Page 69 of Bound Bride
"I am going to have dinner with your father."
My heart stalls briefly in my chest as a pulse of alarm darts across my shoulders. "With… my father? Why?"
22
KONSTANTIN
"It is nothing serious," I assure Rose as she slowly sinks into the water with me. "I simply wish to speak to him man-to-man. It is a sign of respect, after all. He has entrusted me with you and I want to assure him that I am taking care of you."
It's only a half lie.
Until I've met him properly and had a conversation without her brother overshadowing everything, I can't tell her the truth.
It would surely make her worry after everything she's already been through.
Rose settles under the bubbles in front of me and leans back against my chest.
Practically in my lap, my legs frame hers and I wind my arms around her body to cuddle her close and let the hot water soothe away the aches lingering in our muscles and more.
Rose sighs deeply, as if the heat is deflating her, then she runs her fingertips over the back of one of my hands.
Water ripples out from her touch and she gazes down as she strokes up to the fresh bruises covering my knuckles.
"I can't believe we both had to fight," she murmurs. "Although I don't know if I can call what I did fighting."
"Survival is fighting," I reply. "No matter what you did."
"I did nothing. I fell, and I panicked, and I screamed, and I kicked out at a man who was so much stronger than me."
"And you came back to me." My arms tighten around her middle and I press my face into her hair. "That is fighting."
"Calvin fought. I was just…" Her head rocks back and forth. "I was so scared."
"Tell me," I murmur, turning my head so my cheek rests against the crown of her head. "Tell me what happened. Every detail."
While Rose talks about how her day started seeking out tampons she wasn't allergic to, I lather shampoo slowly between my hands and knead my fingers into her hair.
It takes me half a second to locate the lump from where she struck her head when she fell, and I remain tender and slow while working the shampoo into her strands.
Her walk along the river and being disturbed by these assholes reignite the anger in my chest, but I focus on washing her hair until the water runs clear, without a single bubble.
"I will increase your entourage from now on."
"No," Rose replies immediately. "Please don't. I already feel a little smothered."
Smothered.
I've heard that before and it pains me.
"I only wish to keep you safe."
"I know." Rose shifts around to face me and cups my cheek with one wet hand. "Calvin kept me safe and you hired him. I'm safe because of that and by extension, you. I don't need more people following me."
A similar conversation happened once before in the past, and I paid the price dearly.
The pain of it must appear on my face because Rose's brows knit together and she tilts her head while watching me.
"What's wrong?"
