Page 133 of Nash

But now, I can. I will.

I end our call knowing I’m far more than some man’s daughter he neglected or some boy’s victim. I’m a woman, born for this.

I’m not afraid to sit beside Nadine as the piercer, working with gloved hands, carefully marks me as a queen with a gold and diamond bezel-set Monroe stud.

Yes, it hurts.

Yes, I’m proud.

“This diamond is my gift to you.” Nadine pulls me into a tight hug. “I’ve always wanted daughters, too, and now you’re like mine. You have my love forever,moya doch.”

It’s the first time I’ve heard her speak Russian, and I don’t know the language, but I know from her warmth it meansmy daughter.

But to me, it means more because I can feel the scars on Nadine’s back, the welts of tortured flesh under her soft, silk Chanel wrap dress.

“Thank you.” I squeeze her tighter.

She leaves with a kiss on my cheek and one on Wren’s. We’re left in the suite to share one more glass of champagne and a secret I’m dying to know.

“Can I ask who your second king is?”

Wren twists her petal lips. “I’m not supposed to say yet,” she whispers as if we’re not alone, “but I think you can guess.”

I search her eyes, and her brows raise.

“Nash?” I gasp.

Quickly, she nods, worried like I’ll be mad. “Just once,” she rushes, “and he didn’tfinishlike the others. He held back. We didn’t even kiss. He didn’t even look me in the eye. It’s like part of him was there, but the rest wasn’t.”

How do I feel about this?

I search my shocked heart, and all I can find is …love.

Nash kept his honor to his family, but he didn’t give his heart away. That’s what Wren’s telling me. Woman to woman, I know what she means. I’ve had so many men fuck me who never gave me their heart. We were there for a reason, and I could never find mine.

Until I found Nash. With him, I find my heart; I find my reason.

That man has waited over twelve years for me and did what he had to do with Wren. He helped Sire, and as Wren’s second king, it’s all Nash will ever do with her. If he ever needs to, he’ll protect her, as he should.

“Nash was sweet,” she explains, “because I wasn’t that night. It’s like the animal in me came out, and I wanted all of them; I’m not ashamed to admit it.”

“You shouldn’t be. I get it. They’re hot.”

“They are,” she licks her lips, “and when I told them to take me like beasts, they did. Sire likes it like that. I do, too. He’s my pastor and twenty years older than me, and I guess our love is so taboo; why not? All I feel is loved and safe with Sire. And then you add in his hot brothers?—”

“Allof them?” Yes, I’m digging. “You mean all seven?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “Only five, including Nash. To Sire, Nash is his brother, probably his closest. But one of his brothers isn’t into women, and the youngest? The one who should sit in the seventh king’s chair? I’ve never seen him.”

“He wasn’t there?”

“Like you, I was blindfolded for some of it, so maybe he was, but when I could see, no, he wasn’t there.”

“Who is he?”

She shrugs.

“Who’s the gay brother?”

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