Epilogue
Belle
“ Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Now or never. Another few months and I’ll need a crane to lift all this.” I gesture toward my growing baby bump.
I’m sitting across the table from Nyx. She’s lost the pigtails and is in full supermodel glamor mode with her long tresses of hair and painted-on body suit.
Like for real. Actually painted on. I’m wholly green with envy.
“Will you stop staring at my nipples? You’re going to make them hard and then my little pasties will pop off.”
I giggle uncontrollably catching the eye of a few The Gilded Key Society key bearers.
“I know three someones willing to lick those seashells to stick them back on.” Her three partners are coming in behind mine looking confident and eyes only for their woman.
“Your daddies are looking for you.” Nyx tracks my gaze to her three fine silver foxes. She hasn’t told me much about them, but I can see well enough they are powerful men with deep pockets. It’s evident in their diamond-studded cufflinks and thousand-dollar suits. I know what it takes to get that kind of money. It takes ruthless power and undeterred focus. They’re slightly older than my guys but hot as hell. When she finds her men coming closer the sultry desire in her eyes glitters.
“So are yours,” she quips back, and I don’t try to hide my silly smile.
“Yeah, and mine,” I agree. She is too occupied to see the heat on my face. It’s been five months since I walked out of my brother’s office as a free mafia princess. No more crown, no more prisons for my own protection.
Aziel leads the pack of alphas through the crowd toward our table. Rush is shoulder to shoulder with Gage who is scanning the crowd for what I assume are possible threats. Ever since he learned I’m underground royalty he sees everyone as a potential threat to our small unit.
The second my gaze connects with theirs, the world no longer exists. Their energy reaches for me and mine for them.
Love. Fuck. It’s beautiful.
To my left Nyx isn’t faring any better. She has the look of a woman torn between loving her men and wanting to run. I wonder if she knows just how hooked on them she really is? There’s no way that woman is running. Not and get far. Those men don’t look the type to let their property get far and make no mistake. They are the possessive type.
The lights dim, signaling us it’s almost time.
Room Two has turned into quite the attraction. It’s been a few months since Aziel, Rush, Gage and I have been on stage, but we’ve promised one last show before we all head to New York. The men have military friends who live on a lake with a cabin rental business. They’re forming a security team for the elite as a way to use their honed skills for good.
All it took was one phone call with my men and they jumped at the idea now that they are all retired.
Woods, beautiful sunsets, and all the space the men and I will need to raise a family. Sign me up. I’m dying to start painting again. I’m a city girl to my core, but home is where they are at. Besides, they’ve promised me regular trips to the city which I will need when it comes time to start showing my art. I already have a few shows lined up next spring. After sending my portfolio to a few galleries it didn’t take long to get callbacks. Now I’m on the road to getting recognized. Fingers crossed. Who knows, but it’s exciting.
What there won’t be in my life is mafia wars, bloodshed, and undertakers. I love my cousin, but her former job is not something I want to raise a family around. That’s right, you don’t know. Yeah, Sapphire is as knocked up as I am and currently living with her Bratva men. But that’s her story to tell. It all started in Room Eight in this very club.
I stand and bump into everything. The booth’s tabletop, the chair behind me, and a woman passing with little butterflies dangling from her bare breasts.
Hands come around me to settle on my round belly.
“You need a license for this,” Rush murmurs in my ear. Warm strokes to my stomach are my current weakness. I melt into his embrace.
I turn in his arm. “You could just carry me for the next four months.”
He sweeps me into his arms. “My pleasure.” He presses his forehead to mine and this small connection is all I need to feel grounded.
“Are you ready for this?”
My head falls to his shoulder. “Nyx just asked me that.”
“And?”
Aziel and Gage leave Nyx with her men to join Rush and me.
“Let’s make something memorable, but first I brought a gift for you. It’s in my changing room.”
All three follow me to where it all started. Stepping through the door to the small room feels like coming full circle. I pull out a large canvas making sure to keep the painted side toward me.
The three of them have given me their full attention, curiosity pulling their brows into arches. God, they are beautiful. Perfect for me. And mine. Chiseled, grooved and deliciously huge. I know what they have hidden behind their black robes, and I can’t wait to have my hands all over them and theirs on me.
But first… I swallow down my nerves.
“For as long as I can remember I’ve loved painting the beauty I’ve seen in this world. With all the destruction my family has caused before my brother stepped into the role as head of the Constantine empire, I felt the need to find beauty. Or create it.”
I pause to force down the tears wanting to ruin my whole speech.
Gage reaches out and trails a finger along my jaw. “It’s ok, sweetheart. Go on. We’re listening.”
“Then I found you. Or you found me, really. Not until you three did I truly learn what beauty really is.”
“And what’s that, baby girl?”
“Love,” I answer with a mountain of confidence. “Love shared between four hearts.”
Piercing eyes find mine and I see the truth of their devotion and love shining back at me.
With trembling fingers, I turn the canvas around. “What do you think?”
All three fall back. “Fuck, baby girl. Did you paint that?”
“I want to know how you remembered so much detail?”
Six hands stroke my arms, my face—anything they can reach with the painting between us. Gage takes the large canvas and props it up on the dressing table. With my hands free, he pulls me around, turning me into them. I captured the night they all took me under the stars down by the lake. While the skies glittered above, they showed me the true meaning of living in heaven that night.
“Ladies and gentlemen of The Gilded Key Society…”
The announcer’s nightly introduction of performers breaks our private moment.
Gage reaches for the knot holding my robe closed and reverently lowers the sides over my shoulders and off my growing baby bump.
They all step back and drop their robes next to mine. We walk to the stage, the spotlight fading the room to no more than shadows and silhouettes. The three cocoon me in this protective bubble of muscle and grit as we make it to the center of the stage.
When my men step away to reveal me there are audible gasps throughout the room. Cheers and love pour out from the crowd, but there are two people I hear the most.
“You go, you beautiful queen.” Whistles and more cheers follow.
That’s Nyx. Love that girl. She’s a wild one and is about to be in the same position as me.
“Someone get her a crown!”
My heart grows and fills with so much love it overwhelms me. Sapphire. I can’t see her, but I’m glad she finally made it here. My heart settles and I take both Aziel’s and Rush’s offered hands to help me onto the bed.
Kneeling in the center with the spotlight fully focused on me, I spread my knees and wait to be claimed.
“What are you doing,” I whisper when I see a tray wheeled out and my men all on bended knees at the foot of the bed.
A rumbled gasp of awe works through the crowd.
“Your love is as beautiful as the glimmer of stars in the sky, Belle. You captured it so perfectly. But there’s one thing you got wrong. We’ve been unworthy of you from the day you walked into our lives.”
Oh my god . I shake my hands to stop the tremble but it’s too late. It has taken hold and I can’t stop the quakes of excitement, fear, love, and everything in between from wreaking havoc on my body.
“Aziel?”
“Shh, beautiful,” he coos gently. “Let Gage finish.”
“As unworthy as we are, none of us can walk away.” Gage reaches for a ring off the tray and holds up a gold band with a single diamond stud in the middle.
“We’ve hurt for a love like yours for so long. Now that we have finally found you, please take us as we are.”
That is Aziel. He reaches for another ring, this one similar to Gage’s.
Rush takes the third ring and stands, sliding into bed with me. Holding it up to me like an offering he turns red eyes to meet mine.
“Marry us. Heal our hearts of old wounds and let us love you until the end of our days.”
Gage and Aziel join us under the spotlight. Around us the crowd is so silent I can hear the loud thumping of my heart.
I reach for them and fall into their embraces. Three sets of arms cradle our unborn child and me to them. “I wish I was a poet instead of an artist. I would weave such a beautiful answer for such a beautiful proposal but all I have is yes. Yes, I will marry you. All three of you.”
Cheers erupt and loud whistles ring out throughout the room. Each man takes a turn sliding their band over my finger and once I am wearing all three, I see they interlock. Three diamonds for three hearts.
Gage kisses me and then Aziel. Rush is the one who takes my face in his hands and devours my very essence. I go back and forth, falling into the bed with my men around me. We make love that night in what is to us Room Two. The mirrors around us shine back the force of love we radiate out.
I have my three SEAL daddies for a baby who will know so much love they’ll wear it as a shield against this ugly, yet beautiful world.
Gage takes one leg and Aziel the other as Rush comes between my spread thighs. I reach for him and together we guide his throbbing shaft to my entrance.
“Claim me,” I say quietly.
Holding me between them I fall captive to their burning touches and possessive kisses.
I am theirs, now, tomorrow, and beyond. And they are all mine.
T hank you for reading Gilded Desires! Belle Constantine will show up again in the Empire of Sin series. You’ll get to catch up with her, her men and see how she plays an important role in Sapphire’s coming trilogy.