Page 113 of Bound By Blood and Lies

“There is,” I whisper as I shake my head. “I can feel it.”

Silence stretches behind me before his hands reach gently around my wrists. I flinch and my body tenses in panic as the rhythm of my scrubbing breaks free. Roman’s grip remains steady on mine as he softly squeezes my hand.

“Stop.”

My fingers loosen. The cloth slips from my grip and hits the floor, and I stare at my hands, at the redness of them and the way they still don’t look clean enough no matter what I do.

“My hands are still red,” I croak.

“That’s because you’re scrubbing too hard. I promise you, it’s gone.”

“I can still feel her.”

He sighs as his hands shift. They slide down my arms, slower this time, like he’s mapping where I am.

“I know,” he murmurs.

How can he be like this? I killed his mum and he’s not arguing with me or shouting at me or telling me I repulse him. It doesn’t make sense.

“I should have…” My voice splinters, breaking apart as the words force their way out. “I should’ve stopped it. I should’ve done something. I should’ve?—”

“Fae.”

His hands move to my face, turning me towards him, and when I look at him properly, it steals the remaining breath I had left because he looks just as broken as I feel.

“I let her die.”

“No,” he immediately says. His grip tightens on my face as he forces me to look into his eyes. “You didn’t.”

“I did,” I push back as my chest heaves. “I let us go unarmed, I didn’t stop him, I didn’t?—”

“You didn’t kill her, Fae. My father did.” He grits his teeth and I shake my head as tears blur my vision and finally spill over my cheeks.

“I can still feel her,” I choke. “I can still feel the blood, and I can’t get it off, I can’t…”

My words dissolve completely as the sob tears through me and my body folds in on itself. Roman catches me, his arms wrap around me, pulling me tightly against him, and I cling to him.

“I’ve got you,” he murmurs against my hair, as his own voice cracks. “I’ve got you.”

“I don’t want to feel like this,” I gasp into him as my body shakes. “I don’t want?—”

“I know,” he cuts me off quietly as his hand presses against the back of my neck, grounding me.

“I can’t breathe?—”

Roman cuts me off as he bends down and kisses me gently. My body instantly softens under his touch. His lips caress mine before he licks at the seam, begging for entry. My eyes fall shutas I open my mouth without thinking. I run my palm up his body, feeling the ridge of his six-pack before sliding around his neck and pulling him down.

Roman growls into my mouth as his hands travel down, caressing my stomach before finding purchase on my hips and lifting me up. My legs automatically wrap around him as he presses me into the cool tiles. The contrast against my overheated skin sends a shiver through me and he groans. My body reacts instantly as the kiss turns hungrier and messier before he separates and starts nibbling down my neck.

He bites hard and something in me snaps. A broken sound slips from my throat as my body reacts. Heat pools in my pussy and I press closer without thinking. I feel him shift against me, his cock growing hard and more insistent against my stomach. My hands grip tighter, my mouth moves against his like I’m starving, like I’ve lost every ounce of control I had left, and I let myself fall into it completely, into him, into the sharp, overwhelming rush of his body against mine.

Roman angles his cock, the tip of it breaching my cunt, and the sting of his size pulls a gasp straight from my lungs as I rock against him, chasing it, needing more of it, needing anything that isn’t the weight of everything else we are going through.

Our reality crashes over me and I pull back.

“Wait,” I gasp into his mouth. “Roman…”

“I don’t want to talk, Tink.” He bites my shoulder. “I don’t want to think.” He kisses the sting away. “I just want to fuck the woman I love.”