Free Gloria's Forever (Gloria Book 3) by Nelle L'Amour Page B

am?”
    Before anyone could answer, I said in a deep, deep voice. “I’m a big fat whale who’s going to gobble up two sweet little children for my dinner.”
    “No!” squealed the children in glee.
    “Run, my darlings!” shouted Gloria, setting them back down.
    I let them run a distance and then chased after them at lightning speed. In one swift move, I clutched the two of them and lifted them in my arms, smothering them with yummy kisses.
    I exchanged a loving glance with Gloria. Motherhood had made her even more beautiful if that was possible.
    “Are you going to eat Mommy too?” asked my inquisitive Payton.
    Of course, I was going to eat Mommy. I was going to devour every part of her, and the part I most looked forward to getting my hungry mouth on was her delicious pussy. How I looked forward to sucking, licking, gnawing her tender folds, and then finishing her off with my cock.
    But before I could answer his question, a loud beeping sound hurled me out of my dream. My eyes blinked open and my heart galloped. Oh my God. Gloria was convulsing again. The beeping sound on the monitor continued. Before I could push the emergency button, a team of doctors and nurses flew into the still dark room. One of them, an older man with silver hair, put a stethoscope to Gloria’s heart while a nurse took her pulse. The expression on his face quickly went from solemn to alarmed. I heard him curse under his breath.
    “Your wife has gone into cardiac arrest!”
    I glanced at the monitor. Christ. Gloria’s heartbeat had begun to flatline. And truthfully, I think mine had too. While the fast-acting doctor attempted to pump life back into her with both hands, all air left my lungs. My mother had left my father in a cruel way; the opportunist has abandoned him for that sleazebag billionaire, Victor Holden. Now Gloria was leaving me in an even crueler way. She was letting death claim her. My father took his life. Gloria was taking mine. She was the only woman I’d ever trusted with my heart. And now she was destroying it.
    “No, Gloria, no!”

CHAPTER 14

    Gloria
    W here was I? Billowy clouds surrounded me and the sun, so big and close, looked like the star it was, its spokes intersecting the sky and bathing it in a soft pink glow. A distant, familiar song faintly filtered into my ears. “Gloria.” A muted chorus was singing my name, but it was more like a quiet hymn and not the blasting, fast-paced Laura Branigan song that had always been my signature. As I took in my strange surroundings, winged angels rose from the clouds. And then it dawned on me. Of course. I was in the middle of a Gloria’s Secret Fashion Show. But wait—these angels weren’t supermodels. They were ordinary people, every shape, every color, every age. Clad in white gossamer robes that sprouted broad wings of feathers, they looked ethereal as they danced among the white puffs of air. The sun’s rays beamed down upon them, creating golden halos around their heads.
    “Where am I?” I asked.
    “ Bienvenue, ma chérie.”
    I gasped. That husky, accented voice. I recognized it instantly. It was my beloved mentor. Madame Paulette.
    My unblinking eyes stayed as wide as saucers as she broke away from the dancing pack of angels and floated toward me. I raced toward her as fast as I could, my bare feet skimming across the cloud. I was stepping on air.
    “Madame!” I cried out, tears brimming.
    I met her halfway and wrapped my arms around her. Expecting to feel her frail bones, I felt nothing. Not even a heartbeat. It was as if I was hugging the air I breathed.
    I held her in my gaze. She was as stunning as ever to me. Perhaps even more stunning. Her cappuccino eyes twinkled likes celestial stars and her loose waist-length silver hair, cascaded over one shoulder like a comet’s tail. She looked different to me. In a beautiful, good way. While she’d been alive, there’d always been a haunting sadness to her. A hardness in her face that complemented the