Page 61 of The Sin

I didn’t know what I was asking for, but it was a desperate plea.

“I know,” he said gruffly, his voice scraping down my throat with a trailing kiss. “I love you,” he breathed on my skin, sliding a hand up my arm, along the curve of my shoulder and up my neck until his fingers tangled in my hair.

My breaths were so ragged, my blood hot and my heart pounding wildly, I wasn’t sure what I’d heard. We were moving against each other, his lean body rubbing against my softness in all the right places, our hands going everywhere, touching, kissing and devouring.

I was on fire, burning for him. I couldn’t get close enough to him. I’d never get enough of him. I needed more, and as always, Roman knew exactly what I needed.

He paused in a heated moment to look at me, just look into my eyes, an elbow planted beside me to take his weight. And the way he looked at me, with such depths of conflicting primal hunger and tender warmth, sent a hot wave rolling through me.

“I love you so damn much,” he said, and my heart was still swelling with that wave as he lowered his mouth and spent half the night giving my body, heart and soul everything it craved and so much more.

19

The last few days of house arrest were the most divinely lazy, blissfully sated days of my entire life. Our evenings were spent around the fireplace, teasing and laughing, getting to know each other, or simply staring into each other’s eyes.

And the way Roman made me feel…well, it redefined everything I thought I knew about love.

The first night, he arrived home with a picnic hamper from the home-baked store. He built a fire and we spread a blanket on the floor, and feasted on a selection of miniature savory pies. Spinach and goat cheese. Roasted chicken and parsley. Pumpkin and ginger. There was a bottle of dry, white wine and an assortment of tiny dessert pastries, each one not much more than a mouthful.

I took a bite of whipped coffee cream rolled in flaky pastry and groaned. “This tastes like heaven.” I held the other half out to Roman. “Try this.”

He leaned in, but he wasn’t going for my offering. He kissed me on the mouth, his lips dragging on mine as he slowly pulled away. “You’re right, it does take like heaven.”

I slapped at him playfully. “You’re ridiculous.”

His gaze washed over me, a grin tugging at his strong, sexy mouth. “You’re beautiful.”

A sigh swept through me, taking my breath, and finally, finally erasing that stubborn stain of doubt that had kept me quiet last night when he’d blown my heart wide open.I love you so damn much.

I’d gotten it all wrong.

The space where Roman and I overlapped was an explosion of brilliant, electric colors. It was all the rest, the spaces where we couldn’t meet, that were a dull, dreary gray.

I went up onto my knees in front of him and cupped his face in my palms.

If we were all a little broken, he was the glue that kept putting me back together, again and again.

He was the heat rushing through my veins, the thrill tingling down my spine. He was the ache gathering in the hollow of my stomach.

He was a wildness raging through me and the promise that anchored me.You have me. You will always have me.

I sat there on my knees, looking into the depths of his stone-baked eyes, and the love that welled up inside me was so powerful, so consuming, it stripped me to my core.

“I love you,” I said softly.

Surprise dipped his brow, as if that was the last thing he expected to hear…ever. As if his shoulders were so damn broad, he could be both strong and vulnerable enough so I would never have to be.

Something fierce and protective caught my breath, and this time I said it like a vow, “I love you.”

“Georga.” His eyes turned stormy, and then he took me into his arms and kissed me until I burned hotter and brighter than the flames in the fireplace.

I fell asleep in Roman’s arms each night, and I woke up in his arms. When he left for work in the mornings, I drifted through the day as if still in a dream. It was our own little time bubble, and I held onto it selfishly, possessively, refusing to share one precious moment with the world outside our cabin. Because it would intrude quickly enough. I knew it would.

And it did.

Wednesday came around, and I was free from house arrest, free to leave Parklands, and I would not be complacent.

I would not be silent.

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