Page 284 of Sin With Me

“Mine,” he says, his voice guttural. I flick my tongue over his fingers, humming around our combined flavor.

“Yours,” I agree, smiling contentedly.

He quickly cleans me up, then himself, before dragging his t-shirt over my head and pulling me into his chest. My fingers trace the tattoos covering his skin. There are so many. Different shapes and patterns, pretty pictures and words, all etched in black and grey ink.

They’re beautiful and unique, just like him. But it’s the two words on his fingers that have drawn my attention since the day he finally came back.

My fingernail trails along the letter K as his hand rests over his heart, and I can’t swallow down my question any longer.

Unable to look at him, I keep my eyes on his chest and murmur, “If you were so homesick, why didn’t you just come home?” Come home to me.

He’s silent for a long moment and I worry I’ve upset the peace we’ve finally found. When he speaks, I tense, waiting for the reprimand, the brush off, but it never comes.

Instead, he grips my jaw softly and guides my eyes to meet his. “Because my home isn’t a place, Goldie.” My brows narrow and his thumbs darts out, tracing my lower lip. “It’s a person.” I blink in confusion and he smiles sadly. “You are my home, and if I thought you wanted me to come for you, I would have. In a heartbeat.”

“I did want you to,” I say immediately, my eyes burning. I blink away the emotion. “I wanted you to come for me. I never wanted you to leave in the first place. I thought we’d always be there, together.”

He shakes his head. “Divinity wasn’t my home. It was never going to be my forever.” His jaw ticks, but he presses a kiss on my forehead. “If I’d have known how you felt, I would have stayed anyway.”

I hear the unspoken words. He’d have stayed, even if he was miserable. Because for as much as he loves me, he hates Isaac.

My heart squeezes at the thought of him. I may be angry with Isaac for what happened, what he did and said, but he’s still my family. He’s still the person who took care of me for so long, looked after me when I had no one else. And despite his faults, he does love me. He has to.

I owe it to him to have an adult conversation. To sort through everything. To repair whatever’s left of our broken relationship.

My fingers pick up their patterns on Ro’s chest again as I contemplate how to broach the subject without starting a fight. He’s not going to want me to go home. He’s made that perfectly clear. He tenses every time Isaac texts or calls, his anger impossible to hide.

I have to go, though.

Before I can put a voice to my thoughts, Roman’s rolling me onto my back and kissing me deeply, pouring his entire heart and soul into me. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s somehow hard again and I moan as he slowly slides deep inside me.

For a moment, just one more moment, I forget about everything that exists outside this room, except for him, and me, and the way we love each other.

“Fuck, he’s going to be so mad at me,” I mutter to myself.

I’m not sure if it’s Roman or Isaac I’m talking about as I stand frozen outside my front door. Ro left for work a few hours ago and as sad as I was to leave our little cocoon for the first time in days, he needed to work and I needed to go back to my life.

I borrowed Oli’s car and practiced my speech the entire way here. Words I need to say, questions I need answered. My fingers tighten around the grocery bags as I release a long breath. It’s now or never.

Transferring the bags to one hand, ingredients for a meal I know he’ll love tucked inside, I shove the door open. Hopefully, it’ll soothe some of the anger I’ve seen in his recent texts enough for us to have an adult conversation about everything.

I made a decision that day on the cliff’s edge as I poured my hurt into the universe and it’s only been solidified over the weeks since. I’ve grown, changed, and I think maybe I might actually be finding myself now that I’m free from Divinity’s oppressive ways.

Swallowing thickly, I step inside. I didn’t see Isaac’s truck outside, but I’m not surprised to find the door unlocked as usual. I let the door quietly click closed behind me. Kicking off my shoes, I drop my purse and phone on the entry table, leaving me in just a sundress, this one modest enough to cover the fading marks left from Roman’s love bites.

I smile to myself, already missing him. Maybe someday we can all find a way to get along. I know it’s deluded thinking. They’ve always hated each other, but we’re all the family we have left. That should count for something, right?

My eyes flutter closed and I pause, breathing in the warm, familiar scent of whisky, leather and something else, something lighter.

Peaches.

Brows furrowed, my eyes snap open as I step further into the house, scanning the living room for the source of the scent. I half expect to find my favorite peach candle burning on the TV stand, but it’s not there. It’s nowhere to be seen. My gaze snags on the coffee table and I quickly look away, silently padding toward the kitchen.

The house is just as clean as it was the last time I was here, and shock washes through me. It’s not that Isaac is a messy person. In fact, he’s the opposite. But I’ve been the one to keep the house tidy and in order for the last four years. Mama did it before me. I’ve never seen Isaac lift a finger, to be honest.

That’s not true, my brain chides. He does a lot for me. He works hard. But so do you.

I shake my head, the warring thoughts confusing and distracting me from what I came here to do. With a sigh, I set the bags on the kitchen counter, the scent of peaches even stronger. I freeze, spotting a familiar tea towel covering a pie dish, a note sitting on top written in feminine scrawl.

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