Page 5 of Room Seven

Both older men are dressed in club attire like Mirsha: tuxedos and crisp white shirts, perfectly tailored black slacks. They personify the power they wield.

I turn to look into my godfather’s gray eyes. A shadow of sin moves across his haunted expression.

“Did you come looking for trouble? Answer me, baby girl,” he urges with less patience in his voice than he had a moment ago. “Did you think you would come find us, stir up trouble and then head home like nothing happened? Or are you trying to get back at your daddy for something?”

As he speaks, the fingertips of his other hand caress up my arm and over the swells of my breasts. He moves until each of his strong fingers circle my throat; his touch punishing, but not entirely painful. We both feel the pounding of my pulse.

Clues of his past hide among his words.

If there was anything I could count on growing up, it was the life lessons they made sure I took to heart. Mother focused on her club friends and Father only had patience for my brothers. It was my godfathers who helped me understand the risks of the world I was in.

They made sure I saw men as scum, which I always found ironic given their gender.

Viper’s favorite to drill in over old movies and popcorn on Saturday nights: Boys with mafia daddies wanted to use me. I see the truth in that with my mother and my father. She had the money and he had the name. Now she relies on him for everything.

Luther’s feelings were simple to follow: If a man can’t share his feelings, he doesn’t deserve any back.

But Mirsha’s warning always left me heartbroken. He insisted I guard my heart and the body and no one could ever hurt you. I don’t know who broke his heart, but I wish I could be the one to help him heal.

“Didn’t I teach you to guard yourself above all others?” Mirsha bites out, causing my chest to tighten.

“You know how he gets, baby.” The edges of Viper’s lips coil into a dangerous smile. “He’ll punish you otherwise. Tell the man what he wants to hear.”

I might have chosen this dress for exactly that. One tug and the hem would easily rise to reveal just how dripping wet these older men make me. And then they could punish me for it.

That makes sense. “You–” My voice breaks and I start again. “I owe much of my knowledge to you. But if you want me to fear you, that will never happen.” I pause, wet my lips that have grown dry from my heavy breathing. “And don’t ask me to continue ignoring all these feelings running rampant inside me,” I plead with a mix of emotions in my voice. Fear of rejection is a nasty bitch with claw.

Come on Aster. Be strong.

His grip on me loosens a fraction, and he caresses my pulse point with the pad of his thumb. “You have no idea what you are asking for from us. Your father is a man we respect. He saved our lives, and we saved his. Taking his daughter would make us the scum we always told you to avoid.”

Mirsha scrapes a hand down his face. “We shouldn’t have stopped in New Orleans.

I can’t bear to think of them so far away.

“Wrong or not doesn’t change the facts. It doesn’t make anything inside go away.”

Luther stands beside Viper and it’s his intense gaze I feel the most. Like he’s peeling back the layers of my emotions to dig for the truth.

“You hurt, don’t you, sweetness,” he offers in a deep rough voice.

Viper reaches out and curls the ends of my hair between his fingers. He breathes out roughly. “Tell us, baby. Do you hurt if we get too far away? Does it hurt at night when you dream?” His voice rasps, low pitched. His words winds forbiddingly into the night air, not to be uttered in the light of day.

“She feels the same torture we do, brother.”

Mirsha’s dark, husky voice moves over my senses like velvet across warm silk. Smooth, flowing and the most erotic sound I’ve heard. And do I hear pain weaved into the low, drawn-out syllables?

“I do, and I don’t know how to control it. It’s this brutal, unrelenting hunger.”

The throbbing between my legs deepens and every inch of me tries to touch as much of Mirsha as possible.

I turn my face up to his and we stay like that staring into each other’s eyes. The sounds of crickets, low voices and leaves rustling all bury themselves in my memory.

I sense Luther and Viper quietly retreat, leaving me in Mirsha’s care. Do they think I am here for Mirsha only?

I want to go to them, fall into their arms and confess a million tiny sins. But I can’t bring myself to leave Mirsha’s arms.

I lean my head against his shoulder. “I’ve tried to fight my longing for you, and it has left a hole inside me filled with nothing but hurt. I put on a fake smile to mask it for as long as possible. And now it’s taken over my life.” Tears roll down my cheeks as I bury my face in his warmth. “Make the pain go away,” I begin a choked whisper. “Please don’t push me away.”

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