do was make sure they wanted me in that way. Falling in love with your godfathers doesn’t come with a handbook, ya know?” I tuck the edge of my lip between my teeth before releasing the tortured flesh.

“Are you so sure they don’t love you? I mean, they went through the trouble of tying you up.”

“I think they love me, but they hold more respect for my father than they love for me. Or did.” Magnolia has a fair point. Me being here might mean things have changed. But the pain they have caused is still very real.

She is quiet for a moment before pushing to her feet. She gathers the contracts and shows them to me. “If you sign these, you might find out if that is still the case. Things change for everyone. Circumstances, feelings and relationships. Romantic and otherwise. But I see the love you have for them. It’s in the way you keep looking at the door and the way you keep rubbing at your chest. I ran from my feelings. Don’t run from yours.”

She seems too young to have suffered so much pain. Then again, look at me.

I don’t know what comes over me, but I pull the woman into my arms and hug her so tight I can feel the friendship forming between us.

Tears warm the edges of my eyes when we pull apart and I can see the same is for her.

“I think fate sent you to me. But I have to admit, I’m scared.”

“Aren’t we all?”

Ten

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 flashes 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 with Magnolia, she left a copy of the contract for the men and myself. Instead of waiting to hear what they thought about me agreeing to each of the terms, and then what would follow, 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, might I add. 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 only falling I 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. I didn’t even bother with the steak and salad dinner. I couldn’t. The idea my father is out there hunting me down with the help of Joseph and his merry band of fuck ups has me nauseous.

I brush at the tangles 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 swear you can fit ten people shoulder to shoulder on this thing.

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 for when these beasts pounce.

I’m not a fortune teller, but I can read body language.

Mirsha has lost his shirt and settles his weight on his elbows. With his substantial weight pitched forward, it will not take much for him to be across the room and on me.

Thick forearms lead to thicker biceps and well-defined shoulders. Scars serve as signs of a dangerous life. Some are thin, white lines while others are thicker. A few I recognize, others are new.

I can’t make out too much detail, but I can see he’s gotten new ink, too. His age has always been a factor that draws me to him since way before it should have. Tonight all of his forty-six years show. Not in aged lines or gray hair. But in the world-weary look in his eyes. He’s experienced nightmares and those fine lines around his eyes say as much. He learned to mask his emotions long before I could walk. I know this about him. The same is true for Luther and Viper. But tonight, I sense no shields, walls or facades to decipher.

For the first time, I witness each of them in this newly exposed and unbound state.

And it hurts my heart. Not only can I see raw intensity practically shimmering around them. But I can feel it too. Emotions that are not mine dig into the fabric of my being.

Looking between them, each hardened criminal has their hearts on their proverbial sleeves for me to witness.

It’s beautiful and humbling. But leaves my insides trembling for all the wrong reasons.

Go to them, my heart cries. But my common sense says stay where I am.

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