Page 30 of The Promise

Karine blinked, trying to clear her mind and will back the images that had scared her awake simply because he asked her to, but it was pointless.

“I don’t know—I don’t remember,” she admitted, shaking her head. “But I couldn’t breathe. When I woke up, it felt like I was choking. I was gasping for air, but it was like my lungs were empty. I couldn’t tell if I was drowning or suffocating.”

Roman said nothing when she continued, saying, “I jumped out of the bed, hands around my throat, but—” Karine stopped short, sucking in a gulp of air and forcing her hands to stay at her sides instead of covering her throat again like she had when she woke up alone and scared in her room. “I didn’t know where I was, so I went running for the door.”

“Oh?”

“I almost fell over Masha.”

That interested him.

“Masha?” Roman asked.

Despite the drips of fear still falling through her bloodstream, his voice was heavy and warm in the darkness. It wrapped around her like a hug, tight and secure.

“She was sleeping at the door of my room,” Karine explained.

Roman’s form shifted, the shuffle of the sheets echoing before a click sounded, and the room flooded with light. His hand fell away from the bedside lamp that he’d turned on, and back to the bed.

The warm, yellow glow was more than enough for her to be able to see him clearly now. And he was a sight to see.

Naked, save for the black boxer-briefs he wore, Roman rested comfortably on gray sheets seemingly unbothered that she openly stared. Karine couldn’t stop it, taking in the black roses tattooed on his upper chest and how the ink only served to draw someone’s gaze to his body.

Right now, hers.

And the sight of him made her weak in the knees.

His sheets were kicked off around his feet, leaving the rest of him on display for her to admire. The ropes of muscles that made up his muscular thighs. The dark dusting of hair that trailed from his navel to the waistband of his boxer-briefs. Even the way his hand rested against the defined track of abdominal muscles was tempting to her senses.

She’d rather her head be lying there, and his hand stroking her hair. It wasn’t lost on Karine that before Roman, she hadn’t even admired the sight of a man, never mind wanting one to touch her. Then again, she had certainly never been as close to a man as she allowed herself to be with Roman, either.

For the first time, she wasn’t opposed to the idea of letting someone in.

Just a little bit.

As long as it was him.

Roman’s left brow cocked high as he watched her fidget. It felt like he was constantly trying to figure her out, and she wondered what he saw when he looked at her.

Did he see someone broken?

Lost?

Or maybe just her?

“Does that happen often?” he asked.

She’d lost the trail of their conversation in her distraction, and the furrow of her brow made Roman chuckle.

“Masha needing to sleep at your door,” he clarified. “I assume it’s to stop you from wandering off in your sleep, yeah?”

Right.

The nightmare.

Masha ...

Karine’s cheeks flooded with heat, and she no longer wanted to meet Roman’s gaze. “I ... well, it’s not ... it’s only—”