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 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 me and Rush.
“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 Club Sin…”
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.