Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
If I hadn’t loved the woman before, I knew I loved her now. She was right. My CO was right. It was just hard to forgive myself.
“You’re a remarkable person, Winter. I’m lucky to have you with me.”
She jerked back then, not out of my arms but to look up at me. “You? Roman, there is no man alive who would say that about me. If you look up high maintenance in the dictionary, my picture will be there! I don’t know of anyone else who would put up with this. I mean, you’ve been with me a few weeks and we’ve only just now started moving in a sexual direction. And I have all these scars --”
I silenced her with a kiss. I did my best to keep it light while still letting her know she needed to shut up with that shit. When I pulled back, I framed her face with my hands, forcing her to keep her gaze on me. “You are not your scars, Winter. And those scars brought you to me. If I ever find a way to figure out who hurt you and your sister, I’ll annihilate them. But there is no way I look at your scars and think they make you less. You are beautiful, Winter. Inside and out.” I kissed her again. “Now. I’ve told you my big secret. Finish telling me yours.”
She let out a breath and slid her arms around me again. “I can’t believe the feeling of our bodies moving against each other like this isn’t sending me running screaming from the room.”
“You sure you’re OK? We can move to the other room.”
“Just a little while longer. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to stay in the shower with the water… It’s nice.”
“Whatever you want, baby. Can you go on?”
“There’s not much more to tell. They cut us like you see on my body.” She stepped back and turned around, letting me see her front and back. Indeed, there were straight-line scars all over her body. Knife slices. Some were faint marks while others were deeper, raised white clumps of tissue. “There was blood everywhere. They laughed and played with the blood on our bodies. Tied us down… The second they let us loose, we clung to each other. The blood was sticky yet still slippery. I have no idea why I equated the feeling with water. Probably because when our father took us home, the first thing we did was shower. We demanded it. It was the only time we ever stood up to our father. We were in such bad shape I think it shocked even him. Serelda’s face was so mangled, it took a very long time for me to deal with her. It was more than a week after our father got us back before Black Reign found us. By then all we could do was use creams and keep the cuts as clean as we could.”
“Fuck, baby.” I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to hear any more. Thankfully, that was the end of it.
“Anyway. Bones MC had my stepsister, Darcy. Black Reign brought my father to Bones for him and our stepmother to answer for what they’d done to Darcy. They included us in that interrogation, because El Diablo wanted it clear that if Bones didn’t deal with both of them, he had more than enough reason to do it.”
“Then you took matters into your own hands?”
“I did. Weirdly, no one cared. I think Cain raised an eyebrow, but he just shrugged it off. It was then I realized Serelda and I would be safe with any of those bunch. We elected to go with Rycks and El Segador because they’d been the ones to rescue us.”
We stood silently, the water gently raining down on us. She looked at me with such trust, facing at least one of her fears in my arms.
“So, what now?” Her softly spoken question was full of vulnerability.
“I hope you don’t still think I don’t want you, Winter. I do. And not just sexually, though that’s part of it.”
“Are you sure, Roman? Because I’m not sure I could recover from rejection…” She stopped, seeming to think over her words. “I was going to say after you made love to me. But if I’m honest with you and myself, I’m already too far in to ever be able to let you go willingly.” There were tears overflowing her eyes, mixing with the water droplets on her face.
“I’m yours, baby. Ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
To my complete and utter surprise, she smiled brightly up at me. Almost in relief. If I lived to be a hundred, I was sure I’d never see a more glorious sight than her smile.
“Roman.” She breathed my name like a prayer, pulling me down to kiss her.