Page 20 of Room Twenty: Owning Their Angel

“Holy shit,” Viper’s hands grip my shoulders to steady me. I look up at him with tears in my eyes to find his green eyes are wide and wild. “I didn’t mean to scare you, Cherub. I’m so fucking sorry. Are you okay?”

I narrow my eyes at him and huff, “Were you always that silent or have you been practicing your stealth skills?”

He chuckles and shakes his head before his big, strong arms wrap around me. It feels so damn good, but part of me is afraid to trust it. Could this all be ripped away from me?

I’ve been doing so well on my own and I’ve made my peace with not having these men in my life. Sure, my heart is broken, and my soul feels like it’s only partially there, but I’ve managed.

“I’ve missed you so damn much,” Viper murmurs into my hair.

I tilt my head back and look up at him as Scope steps up against my back, sandwiching me between them in the most delicious way. I heat up instantly which is kind of a surprise because my libido took a big nosedive over the last three months. I had always heard it can increase with pregnancy, but I found the opposite to be true.

Maybe it was just because I didn’t have my men with me.

I try and shake off my desire to climb Viper like a tree and grind my pussy against him, but it’s difficult to do. The way he’s smirking down at me tells me he knows exactly what I’m thinking. When he leans down toward me, my eyes flutter closed expecting him to take my mouth in a kiss that’ll leave me breathless. He doesn’t.

His lips press against my forehead, and I melt against him.

Tears burn the backs of my eyes, but I push the feeling away. Now is not the time to become a blubbering mess.

Not yet anyway.

I force myself to pull back from the man in front of me and look over my shoulder at Scope. I wince slightly, my voice hesitant, “How’s your chin? I’m sorry about that, he just scared the hell out of me.”

Before Scope can answer, I hear Bedlam’s voice calling out and getting closer as he does, “Is she here yet? Dinner is almost…,” his words trail off and I look over to find him standing where the living room flows into the dining area which leads to the kitchen.

Relief passes over his face when he looks at me and the position that I’m in. When he holds out a hand for me, I slide from between them and walk over to him, unable to refuse him because it feels so damn natural to give in. Just like it feels natural to be between Scope and Viper…or the three of them.

My body is awake in a way it hasn’t been since the last time I saw them. I had almost convinced myself it wasn’t real. Before I met them, I had never reacted to someone else the way I do them. It could have been a fluke, or I had built it up in my head to be more and better than it really is. Now I know it’s just them.

It’ll always be just them.

Bedlam wraps his arms around me, and I find myself clinging to him and soaking up his strength. All three of my men are strong and each one gives me something different. Poe has always given me a sense of serenity. Gray quiets my mind and Zach grounds me.

I need the three of them equally. It’s one of the reasons I had to leave. If they didn’t want the same, since we never talked about making us permanent, I don’t think I would have survived it. Staying with the DSMC would have become impossible, especially if they started spending time with the other angels or even found their old ladies one day.

Bedlam grips the hair at the back of my neck and tilts my head back so he can look down into my eyes. His brown eyes are full of something I’ve never allowed myself to admit is there—love. His head lowers slowly, maybe giving me time to tell him to stop even though I never would. When his lips touch mine, the kiss is soft, sweet and everything I need.

“Come on, Cherub,” he murmurs against my lips, “dinner is ready. We need to feed you and then we can talk.”

I nod even though my stomach twists up in knots. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to eat. Poe must be able to read my distress because he wraps his large hand around my hands where I’m twisting my fingers together.

He walks me to the dining room where the table that came with the house is already set. I’ve never eaten there. It felt too much like something a family would do which had me thinking about my men, our baby, and everything I didn’t have.

Poe leads me to a seat, kisses my forehead, and then works with the others to bring in the food. It’s a simple meal of spaghetti, but it smells delicious, and I didn’t have to make it which means it might as well be a five-star meal in my mind.

The conversation around the table starts out slowly, but it’s nowhere near as awkward as I thought it would be. The knot in my gut starts to unfurl a little as I find myself smiling and get to look at the smiling faces of my men. When I first saw them today, there was pain and shadows in their eyes, but the longer we spend around each other, the more I see those fade away.

As we’re finishing up, Poe looks at me with a small smile on his face. “We met Lark and Maverick at the grocery store.” I can’t help but smile because they’re both nice people who I’ve come to care about and who seem to care about me. Lark has been very supportive about my pregnancy over the last three months, and I don’t know where I’d be without her friendship and everyone else who has supported me in town. “Lark recommended we get some ice cream. Would you like to have some while we talk in the living room?”

I pat my belly and shake my head as I groan, “I think I’m full enough for right now, but I’m looking forward to that ice cream later. I’ve been craving it at the worst time of night lately.”

I swear the man lights up brighter than a damn Christmas tree. And he’s not the only one. All my men have bright smiles on their faces but knowing that our talk is imminent has that knot starting to kink and twist in my gut again.

When we’re all settled, my men side by side on the couch while I sit across from them, I take a deep breath, knowing I need to get this out of the way first. “I’m sorry,” my voice catches on my words, but I can’t stop now. “I should have told you when I found out I was pregnant, but I panicked. I didn’t think you all would be mad or think the worst of me, but I was worried about how other people would view me and the pregnancy. That’s where I went wrong. I know it and I’ve had a lot of time to think about it while I’ve been here. We might have never talked about forever, but keeping a child a secret wasn’t the right thing to do. The longer I was here, the surer I was that I shouldn’t have run, but then I wasn’t sure how to reach out anymore and not have you hate me.”

Scope’s eyes soften as he looks at me, his gray eyes intense as he assures me, “We could never hate you, Cherub. We love you.”

I gasp and try to blink back the tears filling my eyes. Maybe this is an alternate universe or a dreamland because my dreams since I’ve been here are eerily similar to what is happening right now. I hope wherever the real me is that she’s okay.

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