Page 121 of Bound By Blood and Lies

“Well, I have missed you too.”

“You have?” My chest tightens as I chew on my bottom lip.

“Of course I have.”

“Oh.”

He shifts, pushing himself up onto his elbow so he can look down at me properly. His hand leaves my stomach and moves to my mouth, gently pulling my lip free from my teeth.

“You look surprised.”

I shrug as my gaze drops. “I just…”

“Fae,” he says softer as his eyes flicker with understanding. “I can be angry at you and still love you. You know that, right?”

My breath catches.

“I… I didn’t know if you’d…” I trail off, my throat tight. “If you still…”

“I do,” he says in a firmer voice. “That hasn’t changed. You haven’t changed. I just…” He exhales, dragging a hand down his face. “I needed time. My head’s a mess and I didn’t trust myself not to take it out on you.”

“You can have all the time you need,” I say quickly as relief crashes into me in waves. “I’m not going anywhere. I just… I need you to know you’re not doing this on your own.”

His eyes flicker over my face.

“I know,” he murmurs.

Roman leans in slowly, his hand coming up to cup my jaw as he presses a gentle kiss to my lips. It’s brief, but it grounds me as a warm feeling threads through my chest. He shifts down again and his hand returns to my bump as his thumb traces slow, absent patterns over it. His head dips, resting there for a second before his lips brush against my stomach again.

“Hey little peanut,” he murmurs in his soft daddy voice. “I’m here.”

A giggle falls from my mouth as he brushes ticklish kisses over it before glancing up at me.

“I’m sorry, Tink… I should have at least texted you, I shouldn’t have disappeared like that.”

The baby kicks again as if to agree with his statement and he chases the kick with his hands. I shake my head as my fingers brush against his grown-in hair.

“You needed time, it’s okay.”

“No,” he shakes his head, “it wasn’t.”

I don’t argue, because the truth is I’ve been in hell, but so has he, so it’s pointless. There’s nothing to gain from comparingit, no outcome where one of us wins. We’re both standing in the same wreckage, just looking at it from different sides.

“I have so much to do,” he groans as he falls back onto my stomach.

“No, you don’t.” I swallow. I’m not sure why, but the fear that he thinks I’ve overstepped creeps in. “Me and Riggs… we’ve sorted everything. The funerals, the arrangements, all of it. You don’t have to think about any of that right now. It’s done.”

I can’t see his face, but he kisses my bump again and drapes his leg over mine as he nods.

“Thank you.”

I squeeze his shoulder gently. “You just focus on getting through this. We’ve got the rest.”

He doesn’t argue as he lies against me. We sit in comfortable silence until I feel his body relax into mine. His breathing deepens and I smile up at the ceiling, just taking in the feeling of him asleep beside me for the first time in days.

All I can do is pray to a God I don’t believe in that this lasts, because the next few weeks are going to be hard, and without him next to me, they’ll be a thousand times worse.

CHAPTER 35