Page 27 of The Flame

His brow lifted. His mask was firmly in place. He looked bored, as if I had nothing new to tell him.

“But that’s not why I married you,” I said. “I was an emotional mess. Daniel hadn’t offered for me. Jenna was marched out by the guards for refusing to graduate. Then I had to watch Brenda, who was supposed to be my friend, walk down the aisle with Daniel. I wanted to hide in my bedroom and cry my eyes out, but I couldn’t do that.”

Roman’s expression gave nothing away.

I sucked in a deep breath and continued. “I had to accept an offer from some boy I didn’t know, since I’d wasted all our graduation balls on Daniel. I had to graduate, or I’d be sent away like Jenna, to God knows where. I didn’t have a choice.”

Roman scrubbed his jaw.

My gaze dipped. I twined my fingers in my lap. “Then I saw you.”

Dark. Dangerous. And so sinfully beautiful. His chiseled features set in mutiny, that storm raging in the hollows of his jaw, eyes as gray as stone and icy cold.

“You want to know why?” I said. “I chose you out of spite. I was furious, bleeding rage from my pores. I was hurting. I was scared. I felt small and hopeless.”

“Georga.”

My eyes lifted to him. “And there you were, a powerful warden, amanwho had all the choices in the world at his fingertips. I didn’t know why you’d offered, but I could see howbadly you didn’t want me to accept. You weren’t trying to hide it. And if I had to live the rest of my life in an unwanted marriage, I decided then and there, so could you.”

Roman just looked at me. Filling awkward silences had never been his style.

“And then…” I pushed to my feet, my knees shaky, my heart trembling as badly as my hands. “And then I fell in love with you and I don’t regret it. I don’t regret any of it.”

I turned from the table and stumbled blindly in the direction of the bedroom. Tears streamed down my cheeks.

That really was my last confession. I’d bared my soul down to the last rotten ounce. I had nothing left to hide.

I made it as far as the bedroom door. A firm hand clasped my arm and spun me around, up against the wall. He wasn’t gentle. He also wasn’t rough. He plastered one hand to the wall, his body caging me in, and I was looking into his glinting eyes, un-shuttered with raw emotion.

He saw my tears and cursed.

“I’m a cold, arrogant bastard.” His thumb brushed the wetness on my cheek. “I don’t deserve your tears.”

“You wear the mask of a cold, arrogant bastard.” I didn’t know what was happening here, but I had nothing left to lose. “That’s not who you are. Our marriage has always been a ticking bomb, and I tried so hard to not fall in love with you. But every time you showed me a little more of who you are, I fell a little deeper.”

His gaze went soft, washing warmth into my bones. The breaths between us grew hotter and hotter, packed with volatile energy that could go either way. Desire wasn’t love, it didn’t forgive all and it didn’t last forever. Roman was sculptured in some dark, savage beauty that had always called to me.

He was my fallen angel.

He was my sin and he was my salvation.

Now that I’d once had all of him, I could never settle for less. My body might be exploding for his touch, but my heart wanted so much more.

His head bent forward, bringing his mouth an inch closer to mine.

“Don’t,” I whispered, even though my body ached for him. “Not unless you forgive me. Not unless you still love me.”

He pulled back a little to look at me. His smile came on slow and cocky, devastating my resistance. “Georga, you are so damn beautiful, I could spend the rest of our life in bed with you and never be sated. But I could walk away from that, from sex and physical desire, without breaking sweat. What I can’t seem to do, what I’ve never been able to do, is walk away from loving you.”

My heart turned to jelly. So did my legs. I slid down the wall a little and Roman scooped a hand around my waist, pulling me against him.

“I love you.” His words brushed the corner of my mouth with the ghost of a kiss, and then his lips covered mine and he kissed me properly, urgently, stealing my breath and my senses.

We landed up in bed, ravaging each other as if we’d been starved for years instead of a few days. Each touch, each look, each taste, each word… felt like a lifetime of cravings crammed into each heartbeat. My skin was connected to my bones connected to my heart connected to my soul, and all of me was connected to Roman.

Many hours later, I rolled out of Roman’s arms and up onto my elbows, and told him about the rehab center and my volunteer position.

His satisfied smirk turned grim. “I don’t like the idea of you being anywhere near that place.”

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