Page 86 of The Promise

He needed to hear her say it, so he waited even as his hands came to rest on her bent knees and he fitted himself between her widened thighs. She regarded him under lowered lashes, wetting the seam of her lips with a pink tongue. And then she whispered, “Of course. Please use me.”

He sunk into her, his thumb guiding the head of his cock between the swollen, wet lips of her pussy. It’s where he found heaven—the best kind of oblivion as he fucked them both to bliss.

What could be better?

• • •

“Are you happy here, Karine? And I don’t just mean tonight with the dinner, or my mother’s little party.”

They were still in bed, side by side. He’d made his way to his back while she had rolled over to her stomach, using her arms as a pillow while she’d angled her face his way to watch him. There wasn’t a single woman from his past that had managed to keep him in a bed with her after the deed was done, but he couldn’t seem to move whenever Karine was in one with him.

Would it always feel like this?

Like she was home?

There was no smile playing on her lips as she replied, “I think I am. I didn’t expect to be, you know? I was worried about not seeing you for a while, and ... everything I didn’t know. But I trust you. So, yeah. I think I am.”

Someday, he wanted her to say it without the maybe qualifier—he didn’t want her to think about it at all, just know. For now, though, he’d take what he could get.

She drew circles on his bare arm with her fingertips, and it sent teasing, dancing shocks racing down his spine. Roman hooked a finger under her chin.

“I’ll always come back to you. You didn’t ask me to say it, but I will anyway. As many times as you need to hear it, and maybe someday you can tell me to stop because you won’t need to hear it anymore. You’ll just believe it.”

He wound some strands of her hair around his fingers, enjoying Karine’s sweet murmurings in his ears when she said, “Funny—your mom said the same thing about Avdonin men always coming back. Sharing similar traits.”

Roman laughed darkly, urging on Karine’s softer giggles. “More than I care to admit.”

He could get used to this. Lying naked in bed with her, legs tangled with hers, and nowhere to go, nowhere to be. A lingering scent of sex in the air, soft skin close enough to taste, and sleep creeping in.

Could they have that?

In the future, maybe—could they could spend all day and even longer nights together like this? When he wouldn’t have to worry about the shadows chasing them? Would she want that, too?

All he wanted was to protect her with his body, keep her in that bedroom forever, locked away from the world. But it could all change in a minute, too.

Roman didn’t know what Leonid and Dima’s plan was, but he wasn’t naive enough to assume they’d forgotten about her. Or the fact that she’d been stolen from them—how long until they knew it was him who did it?

Or did they already?

It instantly reminded him of all the things he hadn’t told her yet. About her father, the fire where she had spent all her life, or even how Dima and Leonid were still nowhere to be found.

All bad news.

Roman couldn’t do it, though. He just couldn’t bring himself to change the topic of conversation to what would inevitably ruin a good night for them. One of the only they might have for a while.

So, he told her something that was even more important. The thing he wanted her to know the very most.

“I’m in love with you, Karine. I love you.”

She blinked at him, long lashes fluttering fast like she had to take in the sudden words she clearly hadn’t been expecting to hear. The seconds ticked by. One after another, matching the beats of his crazy heart.

But then she sighed, and shrugged those delicate, creamy shoulders almost casually. “Good, because it would be strange for me to love you and get nothing in return, but I wasn’t sure how I should say it.”

Yeah, him either.

Until he did.

Roman rolled her way, pulling her in for another kiss so he could breathe against her smiling lips, “Babe, you just say it.”