doubled as his officer where he coordinated his family’s galleries.
Leaning against the doorframe, I looked out over my family. So much had happened in the decade since we left the cove.
Parson, Julliard, Yale, and Columbia.
Nights eating cold pizza on the floor and fights that brought down all of New York City. We worked hard. Traveled hard. And loved hard.
My boys saw me through the creation of my company and line, Citrine.
I cheered Nathan on through his years at Juilliard, and his career as a film scorer that eventually led to own his studio and company. I supported Nathan when he and Delilah fought back against August Winthrop. Their battle was final won when Delilah convinced the board to oust him, taking over and giving Preston control of Desai Industries.
He promptly turned around and put it back in his mother’s capable hands. He only wanted half of his legacy, and we had made many wonderful memories touring those galleries he promised to take me to. I only trashed some of his favorite painters.
I flicked to Carter, my king of the sea and broken condoms. He got his hefty inheritance rather unexpectedly on the heels of fatherhood. Getting pregnant with Austin a few years out of college wasn’t our plan, and neither were our two little girls walking out right after him. But plans change in the best way. I knew that as Nathan rested his head and a diamond ring on my swollen belly, and told our daughter to kick me if I said no again. So I didn’t.
Now Carter’s environmental firm worked with companies big and small all over the country. We had three amazing kids. They were my husbands in all the way they needed to be. My parents were thriving in their new life in England. And almost every other week, I passed a young woman in the eclectic, fun style only I could create, on the verge of discovering the amazing life that was ahead of her.
“We do have one hell of a family.” Arms slipped around my waist. “Don’t we?”
I smiled, holding the love who saved me—pulling me out of the garden again and again. “We do. The best.”
“No regrets?”
“A few.” Turning around, I draped my arms over his shoulder. “That I let Nathan walk away, walked away from Carter, and took so long to find you.”
“We were three people destined to find each other, Belle. That’s the thing with our kind. We’re deadly to everyone else, because we belong with each other.”
We kissed—for all of five seconds.
“Mommy. Dad.” Austin pushed through us, wetting us both up. “It’s time for lunch.”
He held us to the table. Nathan pulled me onto his lap as I sat down.
“A life drowning in you, Belle,” he said. “It’s better than I ever imagined.”
“It’s you three who claimed me. Saved me. Proved to me that fairy tales exist,” I said. “I’d go back and tell that little girl in the garden not to cry, because her Knight, her Prince, and her Preston were coming for her.”
If you’d like to read the first in a darkly tempting series, The Angels, click here.
The Angels
MY PARENTS FORGOT SOMETHING when they ran... me.
After scamming most of our town out of their life savings, my folks disappeared in the middle of the night.
Forced to take me in, my estranged aunt and uncle shipped me off to Raven River Academy the first chance they got.
In my town, the line between the haves and the have-nots is actually a twelve-foot gate that keep the unwanted where they belong. Nothing could unite the two factions until I set foot on campus.
For the first time in our history, they all agree on one thing:
I must pay for my father’s sins.
But why should I care?
The joke is on them because I have nothing left inside. No part of me that isn’t already broken. I invite them to do their worst.
Until The Angels enter the game.
The most dangerous gang in town has a score to settle with my family, and Cassius, Clay, Hiro, and Royal are here to collect.
Raven River soon becomes a battleground of lies, deceit, and violence, and I stand at the heart of it.
The gorgeous otherworldly Angels will remind me that there is one thing left that I care about... and they’ll destroy it in heavenly fire.
RUBY VINCENT IS A PUBLISHED author with many novels under her belt but now she's taking a fun foray into contemporary romance. She loves saucy heroines, bold alpha males, and weaving a tale where both get their happy ever after.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.