Page 134 of Born for Silk

My Rome…

He is so much more than even he knows… And I love him. He is the man who pleasures me and holds me at night in thick arms of protection. Who smiles only for me, who loves and feels, who has humanity only for me…

My lower lip trembles.

I cannot escape my duties to The Crown and The Trade else rip my heart down the centre, leaving one scarlet half for Rome. No. I cannot do what my mother did.

And I cannot stay like this either.

Every detail in the puzzle eventually creates the same greater picture. No matter what, it ends the same way

With a billion broken heart cells.

Chapter Ten

Rome

“Odio!” I roar before pinching my thumb and forefinger together, whistling for him to show himself. To guide me to her as is his damn duty. But he does not.

I’ll kill him. I’ll rip his head off and hang it next to his ancestors for this. She is not his!

I stalk across the gardens.

Her useless Watcher and the Guards field out, searching.

Inhaling the thick air, laced with sadness, I catch a hint of her—vulnerability.

The possessive parts inside me sigh, my muscles rolling, satiated that she is nearby.

Good, I need to calm down.

I scare her.

My temper is a problem.

My chin is dragged to the right, as though her presence can grapple me, draw me to her without a single touch. Effortless. She summons me.

I freeze when I step between rose hedges to find her sitting on a sparse patch of grass, hidden low among crowding wiry limbs. Looking sad, she strokes Odio’s feathers gently.

Jealousy stirs inside me.

Fuck me, she’s pretty.

My muscles jerk to go to her, but I force my feet backward to watch as a tear squeezes from the inside of her eye, escapes into the valley beside her nose, and drips from her trembling upper lip.

Fuck me.

Hate that fucking tear.

“Little creature.”

She shoots into the air in search of the voice, her gaze landing on me from over the top of the hedges.

I step into view. My eyes carve a path from her to Odio, who rises to his full height—almost the same as hers—and puffs his chest in obstinance.

I scowl at him.

I’ll deal with you later.

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