Page 26 of Bitter Confessions

Her mouth worked. “I... I don’t know.”

“You wouldn’t have.” He kissed the curve of her jaw. “That’s why Maximus didn’t tell you. He knew you wouldn’t have agreed.”

“You don’t know that,” she choked as she pushed against his shoulders.

“I do now. Even when I broke my promise and hurt you, you didn’t try to get even or punish me. You punished yourself.”

She made a sound like a wounded animal and rolled onto her belly to get away, but he came down on her back, pinning her. She buried her face in the plush runner and grappled for control as he emotionally dissected her.

“You never stopped being mine, did you?”

She hissed, fingernails digging into the carpet. If she weren’t so choked up, she would have made a snide remark to put him in his place, but that was beyond her at the moment.

“We’re going to do this right.” He ignored her shaking head and tugged on her hoodie to get at her neck. “So many opposing forces keeping us apart. They succeeded for a time, but we still made it. We’ll start fresh.”

“This won’t work.” Her voice was muffled by the carpet. “It never has. We’re violent and toxic.”

“We’re flawed and battle-scarred,” he acknowledged as he licked her ear. “But we’re also wiser and more durable.” He lifted and adjusted himself, so his erection pressed against her ass. “This hasn’t changed though. The need. It’s worse than ever. Darker, stronger, so fucking painful.”

Her toes curled as he rocked against her.

“It gnaws at me constantly. It’s been there for years—an empty well no one can fill. It’s been the same for you, hasn’t it?”

She clutched the carpet fibers in a desperate attempt to block out the simultaneous physical and emotional attack.

“Despite everything, that heat is still there, binding us together. I’m not giving it up, and if you’re honest with yourself, you don’t want to either.”

Her hands fisted as she resisted the urge to raise her ass, so he was in a better position to hit that part of her that still stupidly ached for him. This was crazy. He was crazy. She had to get out of here.

“I’m leaving.”

He leaned down to tuck his lips against her ear. “What did I say about you leaving me? Not gonna fucking happen, princess. Now that I know all, I’m going to drown you in me until you can’t remember your fucking name.”

She gasped when he nipped her ear. “Roth.”

“You’re dealing with Jamie, baby.”

She lost control and dissolved into tears. He crooned in her ear as he raised her bottom half until she was on her knees, her face still buried. She felt a draft as he dragged her pants down. Roth caressed her ass before slipping his fingers between her legs, and then he began to play with her flesh as he whispered in her ear.

“I fucked up. Your dad fucked up. Your sisters fucked up. You fucked up. That’s done. We’ve gone through more shit in seven years than most couples will in a lifetime. We can get past this.”

Two fingers penetrated. He sighed as if he were the one being relieved.

“I need things from you. Things I can’t get from anyone else. I’ve been in survival mode all my life. My goal was to put as much distance between myself and my background as possible. I thought I’d feel something when I made my first million, but I felt nothing. No pride in my accomplishments, no satisfaction in how far I’d come. I figured I had to go higher, so I worked harder and started rubbing shoulders with men like your father. I was getting somewhere. Then I met you, and everything changed.”

He gripped her neck and gently pulled her up so she was on all fours, forcing her to look at their reflection in the elevator. He smiled as his fingers were drenched in more of her.

“We make a pretty picture, don’t we, princess?”

He penetrated slowly, dragging out every sensation. It was so quiet she heard the squelch of her body greedily taking him in.

“Where was I?” he mused as his lips cruised along her hairline. “Oh, right. I laid eyes on a college student with messy curls, ink stains on her fingers, and a smile that made even a monster like me feel something. I listened to you tell my story with more passion and excitement than I’d ever felt. You treated me like a friend, celebrating the Langdon deal even though I got it at your expense. You confided in me and trusted me when no one else ever had. It’s almost like you didn’t see what everyone else did. For the first time in my life, I felt something other than anger, hunger, or impatience. So much more I didn’t know how to handle it. I still don’t.”

She closed her eyes as he positioned himself behind her. Even as a voice inside of her screamed for her to run, she stayed put as he kissed her ass. She heard a hiss as he undid his zipper, and then he was pushing himself inside of her. She expected hard, brutal, but Roth was in no hurry. He blanketed her body with his, hands slipping from hip to neck before kneading her breast through the hoodie. He gripped and released to suffuse her with more unwanted heat.

“People are going to hurt you. I’m going to hurt you. But you aren’t allowed to hurt yourself because of it. You understand me?”

She nodded.

---